Some SC lawmakers want teachers to be able to pray with students

COLUMBIA – A group of House lawmakers who want teachers and other school employees to be able to pray in the presence of students say they will not give up on their legislation even though the bills have not received a hearing.

Rep. Mike Burns, a Taylors Republican and the chief sponsor of one of the bills, said teachers or other school employees who bow their heads and pray on their own in the lunchroom are subject to being fired, as are teachers who wear a cross necklace or a coach who joins his team in a youth-led prayer.

“That is the kind of thing we think has crossed the line and has violated these teachers' and employees’ constitutional rights,” he said.

Rep. Richie Yow of Chesterfield said his focus is on allowing teachers to participate in school prayer.

“The children can already pray in many schools,” he said. “The teachers can’t in many districts. They’ve been told if they pray they will lose their jobs. This bill allows teachers who want to participate to participate.”

Another bill allows school employees to participate if a child asks them to participate, he said.

“We believe it is a God-given right that a person should be allowed to pray,” Yow said, “and no school should tell them no. It’s not that a teacher is going to force a prayer on a child. This is saying our teachers have that right to pray.”

The subject of prayer in public schools has long been a legal battlefield.

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The U.S. Supreme Court decided two cases in the early 1960s that offered schools some guidance.

The most famous of the cases, in 1962, concerned a New York law that required public schools to open each day with the Pledge of Allegiance and a nondenominational prayer, though students could remove themselves if they objected to the prayer.

The majority ruled that the law was unconstitutional because school-sponsored prayer violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which is that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

The provision of the New York law that allows a student to leave, the justices ruled, did not cure the constitutional issue because government is not to interfere with religion. They also found that with such a wide range of beliefs, schools cannot endorse any particular faith.

The following year the justices decided a case in which a Pennsylvania student objected to participating in school Bible readings each morning. The justices sided with the student, finding such devotional readings to be an “impermissible” exercise of religion by government.

In 1985, the high court ruled that Alabama’s addition of silent prayer to its school period of silence violated the Establishment Clause.

Justices found in 1995 that a practice of a student-led prayer before football games also violated the Constitution because it found athletic events are sponsored by schools.

The U.S. Department of Education, meanwhile, directed its own guidance on the issue.

“When acting in their official capacities as representatives of the state, teachers, school administrators, and other school employees are prohibited by the Establishment Clause from encouraging or discouraging prayer, and from actively participating in such activity with students,” the agency states in a 2003 directive.

Teachers can pray or participate in religious activities outside students’ presence, according to the directive, such as in faculty lounges or where the overall context makes clear they are not doing so in their official capacity as teachers.

According to Teachers Who Pray, a network of educators whose aim is to equip and support teachers to ground their work in faith and prayer, teachers who want to pray or participate in religious activities must do so outside the presence of students.

However, some situations are more uncertain, according to the organization, such as whether teachers can participate in See You At The Pole prayer events if supervisors have not told them whether they can participate and it occurs before school begins.

Schools can prohibit teachers from wearing religious garb or clothing with religious messages, the organization advises, but teachers can wear a cross necklace because if it can be bought at a store the general public can wear such jewelry for any occasion.

Beth Brotherton, a spokeswoman for Greenville County Schools, said school staff are instructed annually to remain neutral on religious matters while acting as district employees.

“Employees are not to promote or endorse religion but allow students to exercise their own beliefs,” she said.

Burns’ bill, which is labeled the Student and School Personnel Religious Liberties Act, prohibits a school from discriminating against a student, parent or school personnel on the basis of religious viewpoint.

A student, under the bill, may pray or engage in religious expression before, during and after school in the same manner and to the same extent a student may engage in secular activities or expression.

A school district, under the bill, could not prevent school employees from participating in religious activities on school grounds that are initiated by students at “reasonable times” before or after the school day, as long as they are voluntary and do not conflict with the employees’ job responsibilities.

A January 2017 bill by Rep. Bill Chumley, a Spartanburg County Republican, would allow teachers to participate in student-led prayers or religious groups.

A bill filed in 2017 by Robert Williams, a Darlington Democrat, would allow schools to hold a moment of silence and school-led prayer each day, allowing students to leave if they object.

“We must protect our teachers who are not encouraging or forcing someone to pray,” Burns said. “They need to be allowed to have a blessing over their food if they want to.”

None of the bills has received a hearing, the first step in the legislative process.

Asked whether the bills would receive a hearing this year, Rep. Greg Delleney, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, which has two of the bills, said, “We’ll just have to see.”

“We may have an opportunity for them to have a hearing,” he said.

Delleney said legislation regarding the failed nuclear project in Fairfield County has taken up much of the committee’s time.

“We just haven’t had time to get to them with all the other stuff we have to do,” he said.

Chumley said he thinks the mass of bills facing lawmakers has kept his legislation from getting a hearing.

“We’ve got a short session and an awful lot of bills,” he said. “I was talking with the judiciary chairman, and they are overwhelmed with bills now. So I hope for the best. We file them, put them out there and try to push them.”

Burns said he will file his bill again in January if it isn’t taken up this year.

“I think teachers’ rights are really being violated,” he said.

Burns noted that lawmakers start each legislative day with prayer.

“Every morning when the session opens, we have a pledge of allegiance and a scripture read,” he said. “It’s part of who we are and where we’ve come from.”

Shaundra Young Scott, executive director of the South Carolina chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she was not familiar with the legislation, though she said her organization doesn’t want members of any faith to feel like their religion is oppressed in school or they are not able to express their religious views.

“It’s one of those things we are monitoring right now,” she said. “If it gets to the point where the legislation is getting pushed through and it’s going to be contrary to what we stand for with the Constitution, then we would be prepared to go against the bill.”