Texas Attorney General Calls Out Wichita Falls ISD Over Senate Bills

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating whether certain school districts are following new senate bills that were recently enacted.

Just in case you were unaware, the State of Texas recently passed SB 10 and SB 11. SB 10 requires all public schools in the state to include the Ten Commandments in the classroom. SB 11 allows school districts and open-enrollment charter schools to implement a period of prayer and reading of religious texts during the school day. For SB 11, the local school board votes if they would like this to be a part of the school day.

Ken Paxton Launching Investigation into Several Texas School Districts

The ISDs under investigation and subject to these requests include Alamo Heights, North East, Austin, Cypress-Fairbanks, Lackland, Lake Travis, Fort Bend, Houston, Dripping Springs, Plano, Northside, Conroe, Galveston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Lubbock, Wichita Falls, McAllen, Amarillo, El Paso, Corpus Christi, United, Texarkana, Victoria, Waco, Abilene, San Angelo, Brownsville, and Beaumont. This list of ISDs includes those that were previously involved in ongoing litigation regarding SB 10. The litigation concluded with a decision that Attorney General Paxton secured from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upholding the constitutionality of SB 10, allowing it to take effect statewide. Attorney General Paxton has also called on districts to put prayer back in schools following the enactment of SB 11. You can read Paxton's full press release here.

WFISD Statement on Ken Paxton's Investigation

The WFISD has stated they followed the proper protocol with Senate Bill 11. Back in February, they voted on whether to require prayer in the classrooms. All seven school board members voted no, you can read more on that in the article above. The WFISD told KFDX, that they're fully compliant in SB 10. Senator Brent Hagenbuch and a local donor provided over 1,000 ten commandments posters for every WFISD classroom.

Ken Paxton is asking for proof of that board vote, but it looks like the WFISD is fully compliant with these new Senate Bills.