This bill is all smoke and no fire. It just says schools have to protect First Amendment rights. D'oh. Schools already are obliged to do this. Students can pray in schools. They can have prayer meetings. This law adds nothing that the First Amendment doesn't already guarantee.
If anything, the anti-discrimination clause of this law would restrict students' rights. Currently, religions are all about discrimination. Religions discriminate against each another. Religions discriminate against gays. With this law, prayer groups for such religions might be forbidden from expressing their discriminatory beliefs. Ironic, isn't it? The biggest threat to this new law, if passed, might come from an ACLU lawsuit on behalf of some fundamentalist group who claims its Constitutional right to condemn homosexuality is being denied.
1 comment:
Children already have a legal right to pray in school.
Children have a right to tell others about their religion.
Parents do not have a right to demand that schools do their proselytizing for them. Schools should stay neutral in the religious debates.
Parents do not have a right to demand that schools buffer their children from playground talk of religion. Parents should teach their children to just say no. It will come in handy all through their lives.
Children do not have a right to harass. If their classmates tell them they are not interested in hearing their Judeo-Christian fairytales and the little missionaries persist, they are harassing.
If everyone would just follow the laws we already have, it would provide a good balance.
The house bill doesn't change our rights one iota. It's basically a grandstanding play for the support of religious voters.
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