First Oklahoma, now Kansas:

Kansas House Representative Owen Donohoe, R-Shawnee, has introduced a bill likely to set off plenty of debate if it ever sees the light of a committee hearing. The so-called Religious Liberty Bill of Rights, HB 2779, Donohoe said in a press release, “aims to provide educators and students the opportunity to exercise their first amendment rights in public schools.”

Included in the bill is language that says a teacher has a right to “not be required to teach a topic that violates the teacher’s religious beliefs and not be disciplined for refusing to teach the topic.”

The bill, if enacted into law, would mean faculty could avoid teaching any fact or subject that they claimed conflicted with their religious beliefs.

The bill would also declare that students have an inalienable right to “participate in a private religious ceremony held on a public school campus outside of instructional time.”

Donohoe said the impetus for the bill was “nothing specific,” but the press release states “teachers and students have expressed concern about their inability to discuss a religious topic in a public school, even for historical or literary purposes.”

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