Jasmin Espinosa BROWNSVILLE – Eleven school districts found themselves exempt from the recently signed Senate Bill 10, negating the requirement to display the Ten Commandments in its classrooms.
On Aug. 20, Fred Biery, A U.S. District Judge based in San Antonio, issued a temporary preliminary injunction against the 11 school districts.
The school districts exempt are Alamo Heights ISD, Northeast ISD, Lackland ISD, Northside ISD, Austin ISD, Lake Travis ISD, Dripping Springs ISD Houston ISD, Fort Bend ISD, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, and Plano ISD.
In a press release, Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, stated he would fight the injunction against the school districts and that the phrase, “separation of church and state” is a “bogus claim” found nowhere in the constitution.
Erin Gamez, the District 38 State Representative and lawyer, said although the U.S. is a “Christian Nation,” the law cannot force religion onto people.
“This is about forcing a religion upon people, and that is fundamentally, again, un-American and undemocratic,” Gamez said. “And that’s why we know, and I have every faith and confidence in the courts to uphold these previous principles of separation [of] church and state.”
On the contrast, Gerado Rojas, the Principe de Paz Christian pastor, shared that religion has a lot of oppositions and the commandments are not forcing students to a single religion and will not be taught in schools.
“There is a lot of opposition when it comes to beliefs, so they think that [lawmakers] are violating the law of freedom of expression,” Rojas said. “So, they think this law is being passed to create a single religion, but it’s just going to be proclaimed and posted on the wall. They’re not going to teach it.”
KVAQ-TV reached out to Brownsville ISD to ask how the school district was navigating the Senate Bill.
In a statement sent to us, Isabel De La Cruz, the Director and Public information officer for BISD stated,
“We understand that a federal judge in San Antonio has recently issued an injunction concerning the Ten Commandments’ posters. we are now awaiting further guidance from our legal counsel.”
We will keep you updated as we receive the information.
