Katy ISD rejects measure to employ chaplains as counselors
The Katy ISD board of trustees on Monday rejected a divisive motion that would have enabled the district to hire chaplains as counselors or to allow them to volunteer in a religious capacity.
The board voted 5-2 against a measure provided by Texas’ Senate Bill 763, which allows school districts to hire chaplains to provide student support services or to volunteer in schools for similar purposes.
The bill does not mandate that chaplains have any certification, training or licensing, and it does not establish limitations on what chaplains may teach children.
Board President Victor Perez, Rebecca Fox, Dawn Champagne, Mary Ellen Cuzela and Lance Redmon voted not to allow chaplains to volunteer as de facto counselors, saying such a rule would infringe on the separation of church and state and could open the door to religious zealots in schools. They also noted that chaplains may still volunteer as mentors in schools.
Amy Thieme and Morgan Calhoun voted in favor of the action, arguing that children and staff would benefit from spiritual guidance.
Thieme said she once performed the role of chaplain to students in her time as a math teacher, listening to their needs when they wanted to talk to her.
“I had to become a chaplain for them,” Thieme said. “I did do a lot of listening, I did do a lot of tailoring my lessons to something that they were dealing with or familiar with, so that it would gain their interest.”
Fox countered that Thieme was not describing the actions of a chaplain but rather a mentor, arguing that there are multiple mentor programs in the district where volunteers could fill a similar role without bringing a religious stance into the situation. “I think that we can still accomplish all the things that chaplains would do through the systems that are already in place,” Fox said.
By employing chaplains, Perez believes, the district would overstep its bounds and encroach on a parent’s right to be in control of their child’s education.
“Spiritual formation and religious training are the responsibility of parents and their churches, synagogues, mosques and temples,” Perez said. “It is the parents’ right, and we cannot expect the schools to take over parenting.”