During the January 31 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show, host Boyles let stand Colorado state Sen. Dave Schultheis' (R-Colorado Springs) misleading claim that his “religious bill of rights” is “going to force awareness in the public school systems of what the First Amendment already guarantees in terms of religious liberty” and "[t]hat's all it does." However, neither Boyles nor Schultheis mentioned that the bill, SB 138, “would require school boards to allow students to opt out of classes that conflict with their religious beliefs” or that it “would also subject school board members to personal liability in a lawsuit aimed at forcing administrators to comply with the law,” as The Gazette of Colorado Springs reported in a January 27 article.

Schultheis claimed his impetus for proposing the “Religious Bill of Rights for Individuals Connected with Public Schools Act” was an “increasing intolerance among our public school officials and administration ... towards religious beliefs of individuals and [the] teaching [of] subjects that are, in many cases, politically correct.” He stated that the measure “doesn't create really a new law, necessarily.”

However, Boyles and Schultheis both ignored two provisions in the bill that do more than “force awareness” of religious liberty. One would allow parents, or students themselves, to eschew “any class or the use of specific course material that is inconsistent with his or her religious beliefs.” Section 26-13-105 of the bill "[d]irects local boards of education to provide opt-out provisions to individuals for classes or course materials that are in conflict with the individual's religious beliefs," according to the bill's summary.

Moreover, as the summary notes, SB 138 "[m]akes individual members of local boards personally liable for lawsuits brought under the act if the local board fails to adopt policies and procedures to implement the act or to ensure compliance with the act." Section 22-13-106 of the bill states:

[A] member of a local board of education shall be held personally liable if the member willfully and wantonly fails to administer his or her duties with respect to this Article, including establishing and implementing policies and procedures. If a plaintiff prevails in an action to defend his or her religious rights pursuant to this Article, members of the local board of education shall be personally liable for the plaintiff's attorney fees and they shall be subject to personal liability for damages.

From the January 31 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show:

BOYLES: Well, I saw this piece on Friday and Saturday, and this is our first chance to have you on the show, so I appreciate it. But a bill that's called the, how do you call it? The religion rights bill?

SCHULTHEIS: Concerning the creation of a religious bill of rights for individuals in public schools.

BOYLES: Talk about why and what it says.

SCHULTHEIS: Well basically, you know, the reason why -- I've been wrestling with this issue for probably, I don't know, six years almost. It seems like there's been increasing intolerance among our public school officials and administration and so forth towards religious beliefs of individuals, and, you know, teaching subjects that are, in many cases, politically correct and contrary to the strongly held religious beliefs of some individuals. And, you know, they keep misinterpreting Thomas Jefferson's phrase “separation of church and state” and, and all. And I -- and I, I find that there's parents that, you know, that increasingly get concerned with, with what's going on here and they're pulling, a lot of them are pulling their kids out of schools --

BOYLES: Oh, absolutely.

SCHULTHEIS: -- and putting them into private or home schooling and so forth. And so this doesn't create really a new law, necessarily. All it does is it's going to force awareness in the public school systems of what the First Amendment already guarantees in terms of religious liberty. That's all it does. And it's similar to, you know, you walk into a hospital and you walk up there and you see a patient's bill of rights at individual hospitals.

BOYLES: Yeah, absolutely. Sure. Yep. You see that a lot.

SCHULTHEIS: You see about 30 rights and you see about two responsibilities.

BOYLES: Yeah.

SCHULTHEIS: And you go into a business and you see the wage laws and workers' compensation laws, you know, posted -- big posters and so forth. Well, to me the awareness of the First Amendment and how it affects religious liberties in schools is even more, much more important than the others.