The Amarillo Independent School District (AISD) Board of Trustees has unanimously decided not to adopt a resolution related to Senate Bill 11, a state law that allows voluntary prayer and religious text readings in public schools. The resolution would have created a daily period for prayer and Bible reading at every school in the district, with parental consent required for student participation.
Senate Bill 11, passed by the state legislature last year, mandates that each school board vote on whether to establish such a period, but it does not require districts to implement it. The Amarillo board was required to make a decision before March 1.
During Monday’s regular board meeting, President Doyle Corder explained the board’s reasoning. “SB 11 requires the district to consider adopting a policy on setting aside a place in time for prayer, scripture reading, podcast or religious text reading every day,” Corder said. “When we considered this, we looked at our policies, and there’s really no need for a policy to be enacted. Our students can pray when they want to pray.”
Corder noted that students frequently gather informally to pray, particularly during stressful periods, and stressed that prayer is not prohibited in schools. “One of our trustees shared a scenario where a group of students just gather up and pray and there’s nothing illegal about them doing that,” he said. “We say that a lot. As long as we’re working with teenage relationship and going to have a career in school, we have that.”
Board members also expressed concerns about the parental consent requirement outlined in SB 11, which would involve collecting student data for participation. Corder explained that trustees were cautious about how such information could potentially be misused. “As part of SB 11, data was going to be collected from kids who wanted to pray and would be required to have parents fill out a consent form, which some trustees were concerned about, having such data that could be used against someone for their religious beliefs at some point,” he said.
The decision was reached in a unanimous vote, with board member Jon Mark Beilue absent due to a health issue. Corder clarified that some confusion arose during the meeting over the wording of the resolution itself. “We can’t take action to not do something,” he said. “We had to take action to do something … which was to vote against the resolution.”
Board member Connie Brown described the measure as potentially overly controlling. “They are asking us if this is a step up. I can’t see that it is — it seems like more control,” she said. While acknowledging that some schools without existing policies might benefit from the resolution, she shared concerns about the creation of a student participation database.
Ultimately, the board concluded that the resolution would “close doors rather than open them.” Corder emphasized that the district’s current practices already allow students to pray voluntarily. “Again, there’s no need for it with our current policy,” he said. “Senate Bill 11 is not going to be implemented, and nothing is going to change. Everything will go about the same.”
