Mosque says students weren’t pressed to pray

The Boston Globe reports:

On Thursday, a group critical of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center released the recording, taken by a parent who chaperoned the field trip. That prompted a quick apology from the superintendent of Wellesley schools, Bella Wong, who said teachers should not have allowed pupils to take part in the midday prayer service, and she regretted “the offense it may have caused.’’

That didn’t stop the controversy from escalating into the latest skirmish in the national debate over the place of Muslims in American society. A number of religious freedom advocates said that visiting a mosque during midday prayer services put impressionable students in a delicate situation.

“It’s very important that public schools not put students in a position where they feel obligated or pressured to participate in worship and that they never be subject to proselytizing,’’ said Joe Conn, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C., education group. “The bottom line is the school fell down in its responsibility.’’

Here's a Boston Globe editorial "apologizing" for the situation.