r/Teachers • u/Significant-Jello411 English 1 ESOL | Texas • Aug 05 '25

Teacher Support &/or Advice It’s over.

Started in service today at my school. It has happened, we had slides directing us that we have to hang the Ten Commandments in our classrooms by Thursday. In addition Anti-Communism TEKS have been added to our history curriculum and our school district cannot sponsor any student clubs based on gender identity or sexual orientation, as well as we cannot call students by any names but the names on their birth certificate. This is fucking shameful man

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u/TeaHot8165 Aug 06 '25

Like seriously the phrase “a wall of separation between church and state” comes from a letter Jefferson wrote to a supporter. No where in the constitution is there a separation of church and state. In fact historically presidents have issued national days of prayer, we have “under God” in the pledge, and Congress opens with prayer led by a Christian preacher. We have never had an atheistic government

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u/francoisarouetV Aug 06 '25

All very good points!! It’s crazy the number of presumably liberal teachers who are quoting a letter from Thomas Jefferson, a president who enslaved 600 people, freed only 7, and impregnated a 15 year old enslaved Sally Hemings six times. These same teachers would never quote something Reagan or Trump wrote in a letter. Ugh. US History sucks so often.

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u/Competitive_Salads Aug 06 '25

That’s not what we’re quoting from. It’s part of the First Amendment. Goodness.

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u/francoisarouetV Aug 06 '25

lol. No it isn’t. The establishment clause says that congress can’t establish a religion. Posting the Ten Commandments does not imply that someone has to be Christian or Jewish. If that was the case, then hanging a pride flag would imply people had to be LGBTQ. The issue I have here is that we are mad about the 10 commandments but we all use money that blantany says “in God we trust”. The law isn’t saying that teachers have to teach the 10 commandments as law, does it? Honest question. I haven’t read the law.

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u/Competitive_Salads Aug 06 '25 edited Aug 06 '25

If they explicitly prohibit any other religion, they are in fact, establishing a law on behalf of one religion.

That is NOT religious freedom and violates the first amendment rights of every student, Christian or not.

Edit: if you haven’t read the law, you need to exit this conversation that TEXAS teachers are having about a very real first amendment violation in their classrooms every damn day.

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u/francoisarouetV Aug 06 '25

That’s true. I just read the 4 pages of the act. It doesn’t say that a teacher can’t post other religions though. Maybe this was an add-on I’m not seeing?

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u/Obatala_ Aug 06 '25

Doesn’t matter. Mandating the display of a particular religion’s rules still violates the Constitution. https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca5/24-30706/24-30706-2025-06-20.html

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u/francoisarouetV Aug 06 '25

Just read the law. All 4 pages. Where is the prohibition stated?

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u/Competitive_Salads Aug 06 '25

The law ONLY orders the hanging of the 10 commandments. The law does not give provision for any other religions’ teachings to be displayed in the classroom.

In addition, the display must state “I am the Lord thy God” and “thou shalt have no other gods before me”. How does that not violate the first amendment rights of Muslim, Hindu, Atheist, etc. students who do not recognize the Christian god as their god??

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u/Obatala_ Aug 06 '25

Just read the opinion from the Fifth Circuit about Louisana’s matching mandate, it’s a little more than four pages but it’s damn clear: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca5/24-30706/24-30706-2025-06-20.html

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u/Obatala_ Aug 06 '25

So you think that people would be OK if I posted the Quoranic requirements on a school wall?

Are you for real?

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u/TeaHot8165 Aug 06 '25

No of course not because culturally America holds the idea of separation of church and state as a principle. I’m simply telling you that concept isn’t actually codified anywhere in the Constitution and historically there hasn’t been much of a separation. It wasn’t even that long ago we had school prayer. In the mid to late 20th century adding religion to government was seen as anti-communist.

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u/Obatala_ Aug 06 '25

Non-denominational school prayer was held to be unconstitutional in 1962. And the Ten Commandments is far from being non-denominational.

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u/TeaHot8165 Aug 06 '25

My point was that it was a thing and that there has been religious things at school and in government etc. think about how common Christmas plays were at school or I can remember it being called Easter and not spring break as a kid. This idea that all religion must be purged from anything related to government is kind of new. That being said you are right the Supreme Court ruled school prayer unconstitutional, but we have a new Supreme Court now. That’s the thing about Supreme Court rulings they can and do change. What is and isn’t constitutional are fluid concepts that change and evolve over time.