News Articles
Fla. House passes amended school prayer bill
The Northwest Florida Daily News, Apr 22, 2010
TALLAHASSEE — A bill that is touted by lawmakers as offering protection for the religious rights of teachers and students was passed today by the Florida House.
House Bill 31 passed by a 107-8 bipartisan vote and will now go to the Senate.
Co-sponsored by local Reps. Brad Drake, Greg Evers and Matt Gaetz, the bill was originally worded so that it would enable students to give inspirational messages at noncompulsory school events. It has since been amended.
The new wording essentially forbids school boards from entering into any type of legal agreement or settlement that might infringe on the First Amendment rights, specifically religious rights, of school district staff or students without their written consent.
"I think it's landmark legislation," said Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach. "It ensures that no school district abridges the rights of students or teachers to share inspirational moments of prayer."
Identifying Santa Rosa County Schools as a case-and-point of what happens when the law is not clear, Drake said he worked hard to amend this bill so that it would garner support from both parties and pass without constitutional challenge.
"What this does is it says look, right now students have the right to pray in school or offer inspirational messages if they want, but they can't do that in Santa Rosa County because of an action that was taken by a governing body, i.e. the Santa Rosa County School Board," Drake, R-DeFuniak Springs, said. "We can't go back and undo what happened (in) Santa Rosa County, but we can protect the other 66 counties."
In mid-2008, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the Santa Rosa County District on behalf of two Pace High School students who alleged religion was forced upon them at school.
By the beginning of the next year, the district had signed a consent decree admitting liability and agreeing to prevent further violations. The consent decree has been challenged several times and the case is currently working through the federal Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta.
"The United States Constitution grants the citizens the right to speak, yet those in Santa Rosa County, their right was taken away by the ACLU and a governing body," Drake said. "(HB 31) creates some certainty in what the rights are of students and school personnel."
Benjamin Stevenson, a lawyer for the ACLU who has been involved in the Santa Rosa County litigation, said that when people cite Santa Rosa County as an example of why the bill is necessary they don't take into account all the facts of the case.
"I think what many people fail to understand is there was decades of unconstitutional practice going on in Santa Rosa," Stevenson said. "This is a place where the Pace High School teacher handbook instructed personnel to …embrace every opportunity to practice Christian virtues … It's not a typical school district in the state of Florida."
The bottom line in the Santa Rosa County case, he said, is not only did the school board agree to the decree, but individuals named in the suit such as Pace High School Principal Frank Lay, also signed the document. And, he said, it was reviewed by a federal judge, whose job it is to uphold the Constitution, before it was signed.
"What it (HB 31) appears to be is a big government bill that takes away discretion from local school boards and mandates a certain course of action by the state legislature," Stevenson said. "I guess the question is why are they passing this?
"School boards are required to abide by the Constitution whether there's a Florida state law commanding they do that or not," Stevenson said. "And if there's a need for a Florida state law that commands school boards to abide by the Constitution, then let's make it a little bit more expansive – maybe add in there that the school board shouldn't violate the Establishment Clause and they shouldn't violate the Free Exercise Clause."
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