Beliefs clash as Ten Commandments go up in Texas schools

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DALLAS — When it became clear to Texas high school theater teacher Gigi Cervantes that she couldn’t ignore a new state law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in her Fort Worth classroom, she felt she had no choice. She resigned from the job she loved.

In the small city of Whitesboro, eighth grade U.S. history teacher Dustin Parsons welcomed the new poster on his classroom wall, saying the display helps him demonstrate the influence of Christianity on the country’s founding principles.

Across Texas, there are no shortage of strong opinions among teachers, parents and students as the state undertakes the nation’s largest attempt to hang the Ten Commandments in public schools. In the rush to navigate the Republican-led mandate that took effect in September, the rollout has forced some administrators, teachers and school boards to confront hard choices.

“I just was not going to be a part of forcing or imposing religious doctrine onto my students,” Cervantes said.

Federal courts have ordered more than two dozen of the state’s roughly 1,200 school districts to not hang the posters, including on Tuesday when a judge said the mandate violates First Amendment language guaranteeing religious liberty and forbidding government establishment of religion. Courts have also ruled against similar laws in Arkansas and Louisiana, and the issue is expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

But many Texas classrooms are far along in implementing a law that has animated school board meetings, spun up guidance about what to say when students ask questions, and led to boxes of donated posters being dropped on the doorsteps of campuses statewide. Some districts didn’t wait: In suburban Dallas, school officials in Frisco spent about $1,800 to print nearly 5,000 posters, even though the law only requires schools to hang the Ten Commandments if the displays are donated. Some schools have no posters to hang.

“I’m not evangelizing,” Parsons said. “I’m doing it more from a history source perspective in how they were building the Constitution.”

School districts face a dilemma

The law says schools must put donated posters “in a conspicuous place” and requires the writing to be a size and typeface that is visible from anywhere in a classroom to a person with “average vision.” The displays must also be 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall (40 centimeters wide and 50 centimeters tall).

South of Austin, the Hays Consolidated Independent School District posted copies of the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights — which includes the First Amendment — alongside the state-required Ten Commandments.

“Districts are in between a rock and a hard place,” said Elizabeth Beeton, a member of the Galveston Independent School District’s school board.

Judges blocked the posters in some schools, including some of Texas’ largest, after parents brought lawsuits. In Galveston, the school board voted not to post the commandments until the law’s constitutionality is decided in the courts, but then found themselves the target of a state lawsuit. This week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced lawsuits against two more districts he said were violating the law, though one, the Leander Independent School District said they are displaying donated posters.

Donors see the posters as a moral guide

Texas’ law easily passed the GOP-controlled Legislature and Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have backed posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

In suburban Dallas, Lorne Liechty rallied his family to raise money for Ten Commandments posters to donate to the Rockwall Independent School District.

Liechty, an attorney and Rockwall County commissioner, sees the commandments as fundamental to his Christian faith, the country’s legal system and the functioning of society.

“These are just really good guides for human behavior,” Liechty said. “For the life of me, I don’t know why people would object to any of these principles.”

Adriana Bonilla would like to see the posters in her son’s kindergarten near San Antonio.

“It assists with moral foundations and it teaches respect and responsibility,” Bonilla said.

Questions from teachers

Julie Leahy, director of legal services for the nonprofit Texas Classroom Teachers Association, says teachers have been asking about the consequences of refusing to display the commandments and whether they can also display posters with tenets of other religions.

She said teachers also ask for guidance on how to handle students’ questions.

“Generally speaking, the answer is going to be that the teacher should send them back to their family,” Leahy said.

While the Austin high school where Rachel Preston teaches has been barred by a court order from displaying the Ten Commandments, she said she and her colleagues are anxious all the same.

“We’re worried specifically about students who don’t identify as Christian feeling unease at the very least at the presence of this in our classrooms, and struggling as well with how do we contextualize this?” Preston said.