Osceola County School Board members voted against moving forward with a chaplains in schools policy after hearing hours of public comment for and against the program.
Only one school board member, Jon Arguello, voted in favor of the program that would have allowed chaplains to act as school counselors with parental permission.
All other board members voted against approving the program, including Governor Ron DeSantis’ pick for the school board, Scott Ramsey.
Ramsey said he agrees with chaplains in schools, but said the policies the board was voting on didn’t address the public’s concerns with the program, or how to implement it.
“I would like for us to have an airtight proposal and policy that keeps us from lawsuits,” said Ramsey.
School board member John Arguello said he plans on reintroducing the program for a vote again at the next school board meeting.
He was disappointed with the outcome that he said was swayed by groups speaking out against it, groups like the Satanic Temple and several other nonprofits that took to public comment Tuesday.
“The program is dead. The school board of Osceola County allied itself with the Satanic Temple in killing the program. And it's crazy that the majority of the school board here in Osceola County allied itself with the Satanic Temple,” said Arguello.
The Satanic Temple asked to be involved in the program, and the discussion of its participation delayed an earlier vote on the measure.
Michael Mello, a dad of three girls in the district, is against chaplains in schools. He said bringing religion into public schools can only cause problems.
“Whenever you bring religion into an area, into a public forum, you get division. So there's nothing that divides people more than religion. I don't think it's proper to do it. They're just trying to get Christianity into the schools and unfortunately, when someone's not of that faith, it creates division between children,” said Mello.
Mello said his daughters have already witnessed this happen firsthand in their school.
On the other side of the issue is Pastor Jim Book of Kissimmee Christian Church. He said religious leaders like himself are ideally suited for and even trained to help people in crisis.
“To assume that people of faith could go into a school system and do a hatchet job, I think, is insulting to people of faith,” he said. “I think it's important that we incorporate the faith-based community into what we're doing."
Book said he wants to see chaplains in school, from every faith, who can help kids. He doesn’t think it matters what their religious background is. What he thinks is important is that there are people that kids can talk to.
“I did not major in counseling. I majored in the preaching ministry. But over the 30 years of local ministry, I've had the privilege, even today, to counsel people through all kinds of challenges, and I mean all kinds. Does that make me the best counselor in the world? Hardly. Does that make me capable of dealing with people in crisis and difficult challenges? Yes,” said Book.
As outlined in the law that legalized the program on July 1, each school board and district has to decide whether to adopt a version of the chaplain program, and if they do, how it will be implemented.
