ATLANTA — A north Georgia lawmaker wants to require every public school in Georgia to display the Ten Commandments, in three separate locations at each school.
Channel 2′s Richard Elliot was at the State Capitol with how some Democratic lawmakers say the proposal violates the separation of church and state.
The bill’s sponsor says school kids need the example of the Ten Commandments in their lives, while the bill’s opponents say they respect the lawmaker’s faith but think the bill is inappropriate.
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“Our country was founded on biblical Christian values,” Rep. Emory Dunahoo (R-Gillsville) said.
The Republican lawmaker said he’s tired of seeing what he calls a moral decay inside the state’s public schools. That’s why he wrote a bill that would require schools to have the Ten Commandments in three places around the building, at the main entrance, the entrance to the school library and the entrance to the school cafeteria.
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Dunahoo said that given the recent trouble at schools around Georgia, including the shooting at Apalachee High School in September by 14-year-old Colt Gray that left four dead and nine injured, he thinks students need the Commandments’ example.
“Every day in our schools, we’re having shootings, having drugs, we’re having all types of stuff here,” Dunahoo said. “To me, it’s just a moral value of people at home, do not see good things in their lives and can come here and they can build a foundation.”
However, those pushing back against the bill think it’s the wrong direction.
“I believe that this bill is inappropriate,” State Senator Nabilah Islam Parkes (D-Duluth) said.
Islam Parkes is just one of a handful of Muslim lawmakers in the Georgia General Assembly. She says she’s 100% for the freedom of religion and supports religious studies, but thinks Dunahoo’s proposal is a clear violation of the separation of church and state, and nothing more than political posturing.
“I just think the bill is a distraction,” Islam Parkes said. “There’s so much more that we could be doing.”
She said those other things include expanding Medicaid in Georgia and providing more funding to the education system.
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