Ten Commandments in Classrooms: Galveston Shows Why Neutrality Matters | Column

Atheism column. Ten Commandments in classrooms are coming to Galveston, and nobody there seems to want them. A Galveston County judge has ordered Galveston ISD to display donated Ten Commandments posters within 10 days of 1 October, KERA reported.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the district for not following state law. That law is Senate Bill 10, signed in June 2025. It requires the display in public school classrooms. An attorney from Paxton’s office, William Farrell, told the court there is “no basis to not follow the law”.

What Ten Commandments in classrooms say to non-believers

The district says it will comply. Board president Anthony Brown called the order “a distraction” and “a constitutional issue”. Trustee Ann Masel was blunter. She said the posters “absolutely advocate one religion in our public education system”.

I write as an atheist, so let me be clear about what I want. I do not want children to be shielded from religion. They can study it, ask about it and argue about it. I want the school itself to stay neutral.

A poster on the wall is not a lesson. It is a message. It tells every child which belief the state treats as the default. A child who does not share that belief learns something about where they stand.

Supporters call such displays passive. Yet a rule that makes every classroom carry the same religious text is not passive. It is an instruction from the state.

The legal picture is unsettled. KERA noted that the Fifth Circuit ruled the law constitutional in April 2026. Civil rights groups have since asked the US Supreme Court to review it. At least 11 Texas districts were initially blocked from complying while the challenges moved forward.

That matters because Galveston is not an isolated case. It is a test of how far a state can push a single faith into public classrooms. Our earlier column on America’s first taxpayer-funded religious school traced the same drift.

Believers should want neutral schools too. A state strong enough to hang your scripture on the wall is strong enough to hang someone else’s. Neutrality protects everyone.

Fact basis: KERA, 1 October 2026; Houston Public Media and Hoodline reports of the same order; CNN, 21 April 2026, on the Fifth Circuit ruling. This is an opinion column.