When It Comes to Texas Public Schools, Jesus Is Already in the Building

The lunch hour at Harlandale Middle School, on San Antonio’s South Side, is one of the only times during the school day students are allowed to use their phones. Between the streams of incoming notifications and the rumble of preteen socializing, the short period slips by quickly, and loudly—which makes the Bible-study session at the back corner table all the more notable.Since the beginning of the winter semester, ten 13- and 14-year-old boys have met weekly with Jaime Carmona, a 23-year-old part-time campus minister who seems to vibrate with excitement when he talks about Jesus. The teens bring their Bibles, move through the lunch line to retrieve their food on styrene trays, and huddle around Carmona as he emphasizes core Christian beliefs regarding sin, Jesus’s…

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