Oklahoma bill would penalize teachers $10,000 for contradicting student religious beliefs
A controversial bill proposed in the Oklahoma state senate would make public school personnel – including teachers – personally liable for “promot(ing) positions in opposition to” a student’s “closely held religious beliefs.” If enacted, Senate Bill 1470 would entitle parents who bring a successful suit on behalf of their children to a minimum of $10,000 per individual, per incident if the school fails to immediately halt the activity in question.
As Forbes education contributor Peter Green points out, the bill’s sponsor, Oklahoma state Senator Rob Sandridge, may not have thought it through.
The bill does not specify which particular “deeply help religious beliefs” are covered, meaning that such a law would provide rich ground for groups like the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the Satanic Temple, which have often challenged religious laws in this country.
Green makes a good point. After all, the bill leaves wide open how to determine whether a teacher or school official has promoted a position that contradicts a student’s religious beliefs in violation of the measure. What science class lesson, just to name one especially vulnerable discipline, would be safe from the claims of all religious perspectives? According to Green, the fear and uncertainty that would result is likely a feature and not a bug of the proposal:
[S]uch a law would have a supremely chilling effect on every class from history to science to health. The bill is designed to intimidate, and the law would result in administrators and teachers avoiding anything that could possibly cost them $10,000 or their job (average teacher pay in Oklahoma is $42,000).
Adding further threats to teachers, the bill attempts to make sure that anyone found liable for violating it must pay out of their own pocket:
All persons found liable for damages shall make payment from personal resources and shall not receive any assistance from individuals or groups. Any evidence of receiving outside assistance shall result in termination of their position …
Fortunately, this bill does not have any additional co-sponsors and appears unlikely to pass out of the Senate Education Committee. Unfortunately, the legislation provides yet another example of the growing and troubling trend of policy and legislation designed to drive a wedge between some religious parents and public school officials who are trying to provide a comprehensive, 21st century education for a religiously diverse student population while remaining neutral with respect to religion. SB 1470 is a train wreck of a solution in search of a problem. The claim that large groups of religious students are routinely being persecuted in our public schools is simply false.
For more on this topic, including a 2020 column from BJC Executive Director Amanda Tyler explaining how public schools protect religious liberty, see BJC’s Religion in Public Schools resource page.
