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- Nov 11, 2008
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The Bald Cypress: Morehouse Parish School Officials (Allegedly) Didn't Do Their Homework
Morehouse Parish School Officials (Allegedly) Didn't Do Their Homework
According to an article published yesterday on the Bastrop Enterprise website, the Morehouse Parish School System held a town hall meeting Friday night at which they discussed the Louisiana Legislature's passage this year of HB 660 which provides for public school officials to start the school day with a voluntary recitation of the Lord's Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. Judging from the photo that accompanied the article, it appears that the officials who gathered at the town hall meeting also stood up, joined hands, and prayed.
There's a bit of a problem, though: The state legislature did not pass HB 660. After Rep. Katrina Jackson learned that her bill was obviously unconstitutional, she replaced HB 660 with HB 724. Both bills dealt with school prayer, but there were major differences. HB 724, which did become law, authorizes school authorities to permit public school students to gather for prayer before or after school or at any non-instructional time during the school day and provides for attendance by school employees, parents, and persons from the community under certain circumstances.
HB 724 does not seem to have really made any change in the law. Everything that the new law authorizes and provides for was already allowed under existing law. So far as I can tell, after Rep. Jackson learned that her original bill was unconstitutional, she felt like she had to introduce some kind of school prayer bill, so she introduced a bill that outlined the boundaries of what school officials could already do about school prayer. Then, she pretended that her bill actually changed things.......................
Morehouse Parish School Officials (Allegedly) Didn't Do Their Homework
According to an article published yesterday on the Bastrop Enterprise website, the Morehouse Parish School System held a town hall meeting Friday night at which they discussed the Louisiana Legislature's passage this year of HB 660 which provides for public school officials to start the school day with a voluntary recitation of the Lord's Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. Judging from the photo that accompanied the article, it appears that the officials who gathered at the town hall meeting also stood up, joined hands, and prayed.
There's a bit of a problem, though: The state legislature did not pass HB 660. After Rep. Katrina Jackson learned that her bill was obviously unconstitutional, she replaced HB 660 with HB 724. Both bills dealt with school prayer, but there were major differences. HB 724, which did become law, authorizes school authorities to permit public school students to gather for prayer before or after school or at any non-instructional time during the school day and provides for attendance by school employees, parents, and persons from the community under certain circumstances.
HB 724 does not seem to have really made any change in the law. Everything that the new law authorizes and provides for was already allowed under existing law. So far as I can tell, after Rep. Jackson learned that her original bill was unconstitutional, she felt like she had to introduce some kind of school prayer bill, so she introduced a bill that outlined the boundaries of what school officials could already do about school prayer. Then, she pretended that her bill actually changed things.......................
