8 April 13–19, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Under all of these criteria, tiny homes can be built using the federal funds. To get the money, the city has to develop a plan for spending it. Dallas is still working on that plan and considering whether it should include funding for tiny homes. The city has to submit its complete budget for the money to HUD by May 18, and the funds must be spent within six years of the grant agreement. Tiny homes and something else called pal- let homes are often viewed as creative hous- ing solutions, but they’re met with mixed feelings. Pallet homes are shelters built from wood pallets or aluminum siding. There are pros and cons to both tiny and pallet homes. Both may meet the needs of some home- less people, on a temporary basis at least. They can also be cheaper and easier on a tem- porary basis. On a more permanent basis, though, tiny homes are more expensive, ac- cording to the city. They can also take longer to build and are subject to more traditional building codes and standards. Pallet homes usually don’t have individual bathrooms or kitchens and do not meet national HUD hab- itability standards for permanent housing. Tiny homes usually do have these things, which is why they’re more expensive. Lisa Marshall, a local advocate who started the group Fighting Homelessness, said she’s open to the idea of tiny homes as long as wrap-around services are easily ac- cessible. “Right now, I think any viable solu- tion is better than no affordable housing being built,” Marshall said. “I just would hate to see them built far from services.” District 12 City Council member Cara Mendelsohn, also a member of the Housing and Homelessness Committee, said Dallas hasn’t explored this type of housing before but she’s open to giving it a try. “I think it will allow people who are currently encamped in a place to safely sleep with supportive ser- vices available,” Mendelsohn said, but she’s not sure if the tiny homes are right for her district. “District 12, the second smallest dis- trict in Dallas, is 98% built out, so I don’t be- lieve there is any land available,” she said. “However, we added a homeless shelter that has been at capacity since it opened.” In 2020, the Dallas City Council and city staff agreed that every district should have a homeless facility. “The commitment was for all council districts to have a homeless facility, and that goal has not been reached yet,” Men- delsohn said. “Some of the districts without a homeless facility have significant vacant land. Perhaps this would be a good fit.” The City Council will hold a public hear- ing for the funds at its April 12 meeting. ▼ EDUCATION THE TEXAS COMMANDMENTS BILLS SEEK TO ERASE THE LINE BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE. BY KELLY DEARMORE L ast week in Austin, the separation be- tween church and state in Texas was blurred, at least for a little while, dur- ing the Senate Committee on Education hearing. Senate Bill 763, authored by Galves- ton Republican Sen. Mayes Middleton, and SB 1515, authored by Weatherford Republi- can Sen. Phil King, is a pair of the more bla- tant recent attempts by conservative lawmakers to shoehorn Christianity into public schools through the front office as well as inside of each classroom. Middleton’s SB 763 aims to allow schools to hire chaplains to perform the duties of school counselors. Most alarmingly, the fil- ing also specifies “a chaplain employed un- der this subsection is not required to be certified by the State Board for Educator Certification.” As of now, school counselors must complete a fairly extensive series of steps to becoming certified, including com- pleting some graduate education, additional testing and classroom teaching experience. SB 763 would allow schools to hire chap- lains, who are clergy members affiliated with a secular institution, to skip all that. “There are a lot of problems with that,” said Andrew L. Seidel, author and vice presi- dent of strategic communications for Amer- icans United for Separation of Church and State, a national advocacy organization. Se- idel said his group is tracking around 1,500 pieces of legislation across the country that might infringe upon the religious freedom of Americans. “We allow chaplains in the military, for instance, because if you are a Christian, a Buddhist or a Jew serving in the U.S. mili- tary in a country like Saudi Arabia, it could be very difficult for you to find a house of worship,” Seidel said. “This is a very differ- ent deal. This bill is saying, ‘We are going to use the machinery of the state to impose re- ligion on a captive audience of schoolchil- dren, and we’re not going to vet that person at all.’” King’s SB 1515 kicks the notion of a cap- tive audience up several notches. Should it become law, every public school classroom in Texas would be required to display a copy of the Ten Commandments “in a conspicu- ous place.” And not just any old copy, mind you. The bill clearly lays out that each class- room Ten Commandments be “a durable poster or framed copy.” And that’s not enough. Each sin-listing display must also “be at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall.” Sravan Krishna, a Southlake resident, has been down this path with schools before. Last year, he was a part of a group that at- tempted to donate “In God We Trust” signs, one with rainbows and another written in Arabic, to the Carroll ISD. Citing the phrase’s status as the national motto, Texas schools have been displaying donated “In God We Trust” signs since 2021 when it be- came law to do so. His donation was not accepted by the district, but the attempt gained national headlines. “This [SB 1515] is a play from the same playbook I saw last year,” Krishna said. “It’s very authoritarian,” Krishna says. “They [conservative lawmakers] complain about indoctrination, but putting the Ten Commandments in classrooms really is in- doctrination.” In separate conversations, both Seidel and Krishna cited the first of the Ten Com- mandments as particularly problematic when it comes to the individual freedoms of students and teachers. “It might be hard to find a series of rules that conflict with our Constitution more than the Ten Commandments these legisla- tors have chosen,” Seidel said. “‘I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt not have any gods before me.’ That directly conflicts with the principles on which the United States was founded. No law can tell an American to worship a God, let alone which God.” Krishna singled out another command- ment that might make for some awkward classroom moments. “This would create conversations in the classroom that are unnecessary,” he said. “What about ‘Thou shall not commit adul- tery?’ Is a kindergarten teacher supposed to explain what adultery is when a 5-year-old asks what that means?” The latest wave of headline-grabbing Re- publican lawmakers has not been shy about their distaste for separating church and state. U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado was quoted in July 2022 as saying that “the church is supposed to direct the govern- ment, the government is not supposed to di- rect the church,” before adding “I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk.” Rhetoric like that and bills like SB 763 and SB 1515 represent more than a smearing of a line that should separate church and state, Seidel said. To him, these are all clear signals that Christian nationalism continues to rise in profile across the country and might make its way into many classrooms. He pointed specifically to the lawmakers behind these bills to suggest they feel threatened. “Conservative, white, Christian, hetero- sexual men are seeing their status in our so- ciety begin to wane,” he said. “The deference they believe they are due is wan- ing. They’re raging against the dying of their privilege.” ▼ GUN VIOLENCE THIS ENDS WITH US STUDENTS IN DALLAS WALKED OUT OF CLASSES FOR STRICTER GUN LAWS. BY KELLY DEARMORE O n Aril 5, students from high schools across the United States carried out an orchestrated walkout in protest of school gun violence. The national effort included students from many schools in North Texas, including Booker T. Washing- ton High School for the Performing and Vi- sual Arts and Wilmer-Hutchins High School in Dallas, as well as schools in Irving, Plano, Frisco and Arlington, among others. In the past month, North Texas has wit- nessed two school shootings. Jashawn Po- irier, a 16-year-old from Arlington, was shot and killed outside of Lamar High School on March 20, allegedly by a 15-year-old. The following day, a student at Thomas Jeffer- son High School in Dallas was injured by a gunshot. On March 27, three elementary school students and three adults were killed inside of the Covenant School in Nashville when a shooter blasted into the building. All of this comes as the first anniversary of the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde ap- proaches in just a few weeks. There, 19 stu- dents and two teachers were killed before the shooter, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was fatally shot by law enforcement. According to students interviewed by The Dallas Morning News, many are hoping this mass demonstration leads to stricter gun laws. “We’re no longer gonna stand by and al- low for people to die around us,” a Town- view Magnet Center student told the newspaper. “This ends with us today. And it ends with us. Now.” National advocate organization Students Demand Action has been encouraging stu- dent bodies to organize the walkouts on a lo- cal level. Teaching resource website We Are Teachers published an article with tips for educators looking to support students who participate in a walkout. Brynn Beacham, a 16-year-old Hillcrest High School student who started a Dallas Students Demand Action chapter, told KERA, “I’m nervous walking in every day because I don’t know if I’m going to be able to walk out.” KERA’s report noted that Hillcrest’s walkout Wednesday was to include speeches from some of the students, but se- curity personnel kept reporters from getting close enough to hear what was being said. The Advocate reported that “hundreds of students” took part in Woodrow Wilson High School’s walkout in Dallas, reporting that, “While the protest was not organized by Dallas ISD, the district respected the stu- dents’ right to participate in it.” Sean Foster/Unsplash The Ten Commandments shouldn’t be required reading in class, some activists say. Unfair Park from p6
