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A Tennessee lawmaker has relented and agreed to drop his bill linking academic performance to the family's welfare benefits after an 8-year-old girl shamed him by following him around the state Capitol.

On his way to vote on Thursday, state Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) was confronted by 8-year-old homeschooler Aamira Fetuga, who presented him with a petition signed by people opposing his welfare bill, according to the Tennessean. Nearby, a choir of about 60 activists sang “Jesus Loves the Little Children.”

"You are so weak, to not listen to a child," a parent said as Campfield walked away with the girl following.

"Why do you want to cut benefits for people?" 8-year-old Fetuga asked after she caught up with him on a Capitol escalator.

"Well, I wouldn't as long as the parent shows up to school and goes to two parent-teacher conferences and they're exempt," the state Senator explained.

The confrontation continued during what appeared to be long, uncomfortable walk to the Senate floor for Campfield.

"Using children as props is shameful," he grumbled at one point.

But the protest tactics may have worked because Campfield decided to withdraw the bill before Thursday's vote after several other former supporters began to express doubts.

"You can say that withholding the money from the parents doesn’t harm the child, but you’re fooling yourself," Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris (R) pointed out.

Under Campfield's bill, families could have lost up to 30 percent of welfare benefits from the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program if a child did not attend school regularly and make "satisfactory academic progress."

Campfield, however, said he was not giving up on the idea. He asked the state Senate to further study the bill, giving him the opportunity to bring it back up next year.

"To me, it’s not a dead issue at all," he told reporters. “This may be a slight detour, but honestly I think this could hopefully make it even better.”

As for the protests, Campfield remarked, "It is what it is."

“There’s always going to be detractors.”

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The Tennessee state Senate on Monday considered a bill that would allow counselors to discriminate against LGBT students, sexually-active students or anyone else based on religious objections.

Republican state Sen. Joey Hensley encouraged fellow senators to pass SB 514 to "prevent an institution of high education from discriminating against a student in the counseling, social worker, psychology programs because of their religious beliefs."

According the The Tennessean, the bill was inspired by Julea Ward, a Christian student who was expelled from Eastern Michigan after she refused to "engage in gay-affirming counseling" by helping an LGBT student who wanted to be treated for depression in 2009. Arizona has already passed a law based on the case. Similar bills have also been proposed by lawmakers in Michigan and Georgia.

Hensley's bill would protect any student who "refuses to counsel or serve a client as to goals, outcomes, or behaviors that conflict with a sincerely held religious belief."

State Rep. John J. DeBerry Jr., who had been a defender of Tennessee's so-called "don't say gay" bill barring the discussion of homosexuality in schools, has introduced a version of Hensley's bill in the state House. Both bills were written with the help of the conservative Family Action Council of Tennessee.

Jake Morris, the head of the counseling program at the Nashville-based Christian Lipscomb University, told The Tennessean that he objected to the bills because student counselors needed to be available to treat all clients.

"I want my students to be able to help anyone who walks in their door," he explained. "For example, if a student thinks divorce is sinful, that student still needs to know how to treat clients who have gone through a divorce."

"We are health care professionals," Morris added. “We need to act like it.”

The New Civil Rights Movement's David Badash observed that the bill seemed to be using religion as a "door to hide and cower behind."

"The concept of so-called 'religious liberty' as it’s being (mis)used is faulty," Badash wrote on Tuesday. "If anti-gay people want a reason to not help gay people, they should have the personal courage to do so, and accept the consequences."

The Tennessee state Senate tabled discussion of SB 514 until next Thursday to give senators a chance to discuss amendments. A House subcommittee was expected to consider DeBerry's version of the bill on Tuesday.