New lawsuit claims social studies standards violate Oklahomans’ religious freedoms

OKLAHOMA CITY — A second lawsuit, this time appealing directly to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, aims to overturn the state’s new academic standards for social studies on religious freedom and procedural grounds.

A group of 33 parents, teachers and faith leaders on Tuesday asked the state’s highest court to block the controversial new standards, which will dictate what topics public schools must teach in social studies classes starting in the 2025-26 academic year. They requested Oklahoma’s previous social studies standards, enacted in 2019, be reinstated until a new version is validly approved.

The plaintiffs contend the pro-Bible standards are unenforceable because they would unconstitutionally impose Christian beliefs on public-school students. The lawsuit also claims the Oklahoma State Board of Education failed to uphold state law when approving the standards on Feb. 27. Half of the board’s sitting members said they were unaware at the time of the vote that the standards contained significant changes from an earlier draft shared with the public.

Another lawsuit, which a judge dismissed in Oklahoma County District Court, made a similar argument that the state Board of Education didn’t follow proper procedures when it approved the standards. Former Attorney General Mike Hunter filed the case on behalf of a different group of Oklahoma parents, grandparents and teachers, and he said he intends to appeal his case to the state Supreme Court.

The plaintiffs who filed the latest lawsuit on Tuesday are represented by attorneys from the national organization Americans United for Separation of Church and State and a local advocacy group, the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.

“Our lawsuit defends educational integrity and the public’s right to open, accountable government, and it defends the family as the source of the child’s religious upbringing,” Oklahoma Appleseed legal director Brent Rowland said in a statement.

State Superintendent Ryan Walters, whose administration developed the standards, said the lawsuit is “yet another reminder of the harm that has been done to this country by woke political activists.”

“I am unashamed that Oklahoma students will get an America First education based in facts this fall,” Walters said in a statement. “The Left continues their attempts to destroy Christianity, our history and America herself. Our students will know Americans never have, and never will, bow to their tyrannical hatred of liberty and American values.”

With the start of the next school year approaching in August, the plaintiffs asked the state Supreme Court to temporarily prevent the new standards from taking effect while the case is pending.

Some of the plaintiffs, along with Americans United attorneys, sued last year to block a mandate from Walters that all public schools teach from the Bible and keep a copy in every classroom. That case is still pending before the state Supreme Court.

Walters has since used state funds to purchase over 500 copies of the Bible to distribute to schools.

The new social studies standards would require elementary students to learn Bible stories and Jesus’ teachings “that influenced the American colonists, founders and culture.”

In fifth and eighth grades, students would have to learn the Judeo-Christian values that influenced America’s founders.

Walters has said biblical instruction is essential to ensure students understand more context of American history.

But, the plaintiffs contend this infringes on their religious freedom and their legal right to direct their children’s moral and religious upbringing. Most of the plaintiffs are not raising their children in a particular religion, or they have different Christian and Jewish beliefs from what the new standards include, according to their lawsuit.

The lead plaintiff is a Baptist minister, the Rev. Mitch Randall, of Norman.

“To reduce the Bible to a history book – rather than treating it as a theological text – does a disservice to public school students, their families, their teachers and those who consider the Bible to be a book of faith,” Randall said in a statement.

Randall and the plaintiffs also objected to parts of the standards that present disputed claims about the 2020 presidential election and COVID-19.

The standards suggest there were “discrepancies” in the results of the 2020 election, including “sudden halting of ballot-counting in select cities in key battleground states, sudden batch dumps, an unforeseen record number of voters and the unprecedented contradiction of ‘bellwether county’ trends.”

This language, along with Walters’ public statements that Trump “should have won” the 2020 race, “make clear that the 2025 standards are intended to promote the view that Donald Trump was the true winner of the 2020 presidential election,” the lawsuit contends.

Walters has said the standards weren’t written to support a specific viewpoint on the election, but rather to encourage students to make their own conclusions.

The case also points to a statement in the standards that the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic was a Chinese laboratory, which the plaintiffs say lacks scientific consensus.

“As a Christian, I object to Oklahoma’s new social studies standards that require teachers to deceive students by presenting inaccurate information as fact,” Randall said.

Oklahoma Voice (oklahomavoice.com) is an affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, supported by grants and donations. Oklahoma Voice provides nonpartisan reporting, and retains full editorial independence.