How does a teacher go from Louisiana’s 2020 Teacher of the Year, to suing the state to protect his classroom? Just ask Chris Dier.
A Louisiana native and AP U.S. history teacher, Dier is well known for valuing a multicultural and equitable class environment. The switch from greatest teacher to greatest critic may seem strange to some, but for Dier, it made perfect sense.
In June, Gov. Jeff Landry signed House Bill 71 into law, requiring that every public school classroom display a visible poster of the Ten Commandments, sparking immediate outcry from students, parents, teachers and religious leaders.
There are currently two ongoing lawsuits against the state because of this law. The ACLU is leading the charge on one of them on the behalf of religious leaders, parents and their children. A recent update in the suit has temporarily stopped the law from being implemented.
Dier, who is also a doctoral candidate, is the plaintiff in the second case. His case argues that “H.B. 71 coerces [schools] into state-mandated religious observance.” If proven true, the law would be found to violate three of the First Amendment’s clauses: free speech, free exercise and the Establishment Clause.
The Establishment Clause prohibits the favoring of or the establishment of religion while also preventing the government from “prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Louisiana Record states the lawsuit might harm Dier and his students by forcing them to follow specific Protestant beliefs, saying it could “interfere with parents’ rights to guide their children’s spiritual upbringing while subjecting teachers like Dier to adverse professional consequences should they refuse compliance.”
Dier said he remembers the day he learned the law passed. He posted to X (Twitter) and Threads explaining why he is against the law, and the posts went viral.
This law would impact every public school classroom in Louisiana, and Dier says it would have a “horrible effect on students.” He points to the fact the state would be establishing a preferred religion and teachers would be forced to “proselytize a certain denomination of Christianity. And it’s going to show students that are different denominations, or who are not Christian, that they are inferior the moment they step into the classroom.”
Dier mentioned studies that found that students that didn’t feel valued and didn’t feel like they belong underperformed compared to other students. MIT’s Teaching + Learning Lab references three different studies when analyzing the importance of a sense of belonging for students. Despite this, the prospect of suing the state was still daunting.
“It took me a month to actually agree to be a plaintiff. I was worried about what my job might look like, what my coworkers would think, or how the governor might react, or the superintendent. So I was nervous in that regard,” Dier said. Though he was worried about his work environment, Dier said he was never worried about the social aspect.
In a recent TikTok, Dier characterized his opposition to the law as, “Not an attack on Christianity, but rather it is a stance against Christian nationalism and a stance for the civil liberties of teachers and students.”
Dier expanded on what Christian nationalism is and how it relates to the passing of the Ten Commandments law.
“Christian nationalism is not like Christianity at all. Christianity is a religion that practices peace and love and tolerance and belonging, at its core. Christian nationalism is the bastardization of Christianity for political purposes. So people in power can manipulate people,” Dier said. “One of them is a religion followed by billions of people, and the other is a political movement that is manipulating and exploiting that religion for political purposes.”
According to Dier, Christian nationalism is affecting schools in an incredibly disastrous way. “What we might have is a complete erosion of the separation of Church and State.”
He continued by saying that if the Establishment Clause continues to weaken, then “our schools are going to be used as political tools for politicians and for religious groups. And we will see the marginalization of Muslim students, Hindu students, Jewish students, even in this case, Catholic students.”
The historical nature of the moment isn’t lost on Dier, particularly because this isn’t the first time in U.S. history that religious politics had found their way into the classroom.
“This is a historic moment. Now we have a modern day Scopes Trial, in a different way,” Dier said. The Scopes Trial happened in the early 20th century when Tennessee tried to prosecute a high school teacher for teaching evolution in public schools.
“What we’re doing now is defining the soul of our nation. Are we going to be a nation that is going to perpetuate Chrisitan nationalism in Christian schools and public arenas and further marginalize non-Chrisians and erode the Constitutional liberties of millions of people?” Dier said.
Interestingly enough, Dier noticed something in H.B. 71 that appears to have been overlooked by the law’s authors. Within the text of the law, there are quotes incorrectly cited to be by James Madison.
“It’s fascinating that if a student of mine turned in a paper with a fabricated quote from the framer of the Constitution, a main author of the constitution, I would give a zero, and I would have them redo it,” Dier said. “It’s interesting that the threshold for what passes in AP U.S. History level class is higher than what passes in the Louisiana Legislature.” He continued by calling it embarrassing, and that it highlights the point that the framers of the Constitution never intended the Ten Commandments to have anything to do with the document.
It was inevitable that Dier’s status as the 2020 Teacher of the Year was going to turn heads once the lawsuit launched, but he said the state now has to, “contend with the fact that someone that they chose to represent Louisiana is now standing up for students … I didn’t change. I always wanted to stand up for the civil liberties of my students and my colleagues.”
