Under new leadership, the Oklahoma State Department of Education will rescind a mandate from the previous superintendent that forced public schools to place Bibles in classrooms and incorporate the book into lesson plans for students.
The Oklahoma State Department of Education plans to file a motion to dismiss pending lawsuits brought against the previous superintendent and his office in response to their plans to incorporate religion into public classrooms, the department said in a news release obtained by CBS affiliate KWTV. Their motion comes as the court seeks status updates to those cases amid what it described as "significant turnover among public officials named as respondents," due to new department leadership, according to the release.
"We plan to file a motion to dismiss, and have no plans to distribute Bibles or a Biblical character education curriculum in classrooms," said Superintendent Lindel Fields, who recently took over that role, in a statement. "If resources are left to be allocated, the timing is fortunate since the team and I are currently reviewing the budget."
Last year, former Superintendent Ryan Walters issued a directive for Oklahoma public schools to incorporate the Bible into lessons for grades 5 through 12, saying in the mandate that "immediate and strict compliance" was expected.
"The Bible is a necessary historical document to teach our kids about the country," Walters said in a social media video shared at the time. "Every teacher, ever classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom, and will be teaching from the Bible."
The mandate in Oklahoma was the latest in a series of efforts by conservative leaders to incorporate religion into classrooms and quickly drew condemnation from civil rights groups. A group of parents, teachers and religious leaders filed a lawsuit in response to the order, which is pending before the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Walters resigned last month and accepted a job in the private sector, paving the way for Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt to appoint Fields as superintendent.
Ryan Walters speaks at a rally, Nov. 1, 2022, in Oklahoma City.
Sue Ogrocki / AP
Jacki Phelps, an attorney for the Oklahoma State Department of Education, said she intends to notify the court of the agency's plan to rescind the mandate and seek a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
Attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit said they were encouraged by Fields' decision and plan to discuss next steps with their clients.
"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," the attorneys said in a statement.
Many schools districts across the state had decided not to comply with the Bible mandate.
A spokeswoman for the state education department, Tara Thompson, said Fields believes the decision on whether the Bible should be incorporated into classroom instruction is one best left up to individual districts and that spending money on Bibles is not the best use of taxpayer resources.
Walters in March had announced plans to team up with country music singer Lee Greenwood seeking donations to get Bibles into classrooms after a legislative panel rejected his $3 million request to fund the effort.
Walters, a far-right Republican, made fighting "woke ideology", banning certain books from school libraries and getting rid of "radical leftists" who he claims were indoctrinating children in classrooms a focal point of his administration. Since his election in 2020, he imposed a number of mandates on public schools and worked to develop new social studies standards for K-12 public school students that included teaching about conspiracy theories related to the 2020 presidential election. Those standards have been put on hold while a lawsuit challenging them moves forward.
Thompson said the agency plans to review all of Walters' edicts, including a requirement that applicants from teacher jobs coming from California and New York take an ideology exam, to determine if those may also be rescinded.
"We need to review all of those mandates and provide clarity to schools moving forward," she said.
