Hello, CHANGE.ORG. I am a 15 year old student in Utah, and I have never taken freedom for granted. The liberty to practice your own religion has always been important to me, and so is the separation of church and education.

My goal is to have 75,000 signatures before 2029, which is how long they have to decide which passages will be taught.

Recently, Governor Spencer Cox passed 2 bills, HB312 and SB268. Combined, these 2 bills will require social studies teachers in grades 3-12 in Utah to teach the importance of religious texts and Bible verses in the founding of America.

First, HB312 is essentially the key to a gate they are opening which threatens the freedom of religion. SB268 is the hound beyond said gate. HB312 is a bill that allows for corrections in the curriculum of education, particularly history classes. SB268 makes it mandatory for social studies (history) classes to teach certain religious verses/books because of their significance in the establishment of countries and organizations. There are several problems with this.

First of all, this is unconstitutional and strictly goes against the separation of church and state/education. The ONLY place where religious texts should be taught as part of curricular activity are Christian/Catholic/Mormon/Other schools, and including this in public schools is reminiscent of religious indoctrination in nature.

Another reason this is an issue is because this will force students who are not Christian to read/study Bible texts. I oppose religion in general, but I assume that would go against someone else's beliefs to learn about the Bible, even though their book might be the Quran, the Torah, or any other book. This will also cause issues for non-religious/Atheistic students. 

However, if we get enough, NO ONE can ignore it. If we win, we will be fighting back against religious oppression and Christian indoctrination in public schools, allowing ALL students to feel safer, more welcome, and more comfortable in an educational environment.

If we lose, I project they will begin incorporating it more and more, until all public schools are transformed into boarding schools, and then I greatly fear they will attack science next, which is a subject I hold very close to me.

The main reason we need to stop this before it starts is because this is against the Constitution! The separation of church and state is very important in the United States of America, and if this is broken, who knows how else they might violate the Constitution?