TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida K-12 public schools must hold a moment of silence at the start of each day starting next school year, after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law Monday requiring the practice.
The bill drew criticism from liberal groups that it amounts to government-required prayer, but Republicans and some Democratic supporters during the hearings on the bill insisted it was not requiring prayers but merely a moment of reflection and silence.
DeSantis, though, explicitly couched the new law as a way to bring God into the classrooms.
“The idea that you can just push God out of every institution and be successful, I’m sorry, our Founding Fathers did not believe that,” DeSantis said before signing the bill.
But bill sponsor Rep. Randy Fine said the bill was “not a prayer in school bill,” during debate on the House floor when it passed in March. He suggested students could use the time to think about homework or “get centered before the start of the day.”
Fine attended the bill signing ceremony, which took place at a Jewish community center in Miami-Dade County, but didn’t talk about the bill in his brief remarks, which instead touched on the increase in anti-Semitic attacks across the country.
But Rep. Michael Caruso, R-Delray Beach, called the bill “the first step in getting God back in our communities.”
DeSantis also signed HB 805 at the event, which allows volunteer ambulance services, such as Hatzalah, a South Florida volunteer emergency response team for Jewish communities, to legally respond to emergencies, including with emergency lights on their vehicles, just as regular ambulances and first responders have.
U.S. Supreme Court precedent dating back to the 1960s has banned state-sanctioned or state-required prayer and religious instruction in public schools. But the bill DeSantis signed, HB 529, doesn’t mention the word “prayer” and instead calls for a “moment of silence,” lasting no more than two minutes.
Florida law already allowed local school districts to set rules for schools to hold their own moments of silence, but HB 529 makes it mandatory at every public school in the state.
“The Legislature finds that in today’s hectic society too few persons are able to experience even a moment of quiet reflection before plunging headlong into the activities of daily life,” the bill reads. “Young persons are particularly affected by the absence of an opportunity for a moment of quiet reflection. The Legislature finds that our youth, and society as a whole, would be well served if students in the public schools were afforded a moment of silence at the beginning of each school day.”
The bill prohibits teachers from suggesting to students how they fill the time during the moment of silence. But it also requires a student’s first-period teacher to encourage their parents to discuss it with their child and “make suggestions as to the best use of this time.”
Some Democrats opposed the bill, but many supported it, including a majority of Senate Democrats. The bill passed 94-24 in the House and 32-6 in the Senate.
During the House floor debate, Rep. Joe Geller, D-Lantana, said the bill was less egregious than previous versions that passed the House in prior years but failed to gain traction in the Senate. But he still opposed it because it took the option away from local school boards.
“Every single county has the right to do this — their school board just has to take a vote. Why are we in the business up here of telling cities that don’t want to do this that they have to do this?” Geller said. “If people want to see that done in their county, and their school board won’t do it, we have this thing called elections.”
