FARGO — A bill has been introduced at the North Dakota Legislature requiring a new addition to every public classroom in the state: the Ten Commandments.

House Bill 1145 is proposing the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom and every higher education classroom. That goes for all state educational institutions and public schools.

Ultimately, what’s being proposed is that the text of the Ten Commandments would be placed in every classroom, but some are worried about the message that would send to students and their families.

Those behind the bill claim North Dakota’s Constitution was based on values that derive from the Ten Commandments.

“It just seemed not only important and necessary, and it just kind of dovetailed into being able to put the Ten Commandments back into the public square,” Sen. Jose Castaneda, R-Minot, said.

And while North Dakota’s newest legislative session just got underway, the topic is not new to the state.

A similar discussion took place in 2021 in North Dakota, passing through the state House and Senate, but that bill didn’t require the text be posted. And the Ten Commandments monument in Fargo has long stirred controversy.

Castaneda argues placing the text of the Ten Commandments in every classroom will instill North Dakota’s values in children.

“It’s important for everyone to be able to see them, and where do children spend their time? It’s in the classrooms,” he said.

The commandments would need to be displayed on an 11-by-14 inch poster, and the state Board of Higher Education would be allowed to spend money to purchase the displays.

“To get a high degree of something, there needs to be a lot of repetition, and where children receive that on a daily basis — in the classroom,” Castaneda said.

But some are worried about whether the bill violates the separation of church and state section of the U.S. Constitution.

“Public schools are not Sunday schools, and they are not for religious instruction,” Cody Schuler, the North Dakota advocacy manager with the ACLU, said.

Those against the proposal say the words of the U.S. Constitution should matter in this discussion.

“Really, by the state putting into law mandating one particular version of a religious document, it is showing preference, and that would be a violation, in our opinion, of the separation of church and state,” Schuler says.

The bill has yet to be assigned to a committee.

A bill with similar language was passed last summer in Louisiana before being struck down by a federal judge.

A lawmaker in South Dakota is also proposing the Ten Commandments be posted and taught in public schools.

Isak Dinesen joined WDAY-TV as a reporter in September 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist at WAOW-TV in Wausau, Wisconsin for three years. He graduated from NDSU in 2020, majoring in Journalism and minoring in Sports Communication at MSUM.

A nationwide cybersecurity breach has affected software used by North Dakota public schools, North Dakota Information Technology confirmed Wednesday. It was not immediately clear if any North Dakota student or teacher data was exposed.

The state agency has asked North Dakota principals, teachers and families that use the program PowerSchool to change their passwords.

All North Dakota public schools use PowerSchool to manage student data including enrollment, attendance, scheduling, transcripts and more, according to the NDIT-EduTech website.

The breach — which is still under investigation — affected one of PowerSchool’s customer support portals. The company has since secured the portal, and has found no evidence of ongoing unauthorized activity, according to information NDIT provided to school districts.

North Dakota Information Technology is working with PowerSchool to evaluate the scope of the data breach, the state agency said.

The state has cut off access to the portal as of noon Wednesday to anyone not using the state’s network.

North Dakota Information Technology will provide another update on the incident on Jan. 17 by noon.

Updates also will be posted to the NDIT-EduTech website. 

PowerSchool initially discovered evidence of the incident on Dec. 28, according to NDIT.

“We have taken all appropriate steps to prevent the data involved from further unauthorized access or misuse,” PowerSchool said in a statement to the North Dakota Monitor. “The incident is contained and we do not anticipate the data being shared or made public.”

Drew Wrigley wants to send a message to those who commit offenses against or in the face of law enforcement officers.

“There are too many people that turn to violence when confronted by law enforcement, and we can’t stand by anymore,” Wrigley, North Dakota’s attorney general, recently told Forum News Service. “There has to be an additional penalty. If there is not an additional penalty, they’ll do it every time. … We can’t let it go on anymore. It has to stop.”

And with that goal, he plans to reintroduce a proposal during the 2025 session of the Legislature that he hopes will set minimum sentences for crimes against officers — things like assault on an officer, resisting arrest and fleeing. Opponents contend Wrigley’s proposal will put more people through the court system and crowd jails, according to a Forum News Service report earlier this week. The cost could be in the millions of dollars.

We don’t care about the cost, the potential crowding or any of that. Wrigley’s proposal has merit.

He first pushed the idea during the Legislature’s 2023 session, but it died in surprising fashion. Despite an intent that we see as actually helping law officers do their job — and to protect them better — SB 2107 was derided by some.

Among the new proposal’s bullet points are minimum sentences of:

• 14 days in jail for resisting arrest
• 30 days for simple assault on an officer
• 30 days for fleeing an officer

And if a person commits another crime, the sentences for resisting, fleeing and assault would be served consecutively to that other crime, Forum News Service reported. At present, Wrigley said, sentences of crimes against officers run concurrently with a person’s other crimes. It means offenders of crime against officers often aren’t really punished for it. Thus, Wrigley believes, offenders consider it rational to resist, flee or assault an officer.

It’s been on Wrigley’s mind for some time now. In 2022, he told the Grand Forks Herald that a tightening of laws is needed to help cut down on things like police chases, which endanger not only police but others, too. At the time, he also was pushing for sentencing changes for concealed and discharge of weapons, but police chases and other crime against officers also were discussed.

He notably called police chases “a dramatic problem” and said the public has lost faith in the system’s ability and the will to protect them. Perhaps deep down, police officers might feel the same way, too. And in a time of a shortage of officers — many departments report difficulties filling open positions — doesn’t it make sense to do more to protect those who protect us?

Tougher sentences must be the way forward.

“Some people will say, this is going backward in time. But sentencing reform should be methodical and intelligent. It shouldn’t just be ‘people get out of jail earlier.’ That’s not sentencing reform,” Wrigley said.

Sure, some North Dakota jails are crowded, but that shouldn’t dissuade lawmakers from seeing the merit of Wrigley’s proposal. Mandatory, and tougher, sentences for certain crimes — especially those involving chases, assaults on officers and the like — seem like a common-sense fix to a rising problem.

Herald editorials are written under the byline “Herald editorial board,” since they sometimes include the thoughts, opinions or written input of multiple authors. Editorials generally reflect the opinion of a newspaper’s publisher.