An Ohio House committee approved a bill Wednesday that would bring students’ religious freedom into all areas of school.
The “Student Religious Expression” bill states: “A student enrolled in a public school may engage in religious expression before during, and after school hours in the same manner and to the same extent that a student is permitted to engage in secular activities or expression before, during, and after school hours.”
The bill does not specify how far these rights of religious expression reach. Gary Daniels, Chief Lobbyist for ACLU of Ohio, said part of the bill is simply unnecessary, while other portions could fall quickly onto unconstitutional territory.
Several protected freedoms are reinforced in the bill, like wearing religious symbols and engaging in prayer. It also expands students’ religious expression, aiming to permit it in class and on homework.
“Ideally, what this means is students are free to participate in after school activities and organizations of a religious nature,” Daniels said. “Read more broadly, this would allow students to read prayers over school public address systems, a practice courts have widely rejected.”
The US Supreme Court has ruled against public school worship several times, the first of which being Engel v Vitale, in 1962. The ruling decided that a public school couldn’t create its own prayer and promote or suggest its recitation. More recently was the Santa Fe Independent School District v Jane Doe decision in 2000. By a 6-3 ruling, it made opening prayers before football games unconstitutional.
The bill makes it unclear at what point student religious expression would cross a constitutional line, but also a common sense one. Young Earth Christians who believe the Earth to be only 10,000 years old could submit contradictory papers on evolution and, under the bill, would be exempt from failure or penalty. Other critics just see the bill as a way to promote a very specific religion.
The language of the bill, however, does not give allowance to public schools to promote any one religion, which would violate the first amendment.
“In short, House Bill 425 does essentially two things — one, it repeats protections for matters already well-protected and two, it unwisely expands religious expression in ways that ignore and subvert a public school’s duty to remain neutral with regard to religious expression,” Daniels said in testimony before Wednesday’s hearing.
HB 425 passed the Community and Family Advancement Committee and will move to a discussion on the House floor.