House okays school prayer amendment

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House OKs school prayer amendment

Columbia Daily Tribune, April 6, 2006

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - Missouri House members last night overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment intended to ensure students can pray privately and voluntarily at public schools.

Supporters say the amendment generally would uphold court precedents about prayer in school. But they insist a specific state constitutional protection is needed to safeguard the freedom of religious expression found in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The amendment received first-round House approval with a 134-17 vote.

"I think faith is under constant attack," said House Speaker Pro Tem Carl Bearden, R-St. Charles, the lead sponsor of amendment.

The proposal will go before Missouri voters in November if it clears a final House vote and also passes the Senate before the legislative session ends May 12.

The Missouri Constitution has since 1875 declared people have "a natural and indefeasible right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences."

The amendment would add prohibitions against the establishment of an official religion, similar to what is in the U.S. Constitution, while declaring "a citizen’s right to pray or to express his or her religious beliefs shall not be infringed."

While prohibiting state-composed or coerced prayer, the amendment says the state "shall ensure public school students their right to free exercise of religious expression without interference, as long as the prayer or other expression is private and voluntary ... and in a manner that is not disruptive nor in violation of other policies, rules or standards."

Prayer at school also would have to be restricted by the parameters placed on any other free speech.

Some Democrats questioned the need for the amendment because courts have upheld private, voluntary prayer at school as well as the right of religious groups to use school buildings after-hours.

"I have taught for 22 years. Never in my time in the classroom, being a teacher or observer or a school board member, has anyone prevented Muslims, Jews or Christians from praying," said Rep. Barbara Fraser, D-St. Louis, who voted against the amendment.

"This is a political issue - not a moral one," Fraser said. "It is an effort that is clearly intended to get out the vote" of religious conservatives, presumed to be more inclined to vote for Republicans.

Republican House members denied such accusations. They also defeated a Democratic attempt to refer the measure to the August primary ballot, where voter turnout is typically lower than in the November general election. Democrats argued that if the issue was important, it should be settled as soon as possible.

House Speaker Rod Jetton said the constitutional amendment is necessary because "there are people who are trying as hard as they can to keep people from being able to pray voluntarily in public."

Jetton, R-Marble Hill, said his own daughter had wrongly gotten the impression from a teacher while in third grade that she wasn’t allowed to pray in school - even privately before eating her lunch.

The proposed constitutional amendment also requires public schools to display the text of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

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