Howdy Folks,
This is
our 2017
August
eNewsLetter and ...
This newsletter will describe
some
interesting laws that were passed by the FL legislature and became
effective July 1, 2017.
The first
law is called
2017-74 Florida
Student and School Personnel
Religious Liberties Law. This is a great
law.
It is very important given these two items just received by
email (8/5/17).
- ... "more and more examples of overt
anti-faith bigotry. For
example, ... lawyers were back in court defending a Christian
group from blatant anti-Christian discrimination by an Indiana
school district. The judge just issued a preliminary injunction in
our favor, but that fight is far from over."
- "And discrimination against Christians is on
the rise!
Two recent studies revealed that attacks on religious liberty
have risen by 76% and 133% in just the past few years!"
I
attempted to ask questions
of the law's author; but after a brief non informative email cycle
with his assistant, I realized that forthcoming info was going to
be sparse or non existent. So I'm going to itemize my
questions in a list below; perhaps email it to my District
... [Represenatives], paste it into my Blog: FL's
Religious Expression Law for
a record, and report on the results as they become available in
future newsletters.
- This is the link, title and general description: Religious
Expression in Public Schools, Senate Bill 436 (2017) - The Florida
Senate - SIGNED BY GOVERNOR, EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2017.
GENERAL BILL by Baxley ; (CO-INTRODUCERS) Steube ; Mayfield ;
Stargel ; Campbell ; Brandes ; Broxson | Religious Expression
in
Public Schools; Citing this act as the "Florida Student and
School Personnel Religious Liberties Act"; prohibiting a
school
district from discriminating against students, parents, or school
personnel on the basis of religious viewpoints or expression;
prohibiting penalty or reward for a student’s religious expression
in coursework, artwork, or other specified assignments; requiring a
school district to comply with the federal requirements in Title
VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, etc.
- This is the law in PDF:
See Chapter No.
2017-74 < The
complete 3 page PDF - EVERY STUDENT AND PARENT SHOULD READ
IT, PRINT IT AND CARRY IT.
(If you don't want
it printed on 3 full size sheets, try printing these two pdf's on
opposite sides of 1 page. ../2017-74FL-FreeExpressionInSchoolsPg1of2.pdf
and ../2017-74FL-FreeExpressionInSchoolsPg2of2.pdf .
- For a chronology
of events see
Hisways': Blog: FL's
Religious Expression Law.
Paragraph 6 [of the new law] says the FL Dept of Ed. will produce a
model policy for
all FL. school districts. My questions about the Dept of Ed
Policy development process are:
- How does the Dept of Ed carry out the process of
developing a
model policy per paragraph (6) of 2017-74
Religious
Expression in Public Schools Law ?
- Because this law involves freedom of expression, can
the model
policy be made strong i.e. bullet proof? Or what will prevent
or deter law suits by antagonists from forcing a case to the US
Supreme Court?
- Will the DOE attorneys write it?
- Since the FL States Attorney will be expected to
defend it,
will they be involved in [it's] development?
- Will legal law firms with massive religious
liberty
defense experience like: Alliance Defending Freedom
(ADF) or/and
Liberty
Counsel (lc.org),
etc. be
involved? If they aren't invited to participate would it be
appropriate for them to review and comment on the policy?
[Personally I would hope that they were out in front of this
rather than called in after it's in court.]
- Will the Senate Education Committee have a chance to
review and
comment on the policy?
- What about including local in-school adjudication
or/and school
board reviews and/or appeals for adherence to the model
policy?
- It seems appropriate to instruct teachers
and
administrators in the legalities of this liberty and perhaps
providing Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for them to know their
boundaries. Gateways to Better Education
has a
Faith, Freedom and Public School Education
Workshop
for teachers and administrators. Texas already allows 7 CEUs
for their school personnel completing the Education Workshop.
[Can FL school personnel receive CEUs for such an important
law?]
- Will there be a public hearing(s)?
- How would, or could, the 2017-74
Religious
Expression in Public Schools Law apply to K-12.com [educators in] Florida's online
schools?
|
HISways USA,
Inc. 