The Texas Senate passed Senate Bills 10 and 11 regarding the display of the 10 Commandments in classrooms and establishing a period of prayer in public schools on March 18th and 19th. SB 10 and 11 was sent to the House for consideration. The House should vote against both bills.
SB 10 requires every public school classroom to display a durable poster or framed copy of the 10 Commandments in a visible area. The poster must meet a certain criteria, such as being at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall and legible from anywhere in the classroom. SB 11 gives school districts an opportunity to vote if they want to establish a period of prayer where parents can opt their child in. The period of prayer should prohibit coercion to participate and prohibit interference with instructional time.
SB 10 is a clear violation of the separation of Church and state, because it requires every classroom to display a religious text regardless of the students’s beliefs. The government is imposing a religion onto students as they cannot simply avoid classrooms with the poster, making the bill unconstitutional.
The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”.
Requiring public schools to display a religious text violates this clause by effectively establishing a religion, something the government is prohibited from doing.
Supporters of the bill, such as Senator Mayes Middleton who authored SB 11, have stated that, “Separation of church and state, that’s not in the Constitution anywhere”.
However, the First Amendment clearly states this principal and it has been upheld by the Supreme Court. In the 1980 case Stone v. Graham, Sydell Stone and several other parents filed a lawsuit against James Graham, the superintendent of public schools in Kentucky, challenging a state law that required the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. In a 5-to-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the Kentucky law violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, because it “had no secular legislative purpose” and was “plainly religious in nature”.
SB 10 is no different. The bill is a blatant violation of the separation of Church and state and must be rejected by the House.
On the other hand, SB 11 is unnecessary and forces students to declare their religion. The freedom to practice religion is already embedded in Texas Education laws.
The Texas Education Code, ß 25.901 states, “A public school student has an absolute right to individually, voluntarily, and silently pray or meditate in school in a manner that does not disrupt the instructional or other activities of the school.”
Students are already guaranteed the right to worship without coercion. There is simply no need for SB 11 or adding a prayer time when students have already been practicing their religion in school. Furthermore, implementing a system where students have to sign a consent can have dangerous consequences.
According to SB 11, students who want to participate in the prayer period must have a consent form signed by their parents. Although the bill claims to prohibit coercion, it places students in a vulnerable position, potentially pressuring them to disclose their religious beliefs to school officials even if they’re uncomfortable doing so. Rather than promoting religious freedom, SB 11 brings more harm than good.
Signing SB 10 and 11 into law devalues the First Amendment and the freedom of religion. If these bills are passed, what’s to stop the government from passing further legislation that imposes a state-sponsored religion or infringes on religious freedom? To safeguard these rights, the House must reject both bills.
