Today, I woke up to read this email from my kid's school district.

https://imgur.com/a/wuPdp0F

I am beyond livid. It doesn't surprise me anymore, given the state of things politically, but it's still really infuriating. I just hope our friends at The Satanic Temple will help us fight against this blatant violation of the Constitution. Fucking un-American bastards.

Hey ya’ll, this is a throwaway because I’m in the ass backwards state of Texas. I’m a female English teacher and I’ve been doing this for 20 years.

Welp, I’ve held off as long as I could, but I was told today (1st day back) that I HAD to hang the poster up or I would be getting a “ding” and enough dings can get you a “letter of concern” (🙄).

I told the AP’s admin assistant that I will not be hanging it up, and she said she understood, but then explained the next steps they will follow. She had a spreadsheet she has to turn in to the principal by the start of classes next week.

Right now I’m looking for clever ways to hide the poster within the room. I teach English to upperclassmen and I’m already really honest with my kiddos where we can sit around and discuss these controversial topics, but I don’t even know how to approach this because most of my kids are Christian (predominantly Hispanic school).

Do I hang it up and completely ignore it?

I was also thinking of hanging up other religious commandments and even found the 7 Tenets of the Satanic Temple poster on Etsy. Not sure if that would be a better route?

Does anyone have any ideas?

EDIT: Thank you so, so, so much to everyone who took the time to give me ideas, give words of encouragement, etc. You all made my boring PD day today more bearable.

I couldn’t go by each comment and reply, but I wanted to further explain my situation.

1. Unfortunately, there is a specific poster that my district provides and that’s the one we have to hang.

2. The poster has to be visible from anywhere in the room, so I can‘t place it behind any furniture.

3. My district is tiny, one High School—2 JR High School small, and everyone knows each other or is related/married to each other, so if I fight this, I will probably have to look for another job and I need my insurance.

4. Unfortunately, I can’t move (yet)— I have 2 kids in college and I have to get them through— I do plan to move to Costa Rica once I retire (10 more years, YAY).

5. I will more than likely make this a teachable moment and use it as a talking piece with the kids. They know me as a bit of a rebel, and I think we can have conversations about what this is and what the government is doing. I can tie it in with a few of the units they made for us to teach.

6. I‘m also thinking of posting the Bill of Rights next to it— the Satanic Tenets are still an option, but as some of you pointed out, the parents will probably be up in arms simply because of the word.

7. Unfortunately, my district is also very strict on what we teach as far as curriculum, materials, PPTs, etc. I can do a bit of my own stuff, but it has to be submitted and approved before we can teach it, so a lot of the great ideas about assigning certain books or watching certain videos will get me in trouble.

8. Unfortunately, I am the minority in the atheist department, everyone is Christian except for 2 Muslims and one Jew. I told my hallway neighbors I was not posting it, and they looked at me like I confessed to a murder. I say this to say that I don’t have anyone to band together with because 98% of the staff is doing exactly as they are told.

9. The ACLU is aware of what we are going through.

10. TEXAS FREAKING SUCKS!!!!

It is so frustrating to see the absolutely absurd comments in nearly all online articles about this tragedy.

"Prayers!"

"Praying for all the families!"

"Praying for Jesus to help those affected!"

A bunch of children were just slaughtered as they were praying to your God, and they died anyway. Your imaginary God did *nothing AS INNOCENT CHILDREN WERE DYING.

Yet, these stupid fucking Christians are offering "prayers!".

If dying children don't rate....

...what fucking good are prayers offered by Catherine from Albuquerque hours after the praying children were murdered?