Oklahoma parents and teachers sue to stop top education official’s classroom Bible mandate

The Bible is displayed on Monday, Aug. 12, 2024, at the Bixby High School library in Bixby, Okla. (AP Photo/Joey Johnson)

By SEAN MURPHY Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A group of Oklahoma parents of public school students, teachers, and ministers filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to stop the state’s top education official from forcing schools to incorporate the Bible into lesson plans for students in grades 5 through 12.

The lawsuit filed with the Oklahoma Supreme Court also asks the court to stop Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters from spending $3 million to purchase Bibles in support of his mandate.

The suit alleges that the mandate violates the Oklahoma Constitution because it involves spending public money to support religion and favors one religion over another by requiring the use of a Protestant version of the Bible. It also alleges that Walters and the state Board of Education don’t have the authority to require the use of instructional materials.

“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, the founder of the Oklahoma Rural Schools Coalition and parent 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 several civil rights groups, including the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law & Justice.

The suit also notes that the initial “request for proposal” released by the State Department of Education to purchase the Bibles appears to have been carefully tailored to match Bibles endorsed by former President Donald Trump that sell for $59.99 each. The RFP was later amended at the request of state purchasing officials.

It is the second lawsuit filed in Oklahoma seeking to challenge Walters’ mandate. Another lawsuit filed in June by a Locust Grove man currently is pending in Mayes County.

Walters said in a statement posted to his account on X 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 wrote.

Walters, a former public school teacher elected in 2022, ran on a platform of fighting “woke ideology,” banning books from school libraries, and getting rid of “radical leftists” who he claims are indoctrinating children in classrooms.

“Radical leftists never required the Quran, Torah, or other religious works to be taught in public school classrooms,” one supporter of the lawsuit said, “so who’s really pushing for indoctrination here?”