DeSantis signs school chaplains bill opposed by pastors, Satanists, ACLU

KISSIMMEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law Thursday allowing volunteer chaplains to counsel students in traditional public and charter schools, despite warnings from a pastors group, the ACLU and the Satanic Temple that it would violate the First Amendment.

“There are some students [who] need some soul prep,” said DeSantis, who signed the measure at Tohopekaliga High School near Kissimmee. “And that can make all the difference in the world. And so these chaplains … come in and provide services.”

DeSantis said the law, set to go effect in July, would stand up to court challenges because the program was voluntary and parents would have to provide consent for their children to meet with the chaplains.

“No one’s being forced to do anything, but to exclude religious groups from campus, that is discrimination,” he said. “You’re basically saying that God has no place. That’s wrong. That’s not what our Founding Fathers intended.”

The ACLU of Florida has opposed the measure, with legislative director Kara Gross writing in a statement on the group’s website last month that the law would violate “religious-freedom rights by exposing all public school students to the risk of chaplains evangelizing them or imposing religion on them throughout their school day.”

Gross also wrote that “it appears that anyone can hold themselves out as a volunteer ‘chaplain,’ as there does not seem to be any credentialing required. Additionally, it creates a significant risk of liability for school districts that will inevitably be picking and choosing which chaplains from which religions to approve or reject in their schools.”

DeSantis called the ACLU’s concerns “bogus” because the program was voluntary.

The new law uses the title chaplain but requires none of the specialized training that health care facilities, the military and most prisons require of chaplains, said the Rev. James Golden, a retired pastor in the Tampa Bay area. He noted the bill requires only that volunteer chaplains pass a basic background check.

Golden is part of the group Pastors for Florida’s Children, which opposed the bill when it was under consideration by the Legislature this spring.

The argument for the new law is that schools need help meeting students’ mental health needs.

“But there is no need to seek volunteer chaplains, if the funding needs for guidance and counseling and mental health support were met,” he said.

The pastors’ group includes most “mainline denominations” in Florida and does not want chaplains trained by its churches to take part in the program, Golden said. He said the group fears that new school chaplains will be a vehicle to inappropriately introduce religion into schools.

“The governor of the entire state of Florida has now signed a bill that really is intrusive beyond belief into the area of constitutionally protected rights with respect to freedom of religion and the establishment of religion,” he said.

An organization called the Satanic Temple issued a recent statement that said its ministers “look forward” to joining chaplains of other religions in schools. The Temple states its mission is to use Satanic imagery to “oppose injustice,” including applying for equal representation when religious imagery and “proselytizing” are allowed in public schools.

DeSantis contended that the organization would not be allowed to participate.

“Now, some have said that if you do a school chaplain program, that somehow you’re going to have Satanists running around in our schools,” DeSantis said. “We’re not playing those games in Florida. That is not a religion, that is not qualified to be able to participate in this. So we’re going to be using common sense when it comes to this.”

Lucien Greaves, co-founder of the Temple, said via email on Thursday that “DeSantis’s ignorant and irresponsible words actually hold no authority in this instance.”

“He is not at liberty to amend the Constitution by fiat, and we are a federally recognized religious organization,” Greaves said in an email. “There is nothing on paper that excludes The Satanic Temple from offering chaplains in public schools, and to do so would be illegal. DeSantis does not even bother to offer a legal theory by which we would be excluded.”

The governor, Greaves said, is “sending a confusing message to school districts which will then suffer the consequences in court.”

DeSantis also signed another bill allowing schools to bring in what the measure called “patriotic organizations.”

The groups permitted to visit campuses are the Big Brothers-Big Sisters, Boy Scouts, Boys & Girls Clubs, Civil Air Patrol, Future Farmers of America, Girl Scouts, Little League Baseball, the Marine Corps League, and the Naval Sea Cadet Corps.

EDITOR’s NOTE: This story has been corrected to clarify that charter schools are part of the public school system in Florida.