Louisiana leaders go Skibidi, Ohio, with Ten Commandment classroom posters

Listen to a conversation among middle schoolers in Louisiana and beyond, and you’ll discover they have invented a language of their own. You can count me among the fogeys who have trouble translating.  

Tweens and teens are just doing what we all did at their age, using words everyone already knows but with totally different meanings. For example, “cake” doesn’t mean what you think it does, and Ohio isn’t just a state any more. 

Then there are the contrived words that might as well be a foreign language. “Skibidi” tops the list, and I’ve yet to meet a fellow adolescent parent who can fully explain what it means or why “sigma” is needed for added emphasis.  

I can’t help but think the tables will be turned should Gov. Jeff Landry, easily Louisiana’s top Republican “rizzler,” and Attorney General Liz Murrill prevail in their defense of a new state law that will require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in school classrooms. Teachers and parents will have to be ready to answer questions about the meaning of words such as “covet,” “adultery” and “maidservant.” 

Louisiana faces a lawsuit from the parents of nine public school students who argue the requirement to display the Ten Commandments at schools violates the First Amendment’s ban on government-endorsed religions. Landry and Murrill appeared together Monday at a news conference to say they’re asking the federal judge handling the case to throw it out because no displays have gone up yet.

Proponents of the new law have consistently argued that the tenets handed down to Moses have historical value and therefore merit prominent placement in educational settings. In that light, Landry and Murrill unveiled a series of posters that partner the Ten Commandments with historical and pop culture figures.

For example, one poster features a quote from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in which she references the Ten Commandments as one of the world’s “four great documents.” Another juxtaposes “Moses the Lawgiver” with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who the poster says faces a marble relief sculpture of Moses “when he assumes his position on the dais.” 

There’s also Moses and Martin Luther King Jr., who the poster says required “Birmingham campaign volunteers” to sign a card as their pledge to follow the Ten Commandments for Non-Violence.

Yet another poster places movie Moses, as portrayed by the late Charlton Heston, and the Ten Commandments next to Lin-Manuel Miranda, in costume as the lead character in his Broadway hit “Hamilton.” Underneath Miranda are listed the “Ten Duel Commandments,” taken from the lyrics of a song from the musical. 

If you’re not familiar, the song is a prelude to the armed showdown between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. “Get some pistols and a doctor,” reads the fourth Duel Commandment. “Look them in the eye; aim no higher,” reads the ninth.

Let’s put aside the references to firearms in the classroom for the time being to appreciate the effort our Republican state leaders have made here. 

Effort to do what? That’s not exactly clear.

Maybe it’s to make the Ten Commandments relevant with pop culture. Or perhaps it’s to single out liberal figureheads in hopes of winning over opponents of the law. 

But any such interpretation becomes difficult when you absorb the “Memes and Law” poster the governor and attorney general displayed.

The poster features a photo of the character Regina George (Rachel McAdams) from the 2004 film “Mean Girls”asking “Why are you so obsessed with me?” with the Ten Commandments listed underneath her. On each side are headlines taken from reports of the American Civil Liberties Union suing local governments and school boards over Ten Commandment displays.

What’s the point here? Even a middle schooler could figure it out. 

Pettiness is the clear goal, and Landry and Murrill conveniently ignore that in each case the poster references with a headline, valuable public resources and time were expended in support of a lost cause. 

Of course, mixed signals from the current U.S. Supreme Court leave some doubt over whether a long string of precedents that knocked down Ten Commandments displays will be ignored if arguments over the Louisiana law reach the nation’s highest court – which is a goal for many Republican leaders these days. But it doesn’t disguise that the classroom posters are political displays, rather than historic ones — and certain to be ineffective in addressing real classroom concerns such as mass shootings and poor learning outcomes.

To borrow more terms from the vernacular of today’s youth, the posters are just “cringe” — and you can bet your “gyat” students will feel the same.