Bill Eases Church-State Separation

A public school student who writes about Jesus as a hero would not have to worry about violating the separation of church and state under a newly passed House bill.

“The First Amendment rights of a child does not end at the public school’s door,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Bill Backlund, R-Redmond, said Monday. “I believe the First Amendment right to express ourselves comes before our so-called right not to be offended.”

The American Civil Liberties Union helped draft House Bill 1230, said Rep. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines.

The bill, which passed 92-4, says students can incorporate their religious beliefs and opinions where appropriate in class work, homework, evaluations or tests. Teachers may not grade or censure a student’s work on religious content but may grade the student’s work on such things as spelling and the degree to which the student complied with the assignment.

However, no school employee may prompt or ask students to express their religious beliefs.

Other bills passed by the House on Monday and sent to the Senate include:

HB1181, to allow radar devices to be considered a reliable method to determine speed, instead of requiring a qualified expert to testify in each speeding case that such devices are reliable.

HB1205, to extend the ages of child rape and molestation victims to include 16- and 17-year-olds whose assailants are four years older than they are. HB1188, to allow medical students from Wyoming to attend Washington medical schools at about the same cost a state resident pays. Alaska, Montana and Idaho already participate in the program.

All three bills passed 95-0.