When Logan Day and Jacquelyn Palacios at Caney Creek High School in Conroe, Texas, asked Government teacher Gary Barlett about the state’s new 10 Commandments mandate, he didn’t mince words. “It will be struck down,” he said. “Why not something from the Quran? Why not Hindu texts? The First and 14th Amendments say the state can’t establish religion.”
Teachers across Texas seem to agree, and they’re showing it in ways that are as creative as they are rebellious.
In suburban Dallas, one teacher dutifully hung her 16×20 poster of the Ten Commandments, as the law demands. Then she plastered the wall around it with neon-pink placards quoting Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism. The Ten Commandments now sit between the Five Pillars, the Four Noble Truths, and a reminder to practice nonviolence and truthfulness. “No one’s told me to take them down,” she laughed.
Others are going even further. A middle school art teacher says she’s refusing to post the Commandments at all. Her backup plan? “If they make me, I’ll hang it upside down.”
Students are in on the fun too. North of Houston, substitute teacher Angela Achen armed her twin sixth-graders with First Amendment buttons to share at school. Nearly 300 of the pins, printed with “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” have already made the rounds, NBC News reported. Teachers say the kids aren’t just handing them out, they’re explaining the Bill of Rights while they do it.
The law, Senate Bill 10, requires schools to display a Protestant version of the Ten Commandments but doesn’t spell out penalties for ignoring it. That leaves plenty of wiggle room for what one teacher calls “malicious compliance.”
Ajha Farrow, who teaches English and theater in north Texas, plans to turn her classroom into a “world religions wall” when her school receives its donated posters. “Mandating one religion is unconstitutional,” she said. “So I’ll make sure every student sees their beliefs represented — right next to the Ten Commandments.”
For now, Texas classrooms are looking a little more like interfaith museums than legislative victories. And teachers say that’s exactly the point.
