Dawn was doing schoolwork on the Internet in October when she came upon the new law, which calls for a brief but mandatory period of silence at the start of the school day. She went to her dad, a former national spokesman for American Atheists, and he told her he already knew about the law and was going to a school board meeting to protest.

She said she would go along.

"My rights were being affected because, first of all, the teacher is being made to stop teaching, and I''m being [made] an audience to something that is heavily suggestive in the direction of prayer because of the title of the act. It''s called the student prayer and silent reflection act," she says.