OKLAHOMA CITY – Thirty-three Oklahomans – including parents and children, public school teachers and faith leaders – today filed a lawsuit urging the Oklahoma Supreme Court to block Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters and the Oklahoma State Department of Education from implementing new K-12 social studies standards that unconstitutionally promote Christianity to public school students. The lawsuit, Rev. Dr. Mitch Randall v. Ryan Walters, seeks an injunction to prevent the new standards from being implemented in the 2025-26 school year.
The new curriculum standards are replete with several dozen references to the Bible and Christianity while containing few mentions of other faiths. The lawsuit demonstrates how these references target impressionable elementary-school children as young as first graders; inaccurately present Bible stories as literal, historical facts; inaccurately proclaim the Bible and Christianity’s influence on the founding of America and the country’s laws; and favor Christianity over other faiths and beliefs in other ways.
The lawsuit cites numerous writings from scholars to rebut historical and religious inaccuracies, as well as repeated examples of Walters’ remarks that make clear the new standards were designed to promote and favor Christianity. The lawsuit also explains that the new standards require other inaccurate teachings, including by presenting disproven contentions about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, and by conveying as unquestioned truth the controversial theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in a Chinese laboratory.
The plaintiffs are represented by Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. The plaintiffs include twelve parents of children who attend Oklahoma public schools, as well as children of the parents; the parents object to the state imposing religion on their children through the new standards. Two of the parents are also public school teachers who object to being forced to teach the standards’ inaccuracies and religious content.
One of the parents, the Rev. Dr. Lisa Wolfe, and plaintiffs the Rev. Dr. Mitch Randall and the Rev. Dr. Lori Walke are Christian clergy who are concerned the standards will harm religious freedom, religion, and public education. All of the adult plaintiffs also oppose their tax dollars being spent on education standards that promote religion and inaccuracies.
Lead plaintiff the Rev. Dr. Mitch Randall of Norman, an ordained Baptist minister and CEO of Good Faith Media: “As a Christian, I object to Oklahoma’s new social studies standards that require teachers to deceive students by presenting inaccurate information as fact. To reduce the Bible to a history book – rather than treating it as a theological text – does a disservice to public school students, their families, their teachers and those who consider the Bible to be a book of faith. As a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, I am especially bothered by my tax dollars supporting state-mandated religious instruction. It’s a painful reminder of the forced religious proselytization my family members experienced in Native American boarding schools in Oklahoma. I urge the court to protect religious freedom for all Oklahomans and prevent implementation of these new standards.”
(Quotes from additional plaintiffs are available here.)
Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United: “Oklahoma families, not politicians or public schools, should decide how and when children engage with religion. If implemented, these new social studies standards will violate students’ and families’ religious freedom by promoting one version of Christianity and advancing Christian Nationalist disinformation. Not on our watch. Public schools are not Sunday schools. That’s best for the sanctity of both religion and religious freedom.”
Brent Rowland, legal director of Oklahoma Appleseed: “These standards violate core constitutional principles and undermine trust in our schools and democracy. Every public school classroom — likely a child’s first personal encounter with their government — must be inclusive and welcoming, and nurture curiosity, not impose religious or political agendas. Our lawsuit defends educational integrity and the public’s right to open, accountable government, and it defends the family as the source of the child’s religious upbringing.”
The lawsuit explains that the approval of the standards violated the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act and other procedural requirements because Oklahoma officials gave no notice to the public – or even to members of the State Board of Education themselves – that the version of the standards submitted to the Board for a vote was substantially different from the version that had been publicly released.
The standards also run afoul of a statutory requirement that Oklahoma’s academic standards be accurate and age appropriate. And the new standards violate the Oklahoma Constitution’s religious-freedom protections by promoting and favoring one religion over others and over nonreligion in public schools, including to especially impressionable first and second graders.
The defendants are Walters; the Oklahoma State Department of Education; and the Oklahoma State Board of Education and its members.
Attorneys representing the plaintiffs include Alex Luchenitser and Luke Anderson at Americans United and Colleen McCarty and Brent Rowland at Oklahoma Appleseed. The organizations and many of the plaintiffs also are involved in a separate lawsuit challenging Walters’ Bible-education mandate; that case, Rev. Lori Walke v. Ryan Walters, is pending before the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Americans United is a religious freedom advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, AU educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.
Liz Hayes
Associate Vice President of Communications
[email protected]
