The Collier County School Board votes on holding invocations before its meetings. (Image: CCSB)
Sept. 14, 2023 by David Silverberg
With thanks to reporting by Sparker’s Soapbox.
On Monday, Sept. 11, the Collier County Public School Board voted 4 to 1 to defer a decision on holding an invocation prior to its meetings, pending a similar decision by the School Board of Miami-Dade County.
Members Jerry Rutherford (District 1), Stephanie Lucarelli (District 2), Chair Kelly Lichter (District 3) and Erick Carter (District 4) voted to approve the resolution. Tim Moshier (District 5) voted against it.
The vote followed hours of public comment on both sides of the issue.
The debate and vote were prompted by a proposal that a religious invocation be conducted prior to Board meetings.
The background
School Board member Jerry Rutherford. (Image: CCSB)
Last year’s election brought Rutherford, Moshier and Lichter to the School Board. All had campaigned as ideologically conservative candidates. Only Lichter had previous School Board experience and a professional background in education.
At the July 31 meeting Rutherford proposed that the Board adopt a policy opposing seven ideologies that he characterized as “Anti-American, Anti-God ideologies whose net effect is to alter or abolish the Constitution of the United States of America and damage our American Culture.” The seven were: critical race theory; social emotional learning; diversity, equity and inclusion; Black Lives Matter; “Anti-Fa” [sic]; “Gay Agenda”; and “Woke.” (The original document with definitions can be accessed here.)
Discussion of the policy was expected at the Sept. 11 meeting and both opponents and advocates mobilized for the event.
However, the proposed policy was not put on the official agenda, which was issued publicly about a week before the meeting.
Instead, there was a proposal to establish a religious invocation prior to Board meetings. In some ways the invocation debate became a proxy for the ideological debate.
The proposal for an invocation was made at the Board’s Aug. 8 meeting by Keith Flaugh, head of the Florida Citizens Alliance, an organization advocating conservative education and policies. The suggestion was favorably received by Board members and put on the Sept. 11 agenda.
The Board’s existing practice prior to the start of meetings is to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and have a moment of silence for contemplation or prayer.
A 2015 invocation proposal was defeated by a 3-2 vote of the Board.
The discussion and debate
Numerous speakers made points on both sides of the debate. Opponents included Rev. Anthony Fisher, pastor of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Greater Naples. Advocates included Flaugh.
When the Board members discussed the invocation proposal they ran into the difficulties of actually implementing an invocation. The District’s attorney, Jon Fishbane, concluded that to be legally acceptable, the Board would have to establish standards for the invocation that would include a prohibition on proselytizing or disparagement. That led to a discussion of what any invocations should or should not include.
Rutherford was the Board’s chief advocate for an invocation. He argued that the “wall of separation” between church and state was a misreading of Thomas Jefferson’s 1801 letter to the Danbury, Conn., Baptist congregation, in which he had first used the phrase.
Alan Gabriel, attorney for the School Board, noted that any invocation had to be religiously neutral and not denigrate or discriminate against any faith.
Lucarelli suggested a trial period for invocations and that they last no longer than 90 seconds to 3 minutes and that clergy of all faiths be invited to participate.
Sandra Eaton, the District chief of staff proposed that instead of an invocation, the Board could extend the length of its regular moment of silence.
Rutherford responded that the problem with that was that a moment of silence might not be long enough for a prayer to be completed, heard by God and answered. “If a prayer isn’t heard, how do I know if it’s been answered?” he asked. He said he made lists of his prayers and knew when they had been answered.
An invocation, on the other hand, was a form of encouragement to the Board members, he argued.
Luccarelli noted that there were times during her worship when she was unable to finish her prayers but a set moment of silence provided sufficient time for people to plan and pray.
Schools Superintendent Leslie Ricciardelli noted that all schools provided one minute of silence for prayer or contemplation.
Luccarelli pointed out that the Board would be modeling behavior for the schools and that a misstep could result in a lawsuit.
She also argued that she did not want Board meetings “to become a circus.” In the past, she pointed out, passions had flared in Board meetings and faith leaders taking positions had been verbally attacked when they left the chamber. She did not want a repeat of that due to invocations.
Both Lucarelli and Lichter argued that entirely too much time was being spent on the matter. “I think the point here that this is a distraction from what we are, what we are supposed to focusing on,” said Lucarelli.
Lichter agreed. “There are so many layers that we heard tonight that gives me major pause. It’s becoming bureaucracy!” she said. “What we’re going to end up doing is spending a lot of time, energy effort, money and then, is it going to explode in our face with litigation?” She added: “To me it’s going to be out of control and we’re losing focus on the real priorities of why we’re here.”
But Rutherford was ready for a fight. “Anybody for any reason can sue,” he said.
“Believe me, I know!” interjected Lichter. (The Collier County School Board was sued by Francis Alfred “Alfie” Oakes III when it selected Ricciardelli as superintendent against his wishes.)
Rutherford continued: “Anybody can sue. The ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] and some of these other organizations, some of them here tonight, use intimidation and threats in order to get their way. They don’t want to see our point of view but they want to see their point of view.”
He continued: “I would say the best thing to do is put it out there as a challenge because if they do it, OK, they’re going to have to win the case.” But there was little appetite expressed by anyone in the room for that approach.
The attorneys and members noted that the Miami-Dade County school district had been revising a policy and developing a standard for an invocation over the past several months but had not yet formally adopted it.
Given that the Miami-Dade school district is the largest in the state and fourth largest in the country, Lichter suggested that Collier wait and see how their invocation proposal was developed and received.
She then suggested that the invocation idea be tabled for later consideration, especially pending Miami-Dade’s action. That prompted a discussion of whether the item should be “tabled” (postponed for a definite period) or deferred indefinitely.
Lichter tried to move the Board members to unanimity that they would defer the question of the invocation until after Miami-Dade makes its decision. However, she was unable to gain a consensus and the motion was put to a formal vote. Moshier was the sole member voting in opposition.
Commentary: Church and state, past and future
Rutherford may not have intended it, but the whole discussion of an invocation demonstrated the wisdom of the Founders in separating church and state.
The proposal and discussion was actually a colossal, wasteful distraction that veered away from the real business of the Board and into the metaphysical when Rutherford started complaining that a moment of silence might not be enough time to have his prayers heard and answered. It was like a digression into the Middle Ages.
The whole proposal also unnecessarily stirred up community passions and divisions without providing any solutions to the real issues facing Collier County schools.
When it came to the boring but vital stuff like budgeting and millage rates that are the real nuts and bolts of school administration and which were discussed during a work portion of the meeting, Lichter expressed frustration that Rutherford and Moshier, the two most ideological members, hadn’t done their work—or their homework. Both had campaigned on cutting the school budget but neither had done any work on making actual cuts to the actual budget. Indeed, they sought to abstain when the time came for decisions.
“I’m having a hard time understanding what you guys are bringing to the table here today,” she said to them at one point.
The entire discussion of the invocation proved just how complex and unnecessarily burdensome injecting religion into secular proceedings could be.
President Thomas Jefferson was quite clear on the benefits of a separation in his letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1801: “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”
That’s a solemn reverence the Collier County School Board should share when it comes to injecting religion into the school system on any level. The wall between church and state will not only serve them, the people of Collier County and its students well, it protects them from all the ills that the Framers sought to avoid by adopting the Bill of Rights
To see the entire 7-hour and 45-minute meeting, click here. The Board’s discussion of the invocation begins at mark 6:19.
The Collier County Public School administration building. (Photo:CCSB)
Liberty lives in light
© 2023 by David Silverberg