Separation of church and state does not include prayer or bible reading in school.
If it is part of a state-sponsored, required attendance school, yes it does.
Prayer and bible reading do not violate separation of church and state unless it is done under the authority/oversight of a representative of the state (teacher/administrator/employee) on official time and/or were attendance is required.
It happened when I was a child. prayer, singing of hymns.
Lots of things happened that should not have happened. Moreover, advocates of prayer and Bible reading apparently think that the experience was universal. I have verified that prayer and Bible reading was NOT practiced in many parts of the United States where there were non-homogeneous religious communities. For instance, both of my parents never experienced such an exercise as students in public school. Their school experience ranged from around 1930-1952.
When my father became a teacher in another part of Texas, he was startled to discover that he was supposed to do a Bible reading and lead prayer in the classroom. He resented being forced to do it since he thought it belittled the Christian faith since many students treated it as purely ceremonial.
Baptists were strong advocates of the Supreme Court's decisions on school prayer and Bible reading of the early 1960s that prohibited schools from entangling themselves in religious exercises, although there were some notable dissenters among some parts of the Baptist movement.
It happens no more (at least not with my kids it wasn't allowed).
Thank God!
I wish I could say that was my experience, but I had a fifth grade teacher who demanded that we recite the Roman Catholic version of the "Lord's Prayer" every morning. It was a cheap exercise that only trivialized the words of Jesus since the meaning of the words was completely unimportant.
Social places. Kids can't pray at school ball games, Graduation exercises.
I'm assuming that you are talking about football games and graduation exercises held by public school districts. Those events are official functions of the school.
Back when I was in high school, it was still fashionable to have students pray. Students were not selected on piety or willingness to do so, but on class ranking. The salutatorian led the prayer. A friend of mine had recently come to faith (I got to be part of that process) and he was informed - because of his class ranking - that he was to pray. He was excited about it since he was new in the faith and had been sharing Jesus with friends.
As the graduation approached, school officials asked him for a written copy of his prayer. He gave it consideration and turned it in - he just assumed that they wanted to be sure he didn't "wing it."
It came back with a number of changes, additions and deletions in order to make it more palatable to unbelievers and persons of different religious convictions. He told them he did not approve their changes and would deliver his original or would not pray. They promptly replace him with one of the most notoriously irreligious students (next in class ranking) who "prayed" under compulsion.
Simply put, not one can stop anyone from praying, and allegations that schools do it is patently false. However, they can prohibit you from praying in such a way where everyone is compelled to participate in it due to official penalties or social pressures.
Some can't even name the name of Jesus (not sure about the name of the muslim god)
That's nonsense. If that is true, someone has overstepped their authority and needs to be taught a lesson.
Hmm, why then do we have our president swear on a Bible to defend the Constitution...
That's a custom, not a requirement.