SCHOOL PRAYER GETS TEACHER AXED

By ANGELA MOSCONI and SUSAN EDELMAN
(be sure to read the last two paragraphs)

A Bronx junior-high-school teacher has been fired for talking about God and leading her sixth-graders in prayer.

Mildred Rosario, a self-described born-again Christian, told students at IS 74 in Hunts Point that a drowned classmate was "in heaven" and that "Jesus, our Savior," came "to save all the human race."

She then prayed with the 11- and 12-year-old kids by going from one to the other and placing her hands over their heads.

Board of Education officials said Rosario, who was fired Friday, violated laws requiring the separation of church and state.

"We do follow the Constitution and state laws regarding the teaching of religion," said spokesman David Galarza.

Rosario - who showed up at the school yesterday to clear out her desk - waved the Bible, hugged teary-eyed students and said her firing was unfair.

"A lot of programs are brought into our schools where they talk about condoms, drugs and everything else, but we cannot talk about God," she told The Post.

"This is an injustice. Without Him, nothing is possible."

Rosario, 43, a member of the Pentecostal church and mother of two, was booted on Friday from her job at IS 74 - one of a dozen low-performing schools under the direct supervision of Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew. She has taught at the school since September.

Her firing followed a complaint from the guardian of one of the students in the class, an 11-year-old girl who is a Jehovah's Witness.

"It shouldn't have happened in school," said the woman who blew the whistle, the child's sister-in-law.

Rosario said the subject came up June 8 after a student in her homeroom class questioned her about the recent death of fellow sixth-grader Christopher Lee.

Lee, 11, was stepping over rocks in the Bronx Kill a week earlier when he was pulled under by a rising tide and drowned.

"Mrs. Rosario, did Christopher Lee go to heaven?" an 11-year-old girl asked.

"Of course, he went to heaven," the teacher replied.

Rosario said she then told the students if they wanted to sit and talk about God it was their "free will" and right to do so.

"I told them whoever doesn't want to participate in this conversation should go use the computer or read some books," said Rosario, who teaches mostly bilingual sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at the Bryant Avenue school.

Rosario said all 29 students remained for the discussion.

Rosario said she told students about heaven and said that Chris is "at peace ... I told them about the great love of God, that he sent Jesus, our Savior, to die for us, and that he came to save all the human race."

She then led the prayer.

"I told the principal our public school system is messed up because we're taking Jesus, prayers, and God out of school," she said. "Why do we have to hide something so special and beautiful that the students want to know?"

Civil libertarians were aghast at Rosario's "poor judgment" and "inappropriate behavior."

"She was teaching Christian doctrine, and there might have been children of other faiths in that room for whom Christ was not the messiah," said Sheldon Friedberg, executive director of the Greater New York Region of the National Conference for Community and Justice, a group founded by Christians and Jews.

"When you teach a single point of view without letting the students know - particularly at that impressionable age - that there are other viewpoints as well, then you're treating them unfairly. You may be planting ideas in their heads that their parents don't want put there."

While a prohibition against prayer in public schools has sparked protests and court fights in Alabama and several other states, the issue has rarely arisen in New York City with its rainbow of religions.

"I've never heard of anything like this," said Norman Siegel, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

"This is the first time I've heard of such an explicit recognition of Jesus Christ and God in a public school."