TALLAHASSEE ยท The Florida House on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a controversial bill to allow student-led prayer at school events over protests by critics that it could be oppressive to members of some religions and open the door for an onslaught of lawsuits against local school boards.
It was the third time in less than a year the school prayer bill has passed the House. Even during a special session called last fall to balance the budget in the wake of Sept. 11, the House took time to battle over prayer. But the Senate did not even bring the last two bills up for debate, and the latest version again faces an uncertain fate there.
The bill (HB 667), passed on a 88-28 vote, would give local school boards the option of allowing a student-led "inspirational message" at graduations and noncompulsory school events.
Supporters said the bill, considered an important victory for school-prayer advocates, is particularly important in the wake of the terrorist attacks.
"This is not intended to advance any religion or religious belief," said Rep. Wilbert Holloway, D-Miami, the bill's sponsor. "When I first filed this bill [last spring] I did not know that on Sept. 11 the walls would be torn down and all religions of our nation would be drawn to our national cathedral to pray."
Holloway, a Baptist, said the bill provides for the "solemnization and memorialization" of secondary school events and ceremonies.
But critics say the measure is a ploy by Christian conservatives to dominate prayers in public schools. They argued that school events are not the place for prayer and call the bill unconstitutional, unnecessary and politically divisive.
"Our troops are dying in defense of religious freedom on foreign shores. But Tallahassee, Fla., is attempting to force the religious will of the majority on all the minority religions in our pluralistic society," said Rep. Mark Weissman, D-Parkland. Weissman, who is Jewish, accused the bill's supporters of "Talibanic rhetoric."
The Florida Legislature approved a prayer bill in 1996, but then-Gov. Lawton Chiles vetoed it. Since then, the Christian Coalition of Florida and other conservative organizations have lobbied for prayer legislation at nearly every lawmaking session.
Gov. Jeb Bush, who was supported by conservative Christian groups in his 1998 election, has not taken an official position on the bill.