Courier Texas talks to one of the plaintiffs.
Emily Roth never planned on teaching her six-year-old about the Ten Commandments.
“It’s a belief system that we don’t follow as a religious doctrine,” Roth told Courier Texas.
But that plan changed when posters of the Ten Commandments went up in her daughter’s kindergarten classroom last October.
The new classroom decor was a result of Senate Bill 10, which went into effect at the beginning of last school year and requires the Ten Commandments be visibly displayed in public school classrooms.
“I find it incredibly unacceptable,” she said.
That’s why Roth, who has two children in Spring Branch Independent School District in Houston, is challenging the new law in court.
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Roth said she pursued legal action after going through the district’s grievance process, which involved three hearings—a level one hearing where her request was denied, a level two hearing where her request was denied, and a level three hearing with the full Spring Branch ISD school board, which unanimously denied her request to have the posters removed or adopt an inclusion policy of other religions.
“I find it truly hard to believe that anybody can really defend the Ten Commandments being on the wall in public schools, so when I was denied by the board, I knew that the job wasn’t done,” she said.
Throughout the grievance process, Roth said she was connected to several mothers and families who feel the same way she does.
“We got together and had the idea to cite the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which is a different approach to the lawsuits we’ve seen done already,” she added.
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The lawsuit comes less than two months after the State Board of Education approved a required reading list that made Texas the first state in the nation to make the Bible mandated reading in public schools. The board also approved a social studies curriculum overhaul that references religious figures, such as Moses, in history courses.
It’s an ongoing trend of Texas lawmakers and leaders infusing more religion into public schools.
Last legislative session, Republican lawmakers passed a new law that allows public schools to adopt a voluntary designated prayer and religious reading time during the school day. In November 2024, the State Board of Education adopted Bluebonnet Learning, which are Bible-infused instructional materials for use in public schools.
“It’s not just a poster,” Roth said. “Not when you add the social studies TEKS changes, and the Bluebonnet materials, and the required Bible reading in there. Individually, these things may seem really small, but that’s what makes them really hard to fight. It’s death by a thousand cuts.”
See here for the background. I drafted this before the motion for emergency relief was denied, but it’s not relevant to that. I’d have been frustrated by that grievance process too, but at least it helped her find some community. I don’t know if any other the other religion-forcing by the state will be relevant in this case, but it can’t hurt. And while the ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit was halted by the Fifth Circuit, it was a one vote majority on the wingnuttiest court in the country after some strong and clearly correct rulings at the district level. One must always be hesitant to put too much faith in the court system in politically charged litigation like this, but the weight of the evidence is so heavily on their side it’s hard not to wonder how this could go any other way. No hearing has been set yet, so we’ll have to wait for awhile to see.