News

House set to take up 'moment of silence' veto

Posted October 09, 2007 11:00 pm

Dana Heupel

Silence may be golden, but should it be the Golden Rule?

The Illinois House probably will debate along those lines this week when it considers whether to override Gov. Rod Blagojevich's veto of legislation to require all public school students to begin each day with "a brief period of silence."

At issue is the change of a single word in existing law. The Silent Reflection and Student Prayer Act already says teachers "may" have their students observe a moment of silence as "an opportunity for silent prayer or for silent reflection on the anticipated activities of the day." But Senate Bill 1463 replaces "may" with "shall."

Earlier this year, the legislation passed the Senate, 58-1, and the House, 86-26. But Blagojevich saw it as raising the specter of enforced school prayer.

While acknowledging in his veto message to lawmakers that "I believe in prayer," the governor wrote: "The law in Illinois already allows teachers and students the opportunity to take a moment for silent thought or prayer. I believe this is the right balance between the principles echoed in our Constitution and our deeply held desire to practice our faith."

Last week, the Senate voted to override Blagojevich's veto, and the House sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Will Davis, D-Homewood, says he expects to ask the House to do the same on Thursday. If the override vote gets the required three-fifths majority, the bill would become law without Blagojevich's approval.

"It's not my intent to require prayer," Davis said Tuesday. Instead, with all of the problems occurring in schools, he said, teachers should have students observe "a moment of reflection" about the upcoming day.

But one vocal opponent of school prayer, Rob Sherman, a radio talk show host from Buffalo Grove, believes that although the legislation states the quiet period "shall not be conducted as a religious exercise," that is simply "a lawyer trick known as 'denying the obvious.'"

"It's intended to be a religious exercise," Sherman states on his Web site. "That's the whole purpose for enacting the law."

"I don't oppose silence," Sherman, an avowed atheist, said in a telephone interview. "But what I oppose is having the public school teacher prohibited from teaching during instructional time paid for by the taxpayers so that students can pray."

Sherman said, "Many legislators are under pressure to get more religion and more prayer in classrooms. This is their way to do it."

However, he said, the proposed law "is specifically and categorically unconstitutional."

Even if the legislation carries only the perception that it's about school prayer, "it's hard not to go along," said Kent Redfield, a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Opposing it "gets characterized as an anti-family vote."

"You certainly can argue that it doesn't hurt anything" to require schools to observe a moment of silence, he said. But opponents could contend "it's a backdoor way at getting at school prayer or (lawmakers) micromanaging schools."

Either way, Redfield said, "it's hard to vote against even if you believe it's bad public policy."

Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, opposed the bill the first time around and intends to vote to sustain Blagojevich's veto. But his concerns aren't necessarily philosophical.

"I don't understand what in the world this bill is trying to address," he said.

Observing that current law already allows classroom time for quiet reflection, Black said, "I don't think it has anything to do with school prayer. … It's an insatiable desire to mandate every hour of the day in public education."

Black said he believes Blagojevich misinterpreted the intent of the bill, but he said he intends to vote to uphold the governor's veto anyway.

As a former teacher, though, Black said he can understand the desire for some serenity in the classroom.

'When I taught," he quipped, "I would have loved to have a moment of silence."

Dana Heupel can be reached at (217) 788-1518 or dana.heupel@sj-r.com.

Article Categories
News