FFRF Action Fund needs your help to stop religious displays in public school classrooms!
Senate Bill 34 is scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Education Committee tomorrow, Nov. 18th, and, if it passes, every public school classroom would be forced to display at least one “historical document.” Unfortunately, this is just the latest attempt to put the Ten Commandments in front of students, skirting the line of state/church separation. Please act now, and urge senators to reject this bill!
SB 34 provides an exhaustive list of approved documents, erroneously including the Ten Commandments alongside actual historical documents such as the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. The inclusion of the explicitly religious text is clearly intended to promote the debunked myth that Christian principles founded America, a narrative perpetuated by pseudohistorian David Barton. Barton claims to have secret knowledge of American history in his numerous books and speeches, but he couldn’t be further from the truth: The Founders did not rely on Christianity as the source of U.S. laws, and Barton’s lies have been so egregious that his own publishers have withdrawn his books. We must not allow schools to fall victim to his widely debunked version of history.
The bill also threatens to allow schools to erect “monuments” depicting the Ten Commandments, despite the Supreme Court’s long-standing precedent that stand-alone Ten Commandments monuments on public property violate the Establishment Clause when their primary purpose is religious. Placing these monuments inside public schools — where children are a captive audience and where their constitutional protections must be at their strongest — would mark a severe deviation from established precedent.
We need your help to keep this bill from pushing religion on students, so please reach out to committee members and urge them to reject this bill! We have included talking points through the “Take Action” button, which you can edit to your liking by clicking the pencil icon. For best results, please be succinct and polite. For extra impact, you will be directed to a phone script to call these lawmakers after you email them. Please take the extra minute to call if you can!
(Note: You must live in Ohio to take part in this action alert.)