The Bible is displayed in the library at Bixby High School in Bixby, Oklahoma, on Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Joey Johnson)
By SEAN MURPHY, Associated Press
BIXBY, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma’s Bixby School District has a lot to offer a fast-growing Tulsa suburb: a state-of-the-art new high school scheduled to open by 2025, a new ninth-grade gymnasium and plans for a $12 million upgrade of a football complex that already rivals those of many small colleges.
What the district didn’t have when students returned this week, however, was a Bible in every classroom — despite a statewide order from Oklahoma’s Secretary of Education to incorporate Bible studies and threaten consequences for those who don’t comply. Other large school districts have also publicly stated they won’t make any changes either.
“If the state threatened consequences for not having the Koran or Torah displayed in classrooms, citizens would be deeply concerned,” said one Oklahoma resident of the order.
The resistance follows an executive order this summer that put Oklahoma at the center of a growing movement by conservatives seeking to give their religion a greater role in public schools across the U.S. Still, the fight may be far from over, as Republicans in other states, including neighboring Texas, are making similar efforts to integrate the Bible into classroom instruction.
“If there is no curriculum that fits that particular classroom, what purpose would a Bible serve if not pure indoctrination?” says Bixby Superintendent Rob Miller, a former Marine Corps artilleryman whose office walls are decorated with medals from some of the 18 marathons he has run and a sign that reads, “Positive vibrations only.”
Miller said it’s not unusual to see students carrying a Bible at the beginning of each school day or praying during a moment of silence. Two copies of the Bible are available for loan from the high school library’s reference section, along with a book called “The Story of the Bible,” which includes maps and other historical details about the lands considered sacred in scripture.
However, he said that a Bible simply wouldn’t make sense in a seventh-grade math class or a high school chemistry class.
“As a Christian myself, I am a little offended when the Word of God is degraded to a mere prop in the classroom,” he said.
It is unclear how many, if any, school districts in Oklahoma will resume classes this month with a Bible in every classroom. A spokesman for the state Department of Education, Dan Isett, said the requirement is not optional and that superintendents have “a wide range of tools to deal with rogue districts” that do not comply.
This law requires Oklahoma schools to include the Bible in the curriculum for all students in grades 5 through 12.
The school districts were also advised by the law firms representing them and the state’s largest teachers union, the Oklahoma Education Association, that the superintendent does not have sole authority to issue such an order and that the order is unenforceable.
The decision of many Oklahoma school districts to ignore the orders of Superintendent of Schools Ryan Walters did not please the first-term Republican, and he rebuked those districts at the start of a recent board meeting.
“These are the districts that, under the guise of inclusivity, want children to be shown pornography but not the historical context of the Bible,” Walters said, referring to a failed attempt by his Department of Education to force a local district to remove the books “The Kite Runner,” which contains a scene of tragic sexual assault, and “The Glass Castle,” in which the protagonists are subjected to sexual abuse, from library shelves because conservatives objected to the sexual content.
“This is outrageous. We will not allow this. Just because they don’t like it, just because they are offended by it, just because they don’t want to do it, doesn’t mean they won’t do it. They will be held accountable.”
Walters’ order is the latest salvo in an effort by conservative-led states to target public schools: Louisiana has required them to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, while others are under pressure to teach the Bible and ban books and lessons on race, sexual orientation and gender identity. Earlier this summer, the Oklahoma Supreme Court blocked the state’s attempt to open the first state-funded religious charter school in the country.
Walters, himself a former public school teacher and elected to office in 2022, ran on the campaign trail with the goal of fighting “woke ideology,” banning books from school libraries and getting rid of “radical leftists” who he claims are indoctrinating children in classrooms.
His Republican colleagues in the House appear to be losing patience with Walters. Rep. Mark McBride, a Moore Republican who chairs the subcommittee that oversees public school funding, called for an investigation into Walters earlier this month because, according to McBride, the department is not following statutory guidelines on funding and failing to provide requested documents on spending. More than two dozen Republican lawmakers signed McBride’s request, prompting House Speaker Charles McCall to call for an independent investigation into the Department of Education.
Walters, for his part, dismissed the investigation as a “political attack” by House leaders and pointed to the 2026 gubernatorial election, in which both McCall and Walters have been mentioned as possible candidates for Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt’s seat, which is becoming vacant due to term limits.
Grant Sullivan, owner of Scott’s Hamburgers in downtown Bixby and a Sunday preacher at a small church in nearby Morris, expressed concern that the Bible requirement was a good idea.
“Have we thought this through?” asked Sullivan, who has a master’s degree in theology from Oklahoma Christian University and teaches two children in Bixby schools. “What if you happen to have an atheist teacher? Is he going to teach it in a way that might be more problematic than helpful?
“It just feels like this is something for home and for church, that’s how I feel about it.”
