Valeria Tokun Haga/THE RIDER
In a May 7 news release, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he will investigate multiple public school districts, with Brownsville and McAllen Independent School Districts being the only Rio Grande Valley districts named, for failure to put the Ten Commandments on their campuses.
The decision came after an appeal to remove Texas Senate Bill 10, which states public elementary and secondary schools shall display in each classroom a poster of the Ten Commandments, but the court ruling said the state can enforce the rule.
The bill was introduced on Feb. 10, 2025, and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 21, 2025. As previously reported by The Rider, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, following a federal district judge’s block in 2025, reversed the lower court to uphold the law on April 21.
McAllen ISD emailed The Rider a statement on Aug. 18 saying “The district is aware of the Attorney General’s announcement and will follow the law as required.”
Timothy E. Cuff, Brownsville ISD superintendent, said one person reached out to donate so far.
“We will put them up … if this person brings the commandments to us, and then we will put them in the rooms as requested,” Cuff said.
Valeria Tokun Haga/THE RIDER
Mark Kaswan, UTRGV professor of Political Science, Public Affairs, Legal and Security Studies, said it is “very odd” how the state set up the bill.
“We don’t know yet if this is going to withstand constitutional muster,” Kaswan said. “It’s the way that Texas set this up is very odd because they said that schools have to have this, they have to display the Ten Commandments, but they can’t just go out and buy a poster themselves. It has to be donated by somebody. … What do you do? How do you hold a school district accountable for not putting them up if nobody donates the posters?”
With Ken Paxton not running for re-election, he said said he thinks the bill won’t be enforced for that long.
“There are lots of laws on the books that are not enforced at all,” he said. “So typically with something like this, I think you’re going to see aggressive enforcement initially. And then it fades. It just fades.”
The Rider reached out to the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. As of press time, they were not available for comment.
