Walters is Oklahoma’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, and he’s used that position to push religion and right-wing propaganda in public schools as much as the law will allow… even when the law doesn’t allow it. (Especially when the law doesn’t allow it.)
The Freedom From Religion Foundation recently learned that a public school teacher in Tulsa put up a display in the classroom featuring John 3:16 (“For GOD so loved the world that he gave his only SON that whoever believes in him should not perish but have ETERNAL LIFE”).
Another classroom, FFRF said, had a sign referencing a different Bible verse: “He is still good.”
It’s all obviously inappropriate and the group wrote a letter to the school district saying as much. The letter worked. The school district acknowledged the problem and removed the Christian symbols:
But when Ryan Walters heard about the situation, he went into action . Not to affirm the separation of church and state, of course, but to remind teachers that they shouldn’t let the law get in the way of any attempted proselytizing.
This is the memo he sent to public educators yesterday:
memo txt
It has come to my attention that a school district in Oklahoma has received a letter from a Wisconsin-based radical secular activist organization demanding the removal of teachers’ personal displays from their classroom walls. The targeted displays include a sign displaying the vaguely spiritual text “He is still good,” and a sign with the Bible verse John 3:16.
This type of letter substitutes demands for legal reasoning. The activist organization attempts to portray religion as a “divisive force in public schools”, while creating the divisive atmosphere itself by attempting to bully a rural school district with an anonymous “complainant.”. These demands inappropriately tell school districts to place atheism as the state religion. Thankfully, the activists’ arguments are misguided and outdated.
These demands rely on the old Lemon test. Radical secular activists have failed to note an important change in the law: the Supreme Court of the United States finally cast away the infamous Lemon test. In Kennedy v. Bremerton Sch. Dist… , the Supreme Court overruled Lemon v. Kurtzman , 403 U .S. 602 (1971). See 142 5. Ct. 2407, 2427 (2022). Now, when courts interpret the Establishment Clause, they look to “historical practices and understandings” of the practice at issue. Id . at 2428. Cases that rely on Lemon as their foundation, such as the cases relied on in radical secular activist demands, are no longer a valid basis to demand action from schools.
Schools now face the open question of how to address First Amendment free exercise rights under existing law. Although public employees’ speech receives an “interest-balancing test set out in” Pickering v. Board of Education , 391 U.S. 563 (1968), “the Court has never before applied Pickering balancing to a claim brought under the Free Exercise Clause.” Kennedy , 142 5. Ct. at 2433 (Thomas, J., concurring). In effect, some existing cases on schools rely on an overturned case, while the rules regarding a Free Exercise claim of teacher speech have yet to be determined.
With these changes in mind, if you receive any letters from similar activist organizations, please forward them to my office for assistance. I do not want to see Oklahoma school districts become complicit in promoting atheism , and I intend to pay close attention to schools that simply surrender to such demands. If you provide a copy of the letter to your regional accreditation officer before responding, they can ensure that the Department is able to review and assist your district in standing their ground against unwarranted demands from radical secular activists.