Johnnie Cotton, a Texas native, received FFRF’s First Amendment Hero Award after quitting his position as high school band teacher last fall rather than put up a Ten Commandments poster in his classroom. He graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1983 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts and from Texas A&M University in 2005 with a Master’s of Education Administration. He served as a high school principal for nine years in Texas, Alaska and New Mexico, and was director of secondary education for three years in Alaska and Kuwait. He is married to Ruth Cotton, an RN at the Texas State Hospital in Rusk, Texas, has two daughters, a son, two stepdaughters and five grandchildren.
