A Mora, New Mexico father and his high school daughter are saying that a public school administrator told the Mora High sophomore not to pray over her lunch!  Now the Mora school district claims to be investigating.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, And even when he is old he will not depart.” – Proverbs 22:6

The Mora Independent School District said Thursday they were looking into allegations of a school administrator keeping a Mora High School sophomore from praying prior to eating a school lunch.

Patrick Ashe lives with his daughter just south of the high school. A practicing Catholic, Ashe’s home is draped with crosses. Ashe and his family say grace before dinner, something he wanted his daughter to learn to do at a young age.

“It’s just very important to me to thank God for putting food on your table and for leading you through life,” Ashe said.

But Ashe claims his daughter was prevented from praying before her meal at lunch about a week ago by district Superintendent Dora Romero.

“(She) came home from school and she said, ‘Dad I have something to tell you. Today for lunch right before I was going to eat, I bowed my head to pray, and the superintendent came up to me and said I couldn’t do that,’” Ashe said.

State law prohibits schools from instilling religious doctrines, but it does protect a student’s religious freedoms. Ashe said he was speechless when his daughter told him the story.

“I asked her if she was praying out loud and she said, ‘No, I was praying to myself, I wasn’t even speaking,’” he said.

[Read more and watch video from KOAT 7]