Alabama § 16-40-21 - Scope of Elective Courses; Display of Artifacts, Monuments, Symbols, and Texts.

§ 16-40-21. Scope of Elective Courses; Display of Artifacts, Monuments, Symbols, and Texts.

(a) Elective courses offered pursuant to this article shall be designed to do all of the following:

(1) Teach students about Bible characters, poetry, and narratives that are useful for understanding history and contemporary society and culture, including art, music, social mores, oration, and public policy.

(2) Familiarize students with the following:

a. The contents of the Bible and religious history.

b. The history of the Bible and religious history.

c. The literary style and structure of the Bible.

d. The influence of the Bible on law, history, government, literature, art, music, customs, morals, values, and cultures.

(b) A teacher of a course offered pursuant to this article shall comply with applicable law and all federal and state guidelines regarding maintaining religious neutrality and accommodating the diverse religious views, traditions, and perspectives of students in the school.

(c) A teacher of a course offered pursuant to this article may not endorse, favor, promote, disfavor, or show hostility toward any particular religion or nonreligious faith or religious perspective.

(d) The State Board of Education, in complying with this section, may not violate the United States Constitution, federal law, the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, state law, or any administrative rule or regulation of the United States Department of Education or the State Board of Education.

(e) A school principal may authorize the display of historic artifacts, monuments, symbols, and texts including, but not limited to, religious materials, if they are displayed in conjunction with a course of study that includes an elective course in history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, literature, or other subject area that uses the artifacts, monuments, symbols, and texts as instructional material, as long as the display is appropriate to the overall educational purpose of the course and is displayed only throughout the duration of the course.

(f) The local board of education shall incur no liability and is immune from any liability exposure created by this article.