As the school year begins, many Texas public schools are now mandated to place “In God We Trust” signs. SB 797, a law authored by East Texas senator Bryan Hughes (R), forces schools to display these signs if donated to the school or bought with private donations. The corresponding bill, HB 1218, was passed in the Texas House right after the passage of SB 797 last year; HB 1218 itself was authored by Houston-area representative Tom Oliverson (R).
“It actually makes the conversation simpler, easier for a school district to be able to do, as opposed to just sort of the current statute, which is they can put it up if they want to,” Oliverson, R-Cypress, said. “But then there's a whole conversation that ensues.”
In the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District, which covers many suburban areas northwest of Houston, the “In God We Trust” signs were donated by the Yellow Rose of Texas Republican Women.
The Yellow Rose of Texas Republican Women posted of number of photos on Facebook showing framed signs volunteers made before donating them to a number of Cy-Fair ISD schools.
“As part of the National Motto program, The Yellow Rose of Texas Republican Women (TYRTRW) are generously donating a copy to every instructional facility in CFISD,” the district said in a statement.
In the Carroll Independent School District, which serves Southlake in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, the signs were given by Patriot Mobile, deemed to be ”America’s only Christian conservative wireless provider”.
“Patriot Mobile is honored to donate these posters to CISD, and we are very excited to see them amongst all of our schools,” said Scott Coburn, the chief marketing officer for the carrier.
At Monday night's school board meeting three people spoke in favor of the signs, with no opposition during the presentation to the panel.
Although Tom Oliverson claimed that he received “extremely positive” feedback as a result of these signs, these signs nevertheless ignite the debate of separation of church and state.
Many Texas school districts have already had several publicised controversies over the past 2 years; the latest one is when several books, including the Bible, were pulled off library shelves within the Keller Independent School District, a school district located north of Fort Worth.