COMAL COUNTY, Texas – Another San Antonio-area school district is caught in a legal battle over Texas’ new law that requires donated posters of the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and other religious freedom groups brought a lawsuit Monday against 14 Texas school districts, including the Comal Independent School District, which they say have “pressed forward with actually posting (Senate Bill 10) displays in classrooms, or have confirmed they will do so shortly.”
Senate Bill 10, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in June, mandates that each classroom post a 16-by-20-inch poster or a framed copy of the Ten Commandments.
Schools aren’t required to buy the posters, but they must accept and post any that are privately donated.
The ACLU of Texas, ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP serving as pro bono counsel, originally brought a lawsuit against another 11 school districts in July, representing a San Antonio rabbi and several other Texas families.
In an Aug. 20 ruling, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery agreed the law crosses the line from “exposure to coercion,” and blocked it from taking effect at those districts as scheduled on Sept. 1.
Most people in matters of conscience, faith, beliefs and the soul, Biery wrote, “just want to be left alone, neither proselytized nor ostracized, including what occurs to their children in government run schools.”
However, his ruling was limited to the districts originally named in the lawsuit: Alamo Heights ISD, North East ISD, Austin ISD, Cypress Fairbanks ISD, Lackland ISD, Lake Travis ISD, Fort Bend ISD, Houston ISD, Dripping Springs ISD, Plano ISD, and Northside ISD.
And though the coalition sent other Texas superintendents a letter urging them not to post the Ten Commandments, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton ordered school districts to follow the new law.
The same coalition filed another lawsuit Monday, representing a new set of 15 families, including two families with three children between them at Comal ISD elementary and middle schools.
The new lawsuit claims Comal ISD had announced it would begin posting donated copies of the Ten Commandments and that a copy had been posted in at least one classroom for one of the students.
The suit claims “the posters will soon be displayed in all classrooms” for all three, though it did not specify which schools the students attend.
On Tuesday afternoon, KSAT spoke with parents waiting to pick up their children at Oak Creek Elementary School in New Braunfels about the new law and the lawsuit against the district.
Katelynn Neely, who has a fourth-grade student, said she had heard about the state law.
"I love it. I think it’s great for the kids to know the Ten Commandments and learn the Bible in school," Neely said.
Erin Krifka, who has a third-grade student and fifth-grade student, said she hadn’t heard anything about posters going up. Though Krifka said she’s not religious herself, she thinks the commandments “are good things to follow.”
“So I don’t really care if they have it up, as long as they’re not pushing religion with it as well. And as long as they communicate to us that they’re going up,” Krifka said.
Clyde Southers, whose son is in first grade, said he hadn’t heard about the law but didn’t believe the district should be sued for it.
“Personally, if anybody’s in disagreement about it, I mean, that’s for them to take action on their accord if they want to get their kids out or something,” Southers said.
A district spokeswoman sent KSAT the following statement via text message:
“Comal ISD complies with all state laws, including the recently adopted Senate Bill 10. The district has not been served in the litigation and will await the outcome of the legal process and guidance from TEA to ensure compliance.”
The spokeswoman did not respond to a KSAT follow-up question about whether posters had already gone up.
The other 13 districts named in the new lawsuit are Georgetown ISD, Conroe ISD, Flour Bluff ISD, Fort Worth ISD, Arlington ISD, McKinney ISD, Frisco ISD, Northwest ISD, Azle ISD, Rockwall ISD, Lovejoy ISD, Mansfield ISD, and McAllen ISD.
According to the Texas Tribune, Texas has appealed Biery’s original ruling, sending the case to the same court where a three-judge panel recently blocked Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law from taking effect. The state also requested that all active judges on the court hear the case, as opposed to a three-judge panel.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a news release that he wants the court to take up Texas’ and Louisiana’s appeals together.
More recent coverage of this story on KSAT: