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By BARBARA BEHRENDT and ALEX LEARY
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 1, 2001
HERNANDO -- One by one, children and adults filed up to the microphone, testifying about the impact of Christ in their lives.
For hours the scene continued, interrupted occasionally by thundering applause, or a ripple of "Amens" that stirred the crowd.
But this was no church service, or even a tent revival.
It was an elementary school cafeteria where the Citrus County School Board, wracked with controversy in recent months, was hearing the public's opinion on two issues: opening board meetings with a prayer and allowing a Christian youth group to meet at a middle school during school hours.
The hearing, at which no decisions were made, was designed to allow Citrus residents to hold forth.
The board got its wish.
"Our society has done permanent damage to our youth by eliminating (prayer) from our schools," Lecanto High School sophomore Courtney Stewart told the board, convened at Forest Ridge Elementary School.
In tears, Citrus High School student Rena Murray begged the board to continue to allow religious expression in the schools. Describing an atmosphere where Christian children are persecuted in the schools, she said she wanted to take a stand.
"Jesus Christ is worth standing for and there might be nothing else that is," Murray said.
Not everyone agreed with the direction of the lengthy session.
Patricia Cloward stepped to the front three hours into the session and asked what had happened with the meeting. She said she thought the meeting was not to be about religion but specific legal issues.
"Why are we having a revival meeting here . . .?" Cloward asked. Two issues were on the agenda. One was the question of how to open future meetings. The other was whether the board should tighten the rules about when clubs could meet at school.
Both issues were raised by board member Carol Snyder.
When she first took office in November, Snyder asked the board to consider ending the practice of opening nearly every meeting with an overtly Christian prayer.
The question about club meetings was raised after a pre-Christmas party at Inverness Middle School, sponsored by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Although those two issues were the board's main discussion topics Tuesday, few speakers directly addressed those concerns.
Instead, the board heard speaker after speaker talk about the value of the fellowship and the saving power of Christ. One speaker brought petitions signed by 9,000 people expressing a vote of no-confidence in Snyder.
Another blasted School Board Chairwoman Patience Nave for allowing the debate to go on.
"You've taken this School Board down a very slippery slope here," said Jim Bitter of the Citrus County Council. "This has got to end so you can get back to the education of our children."