The Oklahoma Department of Education is leading the way in protecting the religious freedom of students, teachers and parents through a new Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism. Specific guidance related to the office will be sent to Oklahoma public schools in the near future and will ensure that “the right to pray in schools is safeguarded.”
State Superintendent Ryan Walters said “our nation’s public schools have tragically been ground zero for the erosion of religious liberty across our country” over the past few decades.
“The radical left never misses a chance to coopt the teacher unions and their minions to indoctrinate our children against traditional values of faith and family, seeking to attack any display of faith or religion or patriotism,” he said. “It is no coincidence that the dismantling of faith and family values in public schools directly correlates with declining academic outcomes in our public schools.”
The new office will support teachers and students when “their constitutional rights are threatened by well-funded, out-of-state groups.”.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based secularist legal organization that advocates for a strict separation of church and state, denounced the new office in a social media post, deeming it unnecessary. “Students have always had the right to pray,” it tweeted. “No one is trying to take that away. This dystopian office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism is about indoctrination and forced prayer in schools.”.
Earlier this year, Walters garnered headlines nationwide when he issued a directive to public schools requiring them to incorporate the Bible into their curriculum. He also announced plans to spend $3 million to purchase Bibles for schools. Last month, a group of parents, teachers and clergy representing different faith groups filed a complaint, alleging that Walters’ action “interferes with the parents’ ability to direct the religious and moral upbringing of their children” and violates the Oklahoma Administrative Procedures Act.
“Oklahomans will not be bullied by out-of-state, radical leftists who hate the principles our nation was founded upon,” Walters responded. “It is not possible for our students to understand American history and culture without understanding the biblical principles from which they came, so I am proud to bring back the Bible to every classroom in Oklahoma. I will never back down to the woke mob, no matter what tactic they use to try to intimidate Oklahomans.”
–Alan Goforth