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Oklahoma’s new public schools superintendent announced Wednesday that he is rescinding his predecessor’s order that forced schools to include the Bible in lesson plans for students.
Superintendent Lindell Fields said in a statement that he “has no plans to distribute the Bible or Biblical character education curriculum in classrooms.” Former Superintendent Ryan Walters’ directive last year was immediately condemned by civil rights groups and led to a lawsuit by a group of parents, teachers and religious leaders that is pending in court. oklahola Supreme Court. It was to be implemented for students from classes 5 to 12.
Oklahoma Government. Kevin Stitt Fields was appointed superintendent last month after Walters resigned to take a job in the private sector.
Jackie Phelps, an attorney for the Oklahoma State Department of Education, said she intends to inform the court of the agency’s plan to rescind the mandate and seek a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
Many schools across the state had decided not to follow the Biblical mandate.
Tara Thompson, a spokeswoman for the state Education Department, said Fields believes the decision about whether the Bible should be included in classroom instruction is best left to individual districts and that spending money on Bibles is not the best use of taxpayers’ resources.
In March, Walters announced plans to team up with the country music singer lee greenwood Donations were sought to bring Bibles into classrooms after a legislative panel rejected their $3 million request to fund the effort. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging the Bible ruling had no immediate comment.
A far-right Republican, Walters made the fight against “woke ideology” a centerpiece of his administration by banning certain books from school libraries and getting rid of “radical leftists” whom he claimed were indoctrinating children in classrooms. Since his election in 2020, he implemented several orders on public schools and worked to develop new social studies standards for K-12 public school students, including 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’ mandates, including a requirement that applicants coming from teacher jobs California And new york Test the ideology to determine whether they can also be canceled.
“We need to review all of those mandates and provide clarity to schools moving forward,” he said.