Alabama House approves school prayer, Pledge of Allegiance amendment

A bill requiring schools to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and allow students to initiate and lead school prayer passed in the Alabama State House of Representatives Tuesday, but not without significant changes.

HB 511, sponsored by Rep. Reed Ingram, R-Pike Road, is a constitutional amendment that would allow student-led and student-initiated prayer within public school classrooms.

“I’m not trying to cram religion down anyone’s throat or make it to where they’re mandated to do anything,” Ingram said after the bill passed. “A lot of times, kids don’t have the option to pray and they don’t know what prayer means.”

According to the U.S. Department of Education, students are allowed to pray in school provided it is not disruptive of school activities. After being amended, it was unclear Tuesday how Ingram’s bill would change or challenge existing law.

The bill passed 94-4 after over two hours of debate.

House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, said Ingram tried to pull a “fast one” by filing the same legislation twice.

“In committee, I thought we discarded this piece of legislation, HB 43, I think it was,” Daniels said during debate. “But the exact same piece of legislation is now [HB] 511.”

HB 511 is an updated version of HB 43 which was also filed by Ingram and passed through committee earlier this month.

The House made significant changes to the bill. In the original version of the bill, there was a 25% state funding loss penalty for school boards that did not participate in it. The penalty was removed by the House.

Other amendments require the prayer to be at the beginning of the school day; make student participation in the prayer voluntary and remove language that requires the state superintendent to investigate violations of the law.

Under the legislation, students who do not want to participate are allowed to leave the classroom when the prayer is happening. Ingram said where the non-participating students go is up to local school boards.

Even with the changes, some Democrats contested the bill citing concerns about how the legislation would work.

“I’m just afraid and fear that any child might be put in a position where he feels uncomfortable or she feels uncomfortable,” Rep. Marilyn Lands, D-Huntsville, said during debate. “And I feel that we’re giving favor to those wealthy families who can afford to take their children elsewhere using the CHOOSE Act.”

Lands also brought an amendment to make the verbal prayer a moment of silence. The amendment failed to pass.

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Ingram said a moment of silence isn’t a proper substitute for prayer.

“We want the students to hear it,” Ingram said. “A moment of silence is walking in the woods, it’s not a prayer bill and that’s the reason I tabled it.”

Supporters of the bill suggested it would restore religion in the public sphere or bring the country back to a religious past.. Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, said public schools were originally run by the church.

“The term Sunday School comes from school being taught at church on Sunday. The pastors were the first teachers and The Holy Bible was the first textbook,” Butler said.

Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville said that Christianity was used to oppress the Black community for centuries.

“When my ancestors got off the ship, they didn’t sign no agreement,” Jackson said. “They got out their shackles and you use that Bible to keep them in shackles.”

Rep. Patrick Sellers, D-Pleasant Grove, cited Matthew 6:6, a Bible verse about praying in private, and said prayer shouldn’t be made into a spectacle.

“Christ warned against turning prayer into something performed for public display or government approval. Prayer is meant to be a sincere act of devotion between the believer and God,” he said.

Sellers also had an amendment to require private schools to also be required to have student-led and student-initiated prayer. The amendment failed to pass.

“Private schools should be involved and if you’re going to have public schools do it, and especially private schools that receive public dollars, they should be included or involved with that as well,” Sellers said following passage of the amendment.

Ingram said he tabled the amendment because of the work the state does with other countries.

“We have private schools that are from Korean schools and other countries and I don’t think it’s mandated that we’re gonna mandate them to say our pledge,” Ingram said. “Prayer would be great, but most of the time they have different beliefs and we don’t want to force that on somebody from a different country.”

If passed, the bill would go on a future ballot. It goes to the Senate.