Oklahoma bill would allow public schools to hire religious chaplains

A bill making its way through the Oklahoma State Capitol would allow public schools in the state to hire religious chaplains to counsel and work with their students.

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – A bill making its way through the Oklahoma State Capitol would allow public schools in the state to hire religious chaplains to counsel and work with their students.

Recently updated language to Oklahoma Senate Bill 36 (SB36), introduced to the Oklahoma House of Representatives this week, would allow a public school to “employ or accept one or more volunteer chaplains” to counsel and support students, as long as they get approval from their district’s school board.

It also says schools would not be able to choose any chaplains who have been “convicted of” or are a “defendant for” any crime that would require them to register as a sex offender.

The bill’s author, State Representative Kevin West (R-Moore), says chaplains could give schools a free option to expand or fill holes on student support teams.  

“We heard a lot of talk about, a lot of those support staffs, people such as counselors, having shortages,” West said. “I felt like this would be a good way to open that door to possibly get some help.”

The language in SB36 is almost identical to a bill passed by the Texas State Legislature last year.

West says that Texas bill is what inspired him to introduce the new language for SB36 in Oklahoma.

“There were a group of legislators that felt like that would be something, you know, beneficial for Oklahoma,” he said.

He’s confident the concept of chaplains in public schools is legal.

“We have chaplains in the military that's been challenged before, but we also have had chaplains in the schools in the past,” West said. “So, you know, I don't think that it runs afoul of any of that.”

Rev. Shannon Fleck, a Christian minister with the Oklahoma Faith Network, isn’t so sure SB36 would hold up in court.

“Local school boards would have the option to ‘employ’ a chaplain, and that's a very specific and important word,” Fleck said. “Because when we talk about ‘employing’ a chaplain, that's public dollars, employing a religious professional for a public school district, and is definitely an unconstitutional idea.”

Fleck says the concept of school chaplains as proposed in SB36 also does not equally compare the U.S. military’s longstanding practice of using chaplains.

“[Military chaplains] have to go through a special 12 week course,” Fleck said. “And that course is given by the Department of Defense. It's multi-faith and neutral and doesn't hold any particular religion above another.”

West told News 4 SB36 would not restrict school boards from allowing schools to hire multiple chaplains representing multiple faiths, or to not hire any chaplains at all.

“It would be totally up to the local school board as to if they wanted to participate,” West said. “And if they do, what those parameters are.”

News 4 asked West: "what if the Church of Satan—a tax-exempt religious organization according to the IRS—asked to place a chaplain representing their beliefs in a public school?"

“We're putting together the parameters, those loose parameters, and then the school can expand on those if they want,” West responded. “That's basically a bare minimum. And I trust the local school district to, that people—and I mean as far as whatever your particular religious background is, you could have a Satanist that's a teacher or a Baptist or Catholic or whatever. So I see this kind of as the same.”

West said he would trust local school boards to use their discretion in a case like that.

“I would expect that the school board and the superintendent would interview people, and make sure that they're a fit for that particular school district, whether it's a volunteer or a hired position and be able to vet that and be looking out for the best interest of the children,” he said.

But Fleck argues SB36 in its current form doesn’t clearly define who would qualify as a chaplain at all.

“As the bill is currently written, there are no restrictions and no parameter laws with regards to who can serve as a chaplain at our schools,” Fleck said.

To that, West says he’s working on updating language in SB36 to more clearly define who would qualify as a chaplain.

“The chaplains would be ones that are certified from their faith group,” West said. “They can be a minister, a rabbi, a priest, an imam, lay leader or similar functioning within that faith group.”

West also says he plans to add language clarifying students would not be required to interact with their school’s chaplain if they do not want to.