Schobel did not respond to a request for comment. In a deleted Facebook post that was also copied by a parent and shared with the Smithville Times newspaper, Schobel wrote: “I decided if I get fired for teaching my children about Jesus then I’m getting fired for a great reason!!”

Law over daily Bible readings in public schools was settled in the 1963 landmark Supreme Court case Abington School District vs. Schempp, which declared school-sponsored Bible readings and prayer in public schools unconstitutional.

In the case, Edward Schempp filed suit alleging that his children’s religious freedom rights under the First Amendment had been violated by a Pennsylvania state law that required public schools to begin each school day with Bible readings. The ruling struck down that state law, and distinguished Bible readings in a classroom that are devotional in nature from Bible courses that emphasizes the historic and literary importance of the Bible.

In the Supreme Court’s 1963 ruling, Associate Justice Tom Clark wrote in his majority opinion: “It certainly may be said that the Bible is worthy of study for its literary and historic qualities. Nothing we have said here indicates that such study of the Bible or of religion, when presented objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not be effected consistently with the First Amendment.”

The ruling settled decades of conflicts in and out of the courts over public school-sponsored Bible lessons across the nation.

Sectarian Bible courses have been a part of public education systems in Texas since the early 20th century, according to religious studies professor Mark Chancey at Southern Methodist University, who has studied Bible courses in Texas public schools for over 10 years. Most notable among those programs was the Dallas High School Bible Study Course, which was facilitated by the Dallas school district for more than 60 years. The course included a curriculum that was developed by the school district but taught in Sunday schools, awarding students high school credit until its elimination in 1985.

But even after the 1963 case — and a similar ruling in 1962 that dealt with school-sponsored prayers — many school districts continued the ritual.

“Even after ’63 a lot of school districts continue to read the Bible in the same way — in morning assembly, in homeroom, over the intercom — well into the 1970s, overtly violating the Supreme Court ruling. Knowingly, intentionally violating it,” Chancey said. “That continued for a long time across the country, and definitely in Texas.”

“Even now this sort of thing pops up from time to time,” he said.

The Texas Legislature entered the fray in 2007 with the passage of House Bill 1287, which gives school districts the discretion to offer elective Bible courses to high school students on the Old and New Testament “and their impact on the history and literature of Western Civilization.”

The Smithville school district has not adopted any such program into its curriculum, the superintendent said.

Lucko and other parents remain skeptical that the ritualistic Bible verse recitations captured in the video were taught with objective educational intentions.

“If this teacher is crossing the line here, the teacher is putting the district at risk of a civil lawsuit,” said Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network. “That puts the district and the taxpayers in the district at risk, because the courts have ruled repeatedly that you cannot turn a public school classroom into a Sunday school classroom.”