Williamson County School Board to Consider Religion Policy Monday

The Williamson County School Board will vote Monday on a policy required by a new state law that seeks to prevent religious indoctrination in Tennessee schools.

Earlier this year, the General Assembly passed a law, sponsored by Rep. Matthew Hill (R - Jonesborough) and Sen. Mike Bill (R - Riceville), requiring school boards adopt policies "regarding the appropriate inclusion of religion in local curriculum and instructional materials" prior to the start of the 2016-17 school year.

The move came as a reaction to complaints from parents, particularly in Williamson and Maury counties, that a new 7th-grade social studies textbook's unit on Islam was tantamount to "Muslim indoctrination."

In an interview with WSMV last year, the parent of a student at Freedom Middle, part of the Franklin Special School District, said she was concerned about the amount of time students spent studying the world's second-largest religion.

“In all of the homework my children have ever brought home, I have never seen the level of detail about other religions,” Laura Jones told the news station. “I don’t want to come off as anti-Islamic. They should spend fair and equal time with all religions.”

Parents raised concerns that learning the Five Pillars, the basic tenets followed by Islam's 1.3 billion followers, was analogous to promoting the religion. Lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R - Franklin), called for changes to the state's social-studies curriculum, though the Department of Education noted that students learn about all of the world's major religions by the time they graduate, including a unit on the rise of Christianity at the end of sixth grade which is repeated at the beginning of seventh grade.

In any event, Williamson County's proposed policy prohibits the promotion of a religion or any instruction which might be construed as evangelism, though it does acknowledge the educational value of learning about world religions and differentiates between education and religious instruction

"However, 'teaching about' religion in a public school setting is not 'instruction in' religion. Teaching about religion in a Tennessee public school setting includes the study of various religions consistent with standards established by the Tennessee Department of Education. Instruction in religion, by contrast, is to seek acceptance of and commitment to a particular religion or set of religious beliefs, or to seek rejection of any particular religion or set of religious beliefs," the policy reads in part.

The Williamson County School Board will meet 6:30 PM Monday in the auditorium at the WCS Main Office at 1320 West Main in Franklin.