OPINION:
If county sheriff’s officers are authorized by state laws, then how do they have chaplains when chaplains are not permitted in public schools, which are governed primarily by state and local communities?
The same can be asked considering that chaplains can be found and used in both state and federal prisons.
It would appear that we are forgoing a vitally useful resource for our youths for the possibility of calamity in their future.
In “Reclaiming Our Children: A Healing Plan for a Nation in Crisis,” author Peter R. Breggin describes schools all over the country keeping out parents and other valuable community resources who could inspire students’ career interests.
He writes: “Meanwhile, administrators and teachers try to cope in isolation with many hostile students, with students dealing and abusing drugs, with students humiliating and bullying each other unmercifully, with students who obviously feel depressed, suicidal, and alienated.”
In the past few decades, we might add “with students involved in and experiencing the trauma of school shootings.”
For legislators to invoke “separation of church and state” to keep chaplains and other helpful people out of schools is, in a word, inhumane.
Already, chaplains have been legalized in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Missouri and Oklahoma public schools. At least 12 other states are considering or have pending legislation regarding same.
I suggest the remaining states become part of Jesusland too.
BERNARD BUDNEY
Cutler Bay, Florida
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