Written by Don Byrd
Via Religion Clause, the Louisiana legislature has passed a bill that would complicate the issue of organized student prayer at school. HB 724 requires schools to provide space on request to students who wish to pray before or after the school day, or during the school day’s non-instructional time.
Students are of course already free to pray on their own or in groups in a non-disruptive way during non-instructional time. The space requirement appears to essentially raises any impromptu prayer gathering to the level of a school club in terms of access to meeting space. One other element of the bill causes more concern in my mind:
B. Any school employee may attend and participate in the gathering if it occurs before the employee’s work day begins or after the employee’s work day ends.
Authority figures in schools do not lose their authority status just because they are off the clock. Allowing teachers or administrators to “participate” fully in student prayers runs the risk of creating either a coercive environment, or the strong appearance of official school endorsement.
Americans United warns of the total lack of safeguards in the bill, which is on to Governor Jindal for his signature.
