OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KOKH) — The new State Superintendent does not plan to distribute Bibles in Oklahoma classrooms. The original effort was spearheaded by former State Superintendent Ryan Walters and led to a lawsuit.
An order from the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the filing of a status update since there has been turnover among public officers named as respondents in the lawsuit, including Ryan Walters.
The court set a deadline of 5 p.m. on October 28 for Supt. Lindel Fields to decide if he was going to continue efforts of mandating Bibles in the classroom.
“I can tell you that Superintendent Fields has no plans to distribute Bibles or a biblical character ed curriculum,” OSDE Interim Communications Director Tara Thompson said.
Some Bibles have already been sent to Oklahoma classrooms. So, FOX 25 asked what happens to those.
“At this point we will just let it be and then issue guidance to schools on what to do with those. Right now, we just need to first of all focus on responding to this court order within the deadline that we have, and then sort of get our plans together for how to give schools guidance moving forward,” Thompson said
Thompson said the department is looking at if taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely.
“I know there was a lot of conversation about that publicly, privately about was this the best expenditure of taxpayer dollars, and I’m not here to say yay or nay to that. But, I am here to tell you that we are looking at every dollar, every contract, every vendor and making sure our taxpayers that we can look them in the face and say yes we are spending your tax dollars responsibly and we’re being good stewards with the money that you’re sending us,” she said.
The lawsuit against the Bible mandate was filed by a group of Oklahomans last year.
OSDE has plans to file a motion to dismiss the proceedings.
Americans United, ACLU Oklahoma, Freedom From Religion Foundation and Oklahoma Appleseed released a joint statement saying, “We are encouraged to hear that Superintendent Fields has stated that he has no plans to pursue Ryan Walters’ efforts to distribute Bibles or a Biblical Character Education curriculum to Oklahoma public schools. The promise of separation of church and state guaranteed by the U.S. and Oklahoma constitutions means that families and students – not politicians – get to decide when and how to engage with religion. The attempts to promote religion in the classroom and the abuses of power that the Oklahoma State Department of Education engaged in under Walters’ tenure should never happen in Oklahoma or anywhere in the United States again. We will monitor the State Department of Education’s actions and discuss with our clients the next steps in the lawsuit.”
Walters responded to the decision on X saying, “I could not be more disappointed in the decision to move away from empowering our teachers in Oklahoma to use a foundational document like the Bible in the classroom. The war on Christianity is real.”
