CCISD trustees reject SB 11 prayer policy

The Clarendon CISD Board of Trustees unanimously rejected a policy that would have required a daily period for prayer and the reading of the bible or other religious texts on each campus during its regular meeting February 9.

The vote was required by Texas Senate Bill 11, which mandated that each school district board consider adopting such a policy and also outlined several provisions that would be required in the policy.

CCISD Trustee Taylor Shelton, who is an attorney, distributed copies of the statute so the board could understand completely what it was being asked to consider.

“I fully support prayer, and our students have the right pray anytime,” Shelton said. “This requires a specific period to allow prayer. We can allow anyone to participate without a signed statement, and we have to have expressed waiver from the parents giving up their student’s right to sue under the First Amendment.”

Shelton called SB 11’s suggested policy “a landmine,” noting that civil rights groups would come after the policy and that the district does not have resources to fight it. But he especially drew attention to the waiver.

“If we have to get parents to waive their student’s Constitutional rights – which they legally cannot do, it should give us pause,” Shelton said.

Trustee Jeff Robertson said he felt like the separation of church and state was vital and also said he did not know why the school would want to be bound by the requirements of the statute’s proposed policy.

Board members discussed the burden of keeping up with student permission slips as well as where such a period of prayer might be held that would be in accordance with the proposed policy. Discussion also mentioned that the policy would open the door for a wide range of types of prayers for different religions.

Board president Wayne Hardin also recalled the old saying, “As long as there are history tests, there will always be prayer in school.”