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by Ashley Rose Mockett

For many students, college is about belonging, whether it be in the form of school spirit, a fraternity or sorority, making life-long friendships, or acquiring knowledge and experiences that will influence us for the remainder of our lives.  I began to feel a part of my community college campus at Saddleback College (unrelated to Rick Warren's controversial church) when I received a scholarship and was invited to the annual scholarship ceremony to be recognized, meet my donor, and be given a lavish spread of fruit, desserts and other tasty goodies.

However, my feeling of belonging and celebration was cut short when I was asked to stand for the invocation, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.  At first, I didn't hear what it was I was asked to stand for; the room was filled with thousands of people talking.  When I stood, though, I was met with a political tirade about how the speaker, Don Wager (president of our board of trustees), ought to be able to pray at any government event he chooses to pray at.  In short, he said that we were there  to recognize the students and also thank God for these achievements.  He then said that if you  did not agree with him, you could sit down!  In a few sentences, I had been both congratulated and  insulted by a college official.  My beliefs, or lack there of, were mocked and belittled.  I encourage you to see the video recording of this rant here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aM-PA67JA9s.

It was this event that inspired me to start the Free-Thinkers Club at Saddleback College. I had started a Free-Thinker’s myspace about a year before this.  This is how I met my wonderful Vice President Jack Lowd.  Until now, I had not thought about being active on my campus.   After all, I am the mother of a small child and an honors student. How was I going to have time for activism? But the event at the Scholarship ceremony was too enraging to ignore.  And I knew I had at least one ally at Saddleback College.  So I emailed Jack and we started working.

Upon our hunt to find a faculty adviser willing to be affiliated with “The Scary Atheist Club” (our unofficial name), I found out that faculty had actually been fighting the prayer for years! Our amazing adviser, Karla Westphal, had been spearheading a campaign with the idea of replacing prayer with a moment of silence that would include all people of all faiths, and also people of no faith at all.  Please see this link of her addressing the BOT in May of 2005 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1eCwe5n-II).

I learned from Westphal that it has been a long, uphill battle.  In 2006, the Associated Student Government, the Academic Senate (faculty at Saddleback), and the Statewide Academic Senate (faculty of all California community colleges) all passed resolutions to support Westphal in her suggestion to replace prayer with a moment of silence.  In Westphal’s words, “ [the board’s] response was largely to ignore these requests, and [the board] even increased the number of events at which [they] include prayers, adding a prayer to faculty events.”

Eventually, Westphal asked for help from Americans United for Separation of Church and State (www.AU.org).  AU wrote a letter informing the board of the legality issues involved with their insistence upon prayer.  Initially, the board - you guessed it! - ignored the letter.  The only reaction was the tirade I witnessed at the scholarship ceremony.  This speech caused several donors that believe in separation of church and state to withdraw funds from the Saddleback foundation and donate to students through other channels.  I am told that this total is somewhere between $25,000 and $40,000. 

Finally, the board decided to acknowledge the letter and hired a lawyer.  They voted to use taxpayer funds to finance this lawyer.  Both Westphal and I spoke to the board before they voted on this issue, trying to get them to again consider a moment of silence or a thought for the day to replace prayer in order to avoid a legal battle.  The vote was 3 to 3 with one abstention; somehow this means that the proposition to engage legal council passed.

Our club and cause have gotten a huge amount of support from students, faculty, and classified staff.  Unfortunately, some people are afraid for their jobs: as one staff member told me, “Classified staff does not have the job security that faculty have.  We cannot protest the way we would like to.”   They thank me every time I see them for fighting this battle, and for starting this club. 

At an Associated Student Government meeting on Thursday, March 5, students passed a resolution regarding the removal of the invocation before the annual Scholarship Award Ceremony. As a result of its passing, the ASG will now plan the scholarship ceremony.  Several students have shown their support for the invocation's removal, and the school newspaper The Lariat covered the removal on 3/11/09.

The Secular Student Alliance would like to congratulate Ashley and the Free-Thinkers Club at Saddleback College for their success in changing their school's policy to be inclusive of all students, regardless of belief!

Ashley Mockett is the founder of the Free-Thinkers Club at Saddleback College in southern Orange County CA.  She became interested in secular activism when her now 6-year-old son got old enough to ask her questions regarding the supernatural. Though she did not plan on campus activism, prayer at school events provided the perfect platform. She will be attending University California Irvine in the fall and plans to pursue her PhD. in English.  She strives to engage her members with activism both on and off campus and is especially interested in programs that help children to think critically.