KILLEEN (WBAP/KLIF News) – The Killeen Independent School District has voted to remove a poster that includes a passage from the Bible.
A staff member at Patterson Middle School decorated a door with an image of Linus from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and the text from his speech about the meaning of Christmas: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ, the Lord… That’s what Christmas is all about.”
Parents and Christian groups filled the meeting on Tuesday night, and everyone who addressed the board wanted to keep the poster in place. “We need to teach these kids that there are going to be these things in life that you do not agree with,” said one parent.
School board member Corbett Lawler made the motion to remove the poster, but said the district should develop a plan to handle religious displays in the future. “We should encourage staff to use, to the fullest extent allowed by law, the name Jesus,” said Lawler. “We as Christians have become frightened and we see Christ being taken out of the schools… How do we put God back in his proper place in our society? I think the way we do that is we stop backing up.”
The plan to remove the poster passed with only Superintendent John Craft voting against it. “It’s my Jesus too,” said Craft. “That’s what makes this conversation tough.”
The board said the poster violated the First Amendment and might offend some students.
Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a letter to the Board of Trustees calling on them to let the poster stay and apologize to the staff member who put it up. Paxton cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing students and teachers to express their First Amendment rights of free speech. “Rest assured that, should you comply with the law, my office will gladly exercise its discretion under Section 11.151(e) of the Texas Education Code to represent Killeen ISD in any frivolous litigation that might be filed to inhibit the religious expression and diversity of Killeen’s educational community,” Paxton wrote in his letter.
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