Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a statewide investigation into Independent School Districts (ISDs) across the state in order to ensure schools are displaying the Ten Commandments.
The schools under investigation include those in Alamo Heights, North East, Austin, Cypress-Fairbanks, Lackland, Lake Travis, Fort Bend, Houston, Dripping Springs, Plano, Northside, Conroe, Galveston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Lubbock, Wichita Falls, McAllen, Amarillo, El Paso, Corpus Christi, United, Texarkana, Victoria, Waco, Abilene, San Angelo, Brownsville, and Beaumont.
“I will always fight for students’ fundamental right to pray in our schools and work to ensure that Texas kids are able to learn from the Ten Commandments daily,” Paxton said in a statement. “Texas schools districts must comply with Texas law by displaying the Ten Commandments and taking a school board vote regarding the implementation of prayer time in schools. I will never stop defending our students’ religious freedom and the moral foundation of our nation.”
The investigations come as Texas recently won a legal battle surrounding the Ten Commandments.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the law “looks nothing like a historical religious establishment,” explaining that it “does not tell churches or synagogues or mosques what to believe or how to worship or whom to employ as priests, rabbis, or imams. It punishes no one who rejects the Ten Commandments, no matter the reason. It levies no taxes to support any clergy. It does not co-opt churches to perform civic functions.”
They further wrote that students “are neither catechized on the Commandments nor taught to adopt them. Nor are teachers commanded to proselytize students who ask about the displays or contradict students who disagree with them.”
