Oklahoma's Education Dept. to create 'Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism'
The Oklahoma Department of Education has announced that it will launch an "Office of Religious and Patriotism" to protect the religious practices of students, teachers and parents.
In an announcement Tuesday, the state education department said the office will seek to protect students, faculty and parents as they "practice their religion freely in all aspects" and will investigate "abuses to individual religious freedom or displays of patriotism."
Specific guidance related to the office will be sent to Oklahoma public schools in the near future and will ensure that "the right to pray in schools is safeguarded."
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State Superintendent Ryan Walters claimed that "our nation's public schools have tragically been ground zero for the erosion of religious liberty across our country" over the past few decades.
"The radical left never misses a chance to co- opt the teacher unions and their minions to indoctrinate our children against traditional values of faith and family, seeking to attack any display of faith or religion or patriotism," Walters said in a statement.
"It is no coincidence that the dismantling of faith and family values in public schools directly correlates with declining academic outcomes in our public schools."
Walters said he looks forward to "working with the incoming Trump Administration" to "aggressively pursue education policies that will improve academic outcomes and give our children a better future."
According to the statement, the new office will support teachers and students when "their constitutional rights are threatened by well-funded, out of state groups." The release cited a case in Skiatook last year where a school was legally pressured to remove Bible verses from display.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin-based secularist legal organization that advocates for a strict separation of church and state, denounced the new office in a social media post, deeming it unnecessary.
"Students have always had the right to pray. No one is trying to take that away. This dystopian' office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism' is about indoctrination and forced prayer in schools," the FFRF tweeted.
Earlier this year, Walters garnered headlines nationwide when he issued a directive to public schools requiring them to incorporate the Bible into their curriculum. He also announced plans to spend $3 million to purchase Bibles for schools.
Last month, a group of parents, teachers and clergy representing different faith groups filed a complaint, alleging that Walters' action "interferes with the parents' ability to direct the religious and moral upbringing of their children" and "violates the Oklahoma Administrative Procedures Act."
The plaintiffs were represented by the FFRF, the Oklahoma chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
In a statement emailed to The Christian Post last month regarding the lawsuit, Walters declared that "Oklahomans will not be bullied by out-of-state, radical leftists who hate the principles our nation was founded upon."
"It is not possible for our students to understand American history and culture without understanding the Biblical principles from which they came, so I am proud to bring back the Bible to every classroom in Oklahoma," he stated. "I will never back down to the woke mob, no matter what tactic they use to try to intimidate Oklahomans."
