My God is Everywhere????

Today I was sitting in class, and one of my teachers was talking about our graduation ceremony. My class was trying to decide whether to open with prayer or not. I thought we should, but some others thought that religion should not be a part of the ceremony. My teacher is not even aloud to say the word "prayer" because the state does not want religion to affect academics, and that we should strictly stick to book work. I believe that religion should be allowed in public schools. I get that some people do not have any sort of religion or look to any "God", but if you do you should be allowed to express yourself. Taking five minutes out of the day to say a simple prayer is not going to affect anything. If we had a foreign exchange student would we stop saying the Pledge of Allegiance? I dont think so! So why do we stop religion in public schools just because there are some people that dont believe in God.