Louisiana’s 2020 Teacher of the Year is suing the state over a new law that requires public schools to post the Ten Commandments, arguing it makes teachers complicit in promoting religion and conveying to students that some faiths are superior to others, our media partners at The Advocate/Times Picayune report.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court last month, is the second legal challenge to Louisiana’s new law and the first to be brought by a public school employee. It comes as schools face a Jan. 1 to display the biblical text in every classroom, the newspapers report.
According to the story, Christopher Dier, a high school history teacher in New Orleans who was named the state’s top educator in 2020, said he felt compelled to challenge the law because he believes it will trample on students’ constitutional right to be free from religious coercion. Allowing a Ten Commandments poster to go up in his classroom also would send non-Christian students the message that, in the state’s eyes, their faiths are inferior.
“We need to create classrooms where students feel welcomed, they feel included, they feel valued and appreciated,” Dier said Tuesday, adding that the law “does the exact opposite.” “If that's not worth fighting for, then I don't know what is.”
To read the full article with all the details, click here.
