Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond — a Republican — is bucking his own party in a new lawsuit aimed at preventing what would be the first publicly funded religious school in America from opening.

On Friday, Drummond filed the suit in Oklahoma Supreme Court, challenging the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board’s 3-2 decision in June to grant a contract to open St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Charter School. According to PBS, Drummond warned that the establishment of St. Isidore, which is sponsored by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, would lead to the floodgates opening for religious groups of all stripes to make bids for public funding for schools of their own.

“Make no mistake, if the Catholic Church were permitted to have a public virtual charter school, a reckoning will follow in which this state will be faced with the unprecedented quandary of processing requests to directly fund all petitioning sectarian groups,” the lawsuit read.

  • seathru
    39·
    8 months ago

    They’re on the case

    Lucien Greaves, the cofounder and spokesperson for The Satanic Temple, says his organization may submit its own application if the decision stands.

    “We’ll consider opening an alternative school if the courts uphold a flagrantly self-serving & uneducated, utterly unqualified & ignorant school board’s vote to overturn the constitution,” Greaves tweeted.

    Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, said the board should now welcome other religious groups like Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Sikhs, and Bahai’s when they present their applications in the future.

    Zed says he has written to the board to apply for a Hindu virtual charter school but has not received a response.

    • variaatio@sopuli.xyz
      7·
      8 months ago

      They are always on the case first. They have feelers through all the various church state separation orgs. As soon as one of the likes of freedom from religion foundation, ACLU etc. Hear about a case, someone is bound to send Lucien a message and would you look at that within days they have found a local Satanist to have standing.

      Lucien sends smiling letter to the local government with “I heard there was religious freedom on offer, just give us a week we have the Baphomet statue dusted off from the temple and on the way there. It takes like 2 meters by 2 meters and 3 meters tall. You have free lawn available?”