A letter sent to superintendents and board members on Monday advised them against bringing on chaplains, something made possible by the recently signed Senate Bill 763. The new law, which takes effect Sept. 1, instructs school boards to vote on the adoption of a policy that lets campuses hire chaplains or accept them as volunteers.
The civil rights coalition, which includes the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Texas, argues in the letter that the introduction of chaplains into public schools is unconstitutional. They wrote that families — “not government-imposed religious leaders” — have the right to teach their kids about faith.
“Texas’ public schools are religiously diverse, and all students should feel safe and welcome in them. Opening the schoolhouse doors to chaplains would undermine this critical goal," the letter continued. "We will not hesitate to defend the rights of students and families against school districts that take up the Legislature’s misguided and unlawful invitation to install clergy in official positions.”
Texas Republicans pushed for more religion in public schools during the legislative session. One failed proposal would have mandated classroom displays of the Ten Commandments.
Detractors of the chaplain measure say that it's one of a slew of bills nationwide aimed at replacing secular democracy in favor of Christian nationalism.
The coalition warned that if chaplains are allowed to assume formal roles in schools, it will inevitably lead to religious indoctrination of students. They argue that even the act of deciding which chaplains to include fundamentally affords "unconstitutional preferences" to certain faiths.
Chloe Kempf, an attorney for the ACLU of Texas, told the Observer in an emailed statement that the public's and educators' response to the letter has been "overwhelmingly supportive.
"Texans of all religious backgrounds, and those who are not religious, know that schools and government officials should not be dictating what our children worship," Kempf continued. "Despite certain politicians’ efforts to force state-sponsored religion into public schools, our letter makes clear that students have a First Amendment right to be free from religious coercion. School Boards must reject the use of chaplains in schools."
State Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Galveston Republican, authored SB 763. He didn’t return the Observer’s request for comment but has previously argued that such legislation is needed to ensure “schools are not God-free zones.”
Middleton and the bill’s supporters insist that “returning God to classrooms” will aid in mental health needs and prevent drug use, school shootings and suicides, according to The Texas Tribune. Yet others fear it will worsen young Texans' mental health by emphasizing unscientific methods like prayer rather than proven counseling solutions.
Dallas state Sen. Nathan Johnson criticized the bill in April."It's a scary day for our democracy." – Rachel Laser, CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State
tweet this
“As a practical matter I think it’s unlikely that we’re going to see anything close to parity in representation in terms of which religion is represented by chaplains on a school campus,” the Democrat said on the Senate floor, according to K-12 Dive. “I just don’t think we’re going to see Muslim [imams] and Jewish rabbis on a campus.”
Rachel Laser is the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which also signed on to the civil liberties coalition’s letter. She placed the state of religious freedom in Texas "at Code Red."
Laser noted that while counselors in Texas must meet certain standards, including state certification, the law doesn’t mandate the same for chaplains.
"The House was able to add bare-bones amendments to prohibit registered sex offenders from serving as school chaplains and to institute background checks," she said. "But outside of that, there's just so little regulation."
Laser also pointed to other GOP-backed Texas legislation, like bans on abortion and gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The way she sees it, religious extremists and their lawmaker allies are making progress in imposing their own beliefs on everyone else.
An emboldened religious movement is trying to force a narrow form of Christianity into our public schools, she said. Some are attempting to turn religious freedom into a license to discriminate, she added.
Texas is witnessing a full-on assault on public schools, she continued, but other states are, too.
This year, Laser's organization has tracked more than 1,500 similar bills nationwide. She cited new laws in Kentucky and Idaho that could allow teachers and coaches to pray in front of and with students. She said such bills use government employees to impose religion on children, adding that Americans United is calling for a national recommitment to church-state separation.
"It's a scary day for our democracy,” Laser said, “and for everything that sits on the wall of separation between church and state."
