The Oklahoma State Department of Education has filed a complaint seeking to stop the efforts of a prominent atheist legal organization to force a public school district to halt its voluntary prayer practice.
State officials filed the complaint against the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation on Monday in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma.
At issue is a cease-and-desist demand letter FFRF sent to Achille Public Schools last December over a policy that allows students to say prayers during morning announcements.
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“The Plaintiffs will have an irreparable injury, should the Defendant be permitted to continue its threatening and harassing behavior. By contrast, the Defendant cannot show any harm whatsoever, should an injunction be granted,” reads the department’s legal filing.
“The Plaintiffs request that this Court issue an injunction enjoining the Defendants from usurping the constitutional and statutory authorities delegated to the State Superintendent and the State Department of Education.”
State Superintendent Ryan Walters vowed in a statement that “Oklahoma will never be bullied by radical, out-of-state atheists who use intimidation and harassment against kids.”
“The Freedom From Religion Foundation has no stake in our schools, no authority over our communities, and absolutely no right to trample on the First Amendment,” Walters said, according to the Oklahoma City-based KOCO News 5. “Their threats are nothing more than a desperate attempt to erase faith from public life, and we will fight them at every turn.”
FFRF Legal Director Patrick Elliott called the state’s complaint “frivolous” in a statement Monday.
“FFRF, as a defender of our Constitution, expects to continue our important work in Oklahoma regardless of frivolous lawsuits by Walters,” stated Elliott.
FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor called Walters “a loose cannon bent on destroying secular public education in Oklahoma.”
“We are proud of FFRF’s record of support for true religious freedom and the rights of conscience of a captive audience of schoolchildren to be free from government-sponsored indoctrination in our public schools,” she continued.
Last year, FFRF pressure successfully halted a practice of allowing Christian prayers at a Christmas play held at a Depew, Oklahoma-based public elementary school.
Last month, the Oklahoma Supreme Court temporarily blocked the state education department from purchasing 55,000 Bibles for public schools. Walters announced last year that biblical studies would be emphasized in public schools’ social studies curriculum. He told The Christian Post last July it was “of the utmost importance that our kids get a full understanding of American history.”
“Obviously, that includes the most read book in American history, the most purchased book in American history, the most cited book in the 17th and 18th centuries: the Bible,” Walters said.
“We’re not going to allow left-wing extremists and the teachers union to keep the Bible from schools in its historical context. So, we’re very proud to be the first state to put the Bible back into classrooms and make sure that our kids understand its impact in American history.”
