On Thursday, April 18, the Texas Senate voted on and passed Senate Bill 1515, which will require all public schools in the state of Texas to have a copy or display of the Ten Commandments in every classroom starting at the beginning of next school year. This bill requires a framed poster of the Ten Commandments to be placed in a “conspicuous place” around the classroom. The poster also has to be “legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom in which the poster or framed copy is displayed.”

While passing, this bill is heavily disputed, only passing the initial Senate vote 17-12. It now has to pass the Texas House of Representatives as well.

The hopes for this bill as stated by Texas Governor Dan Patrick is to “Bring the Ten Commandments and prayer back to our public schools will enable our students to become better Texans,” per his statement. 

Not all people hold these same beliefs however. “They really shouldn’t force it onto people. If you want to be a Christian, that’s awesome but forcing students to have it in their rooms is a bad idea.” Edward Lambert, (10) a practicing Christian and a member of Colonial Forge’s Young Life group, said.

“It’s really important to respect other religions, but you should never force it down people’s throats. It might make students and teachers who don’t practice Christianity feel uncomfortable and unsafe,” Hosmina ‘Mina’ Tarin (11), a Muslim student, said.

In conjunction with this bill is a second bill that follows along the same lines, that being the freedom to practice religion and the freedom to abstain from said practice of religion. This bill, Senate Bill 1396, will require all public schools in the state of Texas to have a designated prayer and Bible reading time set aside during each school day. 

This is not the first time that Texas lawmakers have attempted to inject religion into schools. In fact this isn’t even the first time in recent memory. Back in 2021, Senate Bill 797 required all public schools to display any “In God we Trust” signs that were donated to the school. These signs didn’t exactly come into fruition however as many schools focused more on the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Those residing in Texas can only wait and see whether or not this bill will be passed during the vote in the Texas state House of Representatives. As of right now, a date has not been set for this vote.