Church-state debate: Florida House panel backs bill allowing chaplains in public schools

A Florida House committee has approved a bill that would allow chaplains into public schools for counseling purposes.

The Education Quality Subcommittee voted 12-2 Thursday in favor of the bill, (HB 931) which gives local school districts the option to establish a volunteer chaplaincy program. Parental consent would be required for students to meet with each chaplain.

Ocala Republican Rep. Stan McClain's bill leaves much about what the chaplains would do and who would qualify as a chaplain, up to school boards.

That was a point of concern to the two members who voted no, Reps. Christopher Benjamin, D-Miami Gardens, and Ashley Gantt, D-Miami, as well as a contingent of ministers and parents who spoke against the introduction of chaplains into public schools.

Public schools have long avoided mixing religion and education for constitutional reasons.

"What type of programming are we talking about?" Benjamin asked the sponsor. "Because we know that chaplain services is about religious counseling, so what type of programming do we conceive that the school board would be assigning to the chaplain?"

McClain responded: “I personally have no conception of what that would look like. That’s going to be left to the individual school boards to decide.”

He later said some of the bill's lack of specificity is by design, allowing local school districts to establish programs for their own purposes.

The heart of the debate centered around the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which offers two bedrock principles for governance: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," it starts.

So the establishment clause guarantees freedom from religion and freedom of religion.

The Rev. Joe Parramore, legislative director of the Council of Florida Churches, opposed the bill, arguing the introduction of religion in young persons' lives is a family responsibility.

"No family should be subjected to the government's assertion of religious care," Parramore said. "Parents have a distinctive First Amendment right to determine who influences their children's spiritual journey."

Proponents of the bill, including Rep. Mike Beltran, R-Riverview, argued the bill does not create an establishment of religion.

"I don't think it puts the imprimatur of the school on the chaplains. ... The way I read this, anyone can apply (to become a chaplain)," Beltran said.

Gantt and other opponents said that was a concern.

"There’s no definition of what chaplain is in the bill. What is a chaplain?" she said. "And then it goes to the qualifications. There are no qualifications at all.”

Parramore, who teaches in an accredited clinical pastoral educational program, said the chaplains who serve in the U.S. military, prisons and healthcare facilities typically have more than 100 hours of training in how to serve people of all faiths, such as a Jewish chaplain advocating for a Muslim soldier, or a Christian chaplain speaking with an atheist hospital patient.

Devin Graham, a representative of American Atheists, said the lack of qualifications for who qualifies as a chaplain means she could volunteer as a chaplain, as would people from all faiths, including paganism and satanism.

“I’d like to think that as I could offer some great advice to the young people of the world ...," she said. "I highly doubt you would want me giving spiritual advice to your children.”

But Beltran argued that the bill doesn't require much vetting, beyond a basic criminal background check, and protects the state and schools from lawsuits that might allege violations of the free exercise of religion.

"If ... the school board or the school administration was exercising some discretion, that’s where you’re going to run into constitutional problems, right?" Beltran argued. "That’s where they’re going to say do we approve of this religion or that?"

A step toward 'grooming' Christians?

Some of the most volatile moments of the debate came when Parramore and others accused McClain and supporters of the bill of attempting to advance Christian nationalism in Florida.

“Over the past several years, we’ve seen this legislative body seem to engage in a term called grooming. And when we looked at that term grooming as defined by Merriam-Webster, it says ‘when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them,'" Parramore said. "Government-sanctioned, well-trained and educated chaplains are certainly appropriate in many settings. However, our public schools are not the place for untrained and uneducated wannabe chaplains.”

The Rev. Rachel Gunter Shapard, cofounder of Pastors for Florida Children, and the mother of three children in Duval County schools, noted that the bill doesn't include language preventing chaplains from proselytizing in public schools.

“We don’t need this in the schools. Parents are not asking for it," she said.

But Ryan Kennedy, program manager of educational policy and advocacy with the Florida Citizens Alliance, said the bill does not allow for chaplains to meet with students whose parents have not granted consent.

"It allows parents to choose if they want their child to have access to chaplains. It also allows chaplains to choose to be a part of the program if a school district votes for it," he said.

Supporters say opponents mischaracterized the bill

One of the Democrats who voted in favor of the bill, Rep. Joe Casello of Boynton Beach, asked McClain to consider amending the bill to give more guidelines on who can qualify as a chaplain.

But he also noted that when he was in school, prior to the landmark 1962 Supreme Court ruling against prayer in public schools, things were different.

"When I started my school day, I started with the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer. I don't think I'm any worse for that," Casello said.

Rep. Kimberly Daniels, D-Jacksonville, said she previously sponsored a bill putting prayer back into public schools because God's calling − she is a minister − changed her life after a youth spent as "an absolute heathen."

"This is not a good bill," she said. "This is the best bill I've heard since we've been in session."

Rep. Daniel Alvarez, a Hillsborough County Republican, said opponents' characterization of the bill makes it sound "horrific," that it establishes Christianity as the official religion of Florida schools.

"Upon a plain reading, I recognize that it does none of that," he said. "And shame on anyone who tried to tell me different."

McClain, whose district includes a sizable portion of West Volusia County, said the intent behind the bill was not about proselytizing.

The House bill next moves to the Education and Employment Committee.

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This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Bill allowing chaplains in Florida public schools passes subcommittee