Sen. Gary Siplin offers a school prayer bill at the state Capitol. For those who argue there's no place for religion in school settings, Siplin simply says, "They're wrong."
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The Florida Senate passes legislation that would allow students to lead prayers at school events.
Sen. Gary Siplin has been pushing the legislation for years without success, but Wednesday he got the votes he needed. The bill passed 31 to 8.
MORE: School Prayer Bill Passes First Test at State Capitol
This year's bill would give school districts the authority to decide if
they want to let students write up their own inspirational message for
certain events, such as graduation or assemblies.
No adults would
be allowed in the process. School officials could not influence or
review the content of the message, which could be non-religious as well.
The bill does not define "inspirational" but the Orlando Democrat admitted it could include student-initiated and student-led prayer.
MORE: ACLU: Settlement Reached in School Prayer Dispute
Other Democratic senators say the bill may be unconstitutional. U.S. Supreme Court decisions have banned state-sponsored prayer in public schools. The measure enjoys wide Republican support.
Opponents of the bill argued it's not up to the government to have a law allowing open prayer in schools.
"I deeply believe in prayer. I certainly encourage everyone to pray in their own way to themselves in a public place. But I do not think that it's appropriate for us to write a law that allows for prayer openly in our schools," said Sen. Gwen Margolis of North Miami.
Others said it would be divisive among students of different faiths. Sen. Audrey Gibson of Jacksonville said it would add stress to children's lives.
"In a public school, we should not add any additional stress complications or conflict to the daily lives of our students and their parents. They have enough to deal with... So why should we add anything else to their plate."
But supporters said the bill is especially needed because the pendulum has swung so far the other way that students have lost the freedom to have religious expression.
"The reason that Sen. Siplin has to do this bill is because we've gone from one extreme now to the other extreme and we've gone from what we should have, which is neutrality with religion, to hostility toward religion and we've now said that religious expressions somehow are second tier...," said Sen. Joe Negron of Stuart.
Sen. Mike Bennett of Bradenton argued the bill is all about freedom.
"It grants children an opportunity to be around other people who have good ideas instead of being out at the playground where everybody is cussing and spitting and fighting and gangs and looking at the TV and people smoking dope on television and all of the football players being arrested for every kind of thing you can think of...."
The same bill has not received a hearing yet in the House.
Associated Press