Americans United and its allies last month urged Oklahoma school districts to ignore Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters’ latest attempt to impose religion on students in the state’s public school system.
On Nov. 14, Walters emailed all superintendents in the state and ordered them to compel students to watch a video entitled “Prayer for the Nation.” In the video, Walters blames the “radical left” and “woke teachers’ unions” for “attacking” religious liberty and then delivers a lengthy prayer supporting President-elect Donald Trump. Walters encourages students to join in his prayer.
The following day, Americans United, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law & Justice sent a letter to every superintendent in Oklahoma urging them not to show or disseminate Walters’ prayer video.
The letter emphasizes the constitutional requirement for public schools to remain secular and warns that promoting the video to students and parents would violate both the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article I, Section 2 of the Oklahoma Constitution. The letter also points out that Walters lacks the authority to require local school districts to play the video (or any other video) to their students.
“Requiring students to watch a prayer video violates students’ religious freedom, including their Establishment Clause rights,” the letter warns. “It is beyond dispute that, at a minimum, the Constitution guarantees that government may not coerce anyone to support or participate in religion or its exercise.”
Walters has also announced that he purchased more than 500 Bibles for Advanced Placement government classrooms. In October, AU and allies filed a lawsuit on behalf of 32 Oklahomans urging the Oklahoma Supreme Court to block Walters’ mandate that all public schools incorporate the Bible into their curricula.