A Minneapolis-area school district is planning to add a prayer room and a foot-washing station for Muslim students to two of its high schools.
The Osseo Area Schools confirmed to Alpha News reporter Liz Collin that its remodel at Park Center Senior High School includes a prayer room and that foot-washing stations are being added to Osseo Senior High School.
The prayer room and foot-washing stations were apparently included in the updated plans for the district’s Building a Better Future initiative, a roughly $375 million effort backed by voters in 2022 and 2023.
But school officials have since told the Daily Mail the Park Center Senior High School’s plans call for a ‘multipurpose space’ which was ‘mislabeled in construction documents’ as a prayer room.
‘The space could be used for prayer, or other student or staff multipurpose needs throughout the day,’ said Kay Villella, executive director of school/community relations.
‘At all sites multipurpose needs have included calming/quiet, studying, testing or a small club or academic gathering. These spaces are scheduled out and supervised by staff.’
‘All students are welcome to use each of these spaces,’ she said.
District officials also said the foot-washing plans ‘were included in updated plans after hearing from user groups on student needs.’
Osseo Area Schools officials have confirmed that the renovations at Park Center Senior High School will include a prayer room
The plans sparked outrage as critics cited the US’s founding principle of separation of church and state
Renovations at Park Center High School will take place over the next three summers, district officials have said.
Also included in the plans for the school are a new media center, a brighter cafeteria, a school store and a new wing dedicated to career and technical education.
‘Our district wants the students of Park Center to have the same feeling that a student at Osseo [High School] has, that a student at Maple Grove [High School] has of, “I’m here, the folks here want to take care of us, they want to teach us. We feel really good about the environment we get to live in,”‘ John Morstad, the district’s executive director of finance and operations previously told CCX Media.
But the plans sparked outrage as critics cited the US’s founding principle of separation of church and state.
The plans also call for foot-washing stations at Osseo High School
‘This is undoubtedly for Muslim students only,’ an unidentified tipster told Alpha News of the plans. ‘I cannot understand how this can be happening in this era of no religion in schools.’
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a congressman from Minnesota, also hit out at the plans.
‘Turns out when the woke left says they want religion out of schools, they’re only talking about Christianity,’ he posted on X.
‘Maybe if Osseo worried about Somali gang violence as much as they worry about pandering to America-hating leftists, their schools and streets would be safer for their students,’ Emmer wrote. ‘Just a thought.’
