Pray and Prey

In the town of Sweeny (population 5,000) there probably isn’t all that much to do on a Saturday night. But folks still don’t think that explains the disappearance of a 300-pound statue — a marble megaphone that’s supposed to symbolize opposition to a ruling against school prayer.

“Our athletic director first noticed it missing and said, ‘Crud, who would take that?’ ” recalls Principal Randy Miksch.

It sure might strike some as odd that a megaphone statue with a bulldog’s head etched on it would be worth erecting — much less stealing. But in conservative Sweeny, 60 miles south of Houston, feelings about school prayer are apparently worth sculpting for.

Police say the statue, which has an inscription that reads “We Will Pray Class of 2000,” was uprooted sometime between June 14 and 19, when school was out. It was valued at $700 and sat about 20 feet from the main gate of Sweeny High’s football stadium. All that’s left now are two twisted metal rods that held it to the ground.

“It took two big men to put that thing on there,” says Miksch. “You couldn’t have just lifted it out.”

The marble mass commemorates a 1999 student protest of a federal appellate court ruling in a lawsuit against Santa Fe ISD that upheld a ban on organized prayer at school sports events. Sweeny High kids decided they would demonstrate by leading football fans in the Lord’s Prayer a few minutes before kickoff in Sweeny’s home opener.

“The cognizance of a higher power is not something that can be regulated into or out of existence,” says Chris Schmidt, valedictorian of the class and a student leader. “Regardless of law, we would pray.”

Initially, says Miksch, some students wanted to broadcast the prayer from a PA system across the street.

“But that’s floating and flirting with breaking the law, with disturbing the peace,” he says. So student activists agreed instead to position themselves strategically around the stands and use cheerleading megaphones to lead the crowd.

“That way everyone would stay together,” Schmidt says. And as for those who might not have wanted to hear the prayer? “They have every right not to come to the ballgame until kickoff,” he reasons.

After the protest, a class sponsor suggested that the 160 or so graduating seniors raise money to buy the marble megaphone, crafted by a local funeral home and highlighted with an etching of the head of a bulldog, Sweeny High’s mascot.

When the symbol was reported stolen, Sweeny police got to work. But not without some miscommunication first about what was missing.

“We actually took it as a real bulldog holding a megaphone,” says Officer Chad Makara. “But that’s not correct. It’s a — how do I say this? — a marble statue of a blowhorn with a bulldog face on it.”

Sweeny ISD Superintendent Jim Weeks offered a $500 reward for its return. Makara says police didn’t issue any APB for area atheists.

“It’s a very conservative town,” says Makara. “The information we have points in the direction of a prank. I don’t think you could classify this as a hate crime or a religious crime.”

Teenagers who pull pranks “have a hard time keeping it to themselves,” Makara says. “That works for us.”

Schmidt says he would like to see the statue returned but claims that it is not the most important thing. “I’m more concerned with the act of prayer than the symbol that represents it. What we did will be remembered regardless.”