Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said a second Nashville school has acknowledged accommodations for Muslim student prayer, including a modified daily schedule, raising new legal and policy questions about how public and publicly funded schools navigate accommodations for religious observance during instructional time.
Speaking during Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pappert described the accommodations at Valor Collegiate Prep as distinct from previous reports that more than 80 students at John Overton High School were permitted to leave class for daily prayer sessions during Ramadan, with additional accommodations supported by school staff including access to designated prayer spaces and “food-free” classrooms during lunch for students who were fasting.
“This is the second school now…to have such incidents reported,” Pappert said. “Of course, John Overton High School, a standard public high school, last week made the news. This week it is a public charter school.”
Pappert emphasized that charter schools are publicly funded while operated by private organizations.
“That means it’s taxpayer-funded, held to all the same standards as a regular high school, but it is operated by a private company,” he said.
According to Pappert, school leadership confirmed that a daily bell schedule adjustment allows Muslim students to pray during the school day.
“It is built into our daily bell schedule and occurs at the end of one class period, signaling when students may report for prayer. After the bell rings, students who need to pray are permitted to, quote, ‘report to the gym and pray,’” Pappert said, quoting the school’s principal.
He added that, unlike accommodations reported at Overton High School during Ramadan, the schedule modification at Valor Collegiate Prep is year-round.
“This goes on all year long… Muslim students are afforded a special bell and a special time to pray,” Pappert said.
Pappert noted that additional details about the policy remain unclear, but he has reached out to the school for more information.
“We’re reaching out to the school, of course, to learn more about this,” he said. “I want to know also if this happens at all three of their campuses… whether this… was this a student’s idea? Was this an administrator idea?”
He also raised logistical questions about how the prayer period operates.
“Where do these prayers take place? … Do kids simply sit down… and pray, or is there or are there rugs? Are there other instruments there for these students?” Pappert said. “I think there’s a lot of questions still to be answered.”
Pappert went on to reference a prior legal dispute involving a California school that altered its schedule for prayer.
“We do know… that a lawsuit over this very subject about a decade ago… that school very swiftly changed their bell schedule back after a lawsuit was brought against it,” he said.
Pappert also discussed how the schedule adjustment may affect classroom time.
“It appears that they remain in a class period… it seems as though… they sit in class for an additional 10 minutes,” he said. “Perhaps education is disrupted.”
The conversation also addressed broader questions about religious accommodations in public schools. Pappert said he has sought clarification from Metro Nashville Public Schools regarding earlier reports but has not received responses.
“We wanted to know basic things… who came up with this idea? What was the level of student involvement versus faculty involvement?” he said. “You will not be surprised to hear that we have yet to hear a response, even after this second story.”
Pappert concluded by noting a lack of direct communication from the district.
“The only entity within the Volunteer State that I think has never had a single word, good or bad, to say to me is Metro Nashville Public Schools,” he said.
Watch
Tune in now to The Michael Patrick Leahy Show – your AMERICA FIRST news talk!
– Watch LIVE here on X
– Watch LIVE on YouTube / Rumble / Roku / AppleTV
– Listen on Spotify
– Listen on WENO AM760 in Nashville
– Read more at @TheTNStar
https://t.co/i20TICE8KE— Michael Patrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) April 16, 2026
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Image “Muslim Prayer” by Easy-Peasy AI.
