Lawmakers in Florida have voted to advance legislation to allow organized prayer at school-sponsored events. Josh Hafenbrack, a statehouse reporter for Baltimore Sun sister paper the Sun-Sentinel, has the story:
Students could lead prayers at school functions such as football games and the senior prom, under a controversial bill advanced by a Florida House committee Wednesday.
Despite objections from Democrats and civil liberties groups who called the effort "patently unconstitutional," the House PreK-12 Education Committee approved the prayer bill (HB11) on a largely party line, 10-3 vote.
Students would be allowed to initiate and lead prayers at assemblies and extracurricular events. The bill bans teachers, administrators and school boards from "discouraging or inhibiting the delivery of an inspirational message," which includes a "prayer or invocation."
Opponents said the prayer-in-school bill would subject students from minority religions, such as Jewish and Muslim students, to majority Christian views.
"When we start breaking down the First Amendment, it is the breaking of our fabric," said Rep. Kevin Rader, D-Delray Beach. Rader, who is Jewish, recalled sitting uncomfortably during team prayers while he was a high school student-athlete. "I remember it like it was yesterday."
Supporters, however, cast the bill as a free-speech issue for students who want to pray at school functions.
"That's the reason we have to have this bill – to protect people's First Amendment rights," said Rep. Greg Evers, R-Baker. "This is not necessarily a prayer bill. It's a rights bill."Civil liberties lawyers said Wednesday the Legislature is venturing onto shaky constitutional ground. In 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a student-initiated prayer broadcast at high school football games in Santa Fe, Texas, violated the First Amendment. Since then, lower courts have ruled that certain student-led prayers can pass constitutional muster as long as they weren't the product of an official school policy, creating a gray area.
The bill wouldn't allow prayer in the classroom, since it would only be allowed at "noncompulsory events." But David Barkey, a lawyer for the Anti-Defamation League, said it's also "unfair and divisive" that students could recite a prayer at a football game or school dance.
"That's a vital part of high school life for any kid, and there's intense peer pressure" to attend, he said. "Should they have to choose between going to a school dance and being subject to a religious exercise that's problematic for them?"