TX lawmaker pushes student religious liberty bill

TX lawmaker pushes student religious liberty bill

A bill introduced in the Texas Legislature seeks to clear up "growing confusion" about religious expression in the state's public schools. Republican Representative Charlie Howard says he's fed up with the increasing incidence of schools censoring the religious speech of students, so he has introduced the Religious Viewpoint Anti-Discrimination Act.

Howard says the bill codifies the free-speech rights that students already have and protects school officials from "separation of church and state" lawsuits that attempt to wipe out religious expression. "We have schools that say children can't even wish our military soldiers overseas a merry Christmas," he points out, as well as "schools that say we can't have a St. Valentine's Day because that's a religious holiday, and we have schools that say you can't give anyone an Easter card because that refers to religion."

However, these restrictions by school districts and administrators on students' religious freedom "are all wrong," Howard asserts. "They are in error." Yet he believes religious censorship has become prevalent in the state's schools because many administrators are "ignorant" of the U.S. Constitution and are fearful of incurring a costly lawsuit.

But the Texas Republican feels the Religious Viewpoint Anti-Discrimination Act can help put to rest "myths" that have led to the unconstitutional censorship of students. The act "clarifies the students' constitutional rights and makes sure they're protected -- and it also protects schools," he contends.

"This is kind of a win-win situation, the way I look at it," Howard explains, "because what it does is it says to the schools [that] if you follow these procedures, you're not going to be sued. You're not going to have a court case. You're not going to have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees."

In addition to foolishly reprimanding students for talking about Jesus during Easter and banning youngsters from wishing deployed troops "Merry Christmas," Texas schools have even barred children from bringing Christmas items to one school's "Winter Party," Howard notes.