After Satanists and Humanists speak up, Florida district rejects school chaplains
The fear of a lawsuit ended, for now, the threat of volunteer chaplains in Osceola County public schools
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Earlier tonight, the Osceola County School Board in Florida voted against bringing religious chaplains into their buildings.
Technically, they voted against forming a committee to draft a policy that would allow chaplains into their schools, but the end result is the same.
I wrote about this issue two weeks ago when the same board delayed the vote in order to explore any potential legal liabilities. Tonight, after discussing the potential problems and hearing from concerned citizens, they chose to maintain the status quo and allow mental health professionals—not Christian zealots—to give students the help and support they need. The legal concerns had not been addressed in a satisfactory way, and there was no reason to put the district in legal jeopardy because some Christian extremists were intent on inserting themselves into public schools.
I won’t rehash everything I wrote recently, but here’s the basic summary of this issue: Florida Republicans passed a bill this year allowing untrained Christian chaplains to volunteer in public schools, essentially as substitutes for trained social workers and counselors. Parents had to give their kids permission to see those chaplains, and the chaplains had to pass a background check, but the goal was clear even if it went unstated: Republicans wanted Christian chaplains in schools, something that could be disastrous for LGBTQ students along with kids who aren’t professing Christians, so they created a pathway to make it happen. The bill didn’t specify that chaplains had to be Christian, but it was obvious that Christians would make up nearly all the chaplains who participated in such a program.
It didn’t help that Gov. Ron DeSantis—who signed the bill at a high school in Osceola County, no less—announced that Satanists wouldn’t be allowed to participate. “That is not a religion. That is not qualifying to be able to participate in this,” he told reporters during the bill signing.
It took months before his administration released a model policy that school districts could use if they wanted to admit chaplains in their schools, but that policy appeared to exclude religious minorities. For example, it suggested chaplains could be required to have a graduate degree in counseling or theology and two years of experience—both of which favored the sort of people who attended Christian seminaries and excluded religious minorities that don’t have that kind of infrastructure in place. It also gave principals veto power over certain volunteers if they felt the chaplains didn’t mesh well with the school.
If Satanists or Humanists volunteered, then, principals could say no to them even if they met all the other criteria. The lawsuits practically wrote themselves. That’s why Humanists and Satanists spoke out against the proposed policy at recent school board meetings.
That happened once again tonight, with several speakers denouncing the very idea of putting chaplains in public schools.
They seemed to speak directly to board member Jon Arguello, the main proponent of the chaplaincy program. At the previous meeting, he falsely claimed kids needed chaplains because they were supposedly telling people, “I want to be chemically castrated because I'm a transgender ideologist.” Arguello added that his fellow board members “would pay for the Uber to send that student to go to the clinic.” (All of that is obviously untrue and not how reality works.) When the board voted 3-2 to delay a decision on chaplains, Arguello complained, “It's crazy that the majority of the school board here in Osceola County allied itself with The Satanic Temple.” (That was also a lie. They were concerned about the legal issues, not pandering to Satanists.)
Arguello wasn’t any more sensible tonight—and far more dickish than last time, perhaps sensing he was on the losing end of this battle.
He wanted to form a committee that would hash out everyone’s concerns and report back to the board after six weeks, but it was obvious that there was no resolution that would satisfy everyone because, as Arguello himself made clear with repeated references to Jesus, Christian zealots would overwhelm the system in order to proselytize to kids.
He responded to the public commenters by saying opponents were basing their criticisms on “lies and fear.” No citations were provided. He also argued that some critics just didn’t like it “when you talk to your parents,” which makes no sense whatsoever. He even tried to discredit professional psychologists who spoke out against the policy by comparing them to a doctor who, during the pandemic, said that parents who didn’t put face masks on their kids didn’t love their kids. (Face masks saved lives. They still do.)
It was a lot of insults with no substance.
After another board member spoke out against the chaplain program, Arguello went directly after his colleague, calling him a “waste of oxygen” and blaming him for being “part of the reason that [students are] feeling pain.” (You can see in the video below that David Williamson, co-founder of the Central Florida Freethought Community, walks out from the front row in disgust shortly after those comments.)
The board then took a vote on the motion to form a committee to hash out a chaplains-in-school policy… and shot it down 2-2. (Correction: One board member was absent; the motion, however, did not pass due to a lack of majority.) The meeting adjourned quickly after that.
Turns out being an asshole doesn’t win you support, even when you’re being an asshole in the name of Jesus. Nor does it help that The Satanic Temple, earlier today, sent a letter to the board warning them about the legal battles they could face if a future chaplain policy excluded them in any way.
It’s unclear right now if the board plans to reconsider the chaplain policy in the future.
(This post is still being written and may be revised as the evening continues.)
Gee, Christians suddenly getting cold feet when someone else wants equal treatment.
I'd like to ask the jackhole, if students need their parents' permission to speak to the chaplain, why can't they ask their parents to let them speak to the chaplain at his or her church. Why does it need to be at school? There are several times more churches in this county than there are schools. If these students are in pain, it is likely because they have adults like you telling them you know who they are better than they do. While it's true most teenagers are still figuring out who they are, it's ludicrous to suppose someone else knows who they are better than they do.