Photo: Lori Howard, iStockphoto

The American Legion Post 550 in Bloomington says it will withhold up to $30,000 in scholarships because the public school district won’t allow the group to lead the student body in prayer, the Star Tribune reported Wednesday.

“We are not trying to push anything on kids or convert them, but we are a Christian-based country and a military based on Christian-based principles,” said Terry Selle, commander of American Legion Post 550. “My opinion is that this is another example of America going downhill.”

Selle said the group would stop granting scholarships to the students of the district if they aren’t allowed to pray with the student body.

School officials said the group led the students in prayer during the 2008 Veteran’s Day ceremony and asked the Legion not to pray this year for fear the school could get into trouble for violations of church-state separation requirements.

“Frankly, it caught me off guard because they had never done that before. We do not do that in public school,” Poplar Bridge Elementary School Principal Gail Swor told the Star Tribune.

In move of solidarity, the VFW Post 1296 also pulled out of Veteran’s Day ceremonies in the Bloomington school district.