A coalition of Oklahoma parents of public school kids, teachers, and preachers sued to prevent the state’s top education official from requiring schools to incorporate the Bible into lesson plans for students in grades 5-12. The complaint, filed Thursday with the Oklahoma Supreme Court, also seeks the court to prevent Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters from spending $3 million to buy Bibles supporting his mandate.
“As parents, my husband and I have sole responsibility to decide how and when our children learn about the Bible and religious teachings,” plaintiff Erika Wright, founder of the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition and mother of two school-aged children, said in a statement. “It is not the role of any politician or public school official to intervene in these personal matters.” The plaintiffs are represented by some civil rights organizations, including the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. This is the second lawsuit filed in Oklahoma challenging Walters’ mandate. Another action filed in June by a Locust Grove man is ongoing in Mayes County.
In a message, Walters declared that he will “never back down to the woke mob.” “The simple fact is that understanding how the Bible has impacted our nation, in its proper historical context, was the norm in America until the 1960s and its removal has coincided with a precipitous decline in American schools,” Walters. Walters, ran on a platform of combating “woke ideology,” banning books from libraries, and removing “radical leftists,” whom he alleges are indoctrinating youngsters in classrooms.
