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Law allowing Texas schools to hire chaplains
FOX 26 Reporter Damali Keith has more on this story and what it could mean for Texas schools.
TEXAS - In just over a week your child’s school could decide to have chaplains on staff to speak with and service students. At least one group is strongly opposing that.
Surprisingly, dozens of Chaplains have come together, trying to convince school districts not to put Chaplains in schools.
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"SB 763 is just a bad idea," says Rev. Jennifer Hawks with Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.
Under Senate Bill 763, which goes into effect September 1, Texas school districts will have six months to decide if they’ll implement a Chaplaincy Program.
"It will allow school districts, if they choose, to hire in addition to school counselors, or instead of school counselors, school chaplains to address mental health issues for students," explains University of St. Thomas Political Science Professor Dr. Kevin Stuart.
"Their parents and guardians should be the ones to influence who their spiritual advisors are while they’re still minor children, and we shouldn’t have the government coming in and overtaking that decision," adds Hawks whose group is sending a letter to every school board.
"We have more than 100 chaplains who have signed this letter to explain why chaplains would oppose this program," says Hawks.
Why are they opposed? "The program doesn’t take chaplaincy seriously as a profession because the only requirement that the Texas state legislature required was that the person be able to pass a criminal background check," says Hawks.
"Faith based programs have been extremely successful in these other venues, the U.S. Military, hospitals around the country, and even in prisons…they’ve been a tremendous benefit for the mental, physical and spiritual health, which are all of course more linked than perhaps we once thought," explains Dr. Stuart who says Chaplains in schools may be especially effective for teens.
"I can see it being particularly advantageous during those years when students are looking for someone they can trust who isn’t necessarily mom or dad," Stuart says.
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For years, some have insisted, put God back in schools, soon that just may happen.
"God has never left the public schools. As long as there are math tests, we will have prayer in schools," Hawks says.
Even if school districts decide to create a chaplaincy program, students can choose not to speak with the chaplain. We haven’t heard yet from area districts if they plan to put chaplains in schools.