The state of California has settled a lawsuit that challenged a public school policy that allowed prayer to Aztec religious gods.
The non-profit Californians for Equal Rights Foundation along with parents Eric Gonzales, Steve Houbeck, and Jose Velazquez sued the California State Board of Education (SBOE), the State Department of Education, and SBOE President Linda Darling-Hammond in San Diego Superior Court on Sept. 3, 2021.
"There are a lot of problems with curriculum in public schools in California and the only way we're going to restore any sanity is by fighting back and by getting good people elected in these important positions," said Paul Jonna, special counsel with the Thomas More Society. "We have to fight back. Otherwise, if you just give them free reign, they will destroy our schools. It's important to fight back."
Although the Thomas More Society represented the parents on a pro bono basis, the settlement included $100,00 for legal fees.
“Thomas More put a lot of time into the case so that money represents part of the time they spent,” Jonna told the Southern California Record. “The state obviously had to fund the defense of the lawsuit but no other money is being paid out as part of the settlement.”
At the core of the lawsuit is one of the authors of Rethinking Ethnic Studies, R. Tolteka Cuauhtin, whom the SBOE appointed as chair of the committee designated to developing an ethnic studies model curriculum.
“In the chapters of Rethinking Ethnic Studies written by Mr. Cuauhtin, Mr. Cuauhtin demonstrates an animus towards Christianity and Catholicism – claiming that Christians committed theocide [killing of Gods] against indigenous tribes. On information and belief, Mr. Cuauhtin’s response to this alleged theocide is to include in the ethnic studies curriculum various prayers that are based on indigenous religious principles,” the complaint states.
However, the U.S. and California Supreme Courts have ruled that prayer in public schools is prohibited
"The way to regenerate those indigenous spiritual traditions, according to Tolteka apparently, is to have kids chant the names of five deities and these are the gods worshipped in connection with human sacrifice," Jonna said. "The kids are supposed to ask for their blessing, their intercession and to praise them. These were the same gods that were invoked when they would rip out human hearts and flail their victims and all kinds of terrible atrocity. This was intentional. The prayers were included in the curriculum because he thought that's what we need to do to make up for killing their gods."
The settlement include the Department of Education informing all the school districts that the curriculum is required to be removed and shouldn't be used.
“They also promised never to encourage the use of the prayers,” Jonna added “We accomplished everything that we wanted in this case, which is a removal of the prayers. So, I'm very pleased. Cuauhtin is still around. He's still helping school districts. If school districts are using these prayers, even though the state removed them, then we'll be looking at more litigation.”