Organization gathers Ten Commandments posters to help Harrison County schools comply with new state law

Published 11:09 pm Monday, July 28, 2025

As the Ten Commandments make their way back into Texas classrooms, a local organization is making sure all Harrison County schools are equipped to comply with the new law.

Members of the First Responder Prayer Force, formerly known as Marshall Prayer Force, along with other volunteers spent this past week prepping and packaging nearly 1,100 posters displaying the Ten Commandments. The distribution project was spearheaded by prayer force member Gen. Vernon Lewis, who serves on a committee with Senate Bill 10 sponsor Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford.

“We found out Phil King actually serves on a 10th Amendment committee with General (Vernon) Lewis. He’s the one in Austin that has gotten this passed through,” Flo Davis, local president of the prayer force, said of how the group became involved.

“So it just kind of came through relationships, of them talking,” she said.

The new law mandates elementary and secondary schools to visibly display — in their classrooms — a poster-sized or framed copy of the Ten Commandments that’s at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall.

According to the Texas Tribune, the poster can’t include any text other than the language that’s outlined in the bill, and no other similar posters may be displayed. The typeface must also be legible. The law also requires schools to accept privately donated posters if they don’t already have any to use.

Davis said the posters were funded through donations.

“I have spent a month ordering from Amazon because we had to get our counts from the school district. We have just short of 1,100 — about 1,080,” she said.

A total of 110 will go to Harleton ISD; 85 to Waskom ISD; 431 to Hallsville ISD; 14 to Karnack ISD; 87 to Elysian Fields ISD; and 350 to Marshall ISD.

Davis recognized volunteers who helped sort and prepare the posters for distribution. Volunteers included the prayer force’s Tuesday noon prayer group, members of First Baptist of Waskom and East Texas Baptist University representatives. The prayer force also thanked the sheriff’s office for volunteering to distribute the posters.

“It’s just been a host of volunteers that have just really prayed about this and prayed over each poster that goes into each classroom that it will just be a blessing to the teachers and students,” Davis said.