The Texas Senate approved a bill in April requiring every classroom of public schools to display a 16-inch by 20 inches poster of the Ten Commandments and require schools to host prayer or bible-reading sessions for students.
According to the bill, students and faculty must give written consent and conduct their activities away from students who disapprove of these activities.
The House Public Education Committee also approved a bill allowing schools to hire chaplains as school counselors to address the rising number of students who need mental health counseling in public schools.
For Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston), the author of the bill, “Our founders certainly never intended separation of God from government or schools, despite the left’s attempts to mislead people on this fact. This bill is a permissive bill that allows school boards to establish an official period of prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious texts.”
Republican state Senator Middleton told his fellow lawmakers that the bill is needed to expand religious liberties in public schools.
In a case submitted to the high court, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, Joseph Kennedy, who served as football coach from Bremerton, Washington, was illegally dismissed for praying privately after games.
The court ruled that the school district could not fire the former coach because he conducted his prayer as a private citizen.
The decision upholds Sen. Middleston’s interpretation that any religion should not be prohibited in any government and school institutions. Furthermore, this proves that there should not be strict restrictions on religious practices in government institutions.
The bills aim to introduce Christianity into public schools and have been campaigned by conservatives through activism and legislative action.
Before this, Gov. Greg Abbott approved a law in 2021 requiring to display “In God We Trust” if the sign is donated.
And last year, conservative Christian activists convinced the State Board of Education to ditch a planned re-write of the state’s social studies curriculum because the texts offered too secular a view of American history, among other complaints.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick described last week’s votes on the two bills as a win for “religious liberty.”
“Allowing the Ten Commandments and prayer back into our public schools is one step we can take to make sure that all Texans have the right to freely express their sincerely held religious beliefs,” he wrote in a statement.
“The reality is that our school children and faculty spend much of their lives in the school building and classroom…and our schools are not God-free zones,” Sen. Middleton added.
