Six Memphis public schools set to open in the fall could face legal trouble after agreeing to a morality clause in a two-year lease for classroom space from the Catholic Diocese of Memphis.

The Compass Community Schools network signed a lease agreement that contains a clause agreeing not to teach anything that goes against the teachings of the Catholic Church.

...The clause could also cause a chilling effect on both students and staff and create complications of oversight of a public school by a religious organization, said Charles Haynes, founding director of the Religious Freedom Center..

"A public school is a public school," he said. "It may not in any way be entangled with a religious group that in any way limits what it can and cannot teach. That’s clearly unconstitutional."