Oklahoma’s chief school official has notified all state schools to “immediately” incorporate the Bible into classroom curriculum, drawing immediate outrage and threats of lawsuits in a state that was recently reprimanded for trying to use taxpayer dollars to create a Catholic school.
“Effective immediately, all Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments, as an instructional support into the curriculum” in grades 5 through 12, according to the notice from Republican school superintendent Ryan Walters.
“The Bible is one of the most historically significant books and a cornerstone of Western civilization, along with the Ten Commandments,” the notice reads.
In a press conference on Thursday, Walters said that every school “will have a Bible in the classroom,” and that every teacher “will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom.”
The Bible “will be referenced as an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like, as well as for their substantial influence on our nation’s founders and the foundational principles of our Constitution,” according to the memo.
“Adherence to this mandate is compulsory” and “immediate and strict compliance is expected,” it reads.
“Oklahoma kids will learn that the Bible and the Ten Commandments are foundational for western civilization,” Walters wrote on X. “The left is upset, but one cannot rewrite history.”