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Florida lawmaker seeks to protect teacher prayer participation
Fort Myers News-Press, March 19, 2010
PAUL FLEMMING - NEWS JOURNAL CAPITAL BUREAU
1:10 A.M. -- TALLAHASSEE -- Rep. Greg Evers wants to stop another school district in Florida from entering into the same kind of agreement Santa Rosa officials did to prohibit teacher participation in student-led prayer.
Santa Rosa County school officials last year settled a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union with a consent decree that Evers said is an abridgement of the teachers' rights.
The bill he's co-sponsored would not change the situation in Santa Rosa County. "But there are 66 other counties," Evers said.
Evers described a scenario of students beginning to pray at school in the presence of a teacher.
"That teacher would have to turn their back ... because of a consent order agreed to by the ACLU," Evers said. "That's the reason we have to have this bill is to protect folks' First Amendment rights. This is not a prayer bill, this is a rights bill."
Opponents said it's clearly unconstitutional.
A 2008 lawsuit by the ACLU against the Panhandle district challenged teacher-led Bible study and administration-promoted prayer, among other long-established Christian activities.
But Pace High School football coach Mickey Lindsey said that violates his rights.
"We become prayer policemen, basically, because of this consent decree," Lindsey said. He told lawmakers of having to turn his back on praying players.
Courtenay Strickland, public policy director for the ACLU of Florida, said the bill would require schools to set aside school time for any student request to express religious views.
"This is not about protecting free speech and it is about trampling on the free exercise of religion," Strickland said.
Democratic members of the House PreK-12 Policy Committee challenged the bill on constitutional grounds.
"The (U.S.) Supreme Court has ruled saying that this is going to be an unconstitutional bill," Rep. Kevin Rader, D- Delray Beach.
The bill, also sponsored by Rep. Brad Drake, R- Eucheeanna, passed its first House committee 10-3 on Wednesday. It has three more committee hearings before the full chamber could consider it. A similar bill is in the Senate.
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