برچسب: censorship

  • Gov. Newsom poised to sign legislation to counter book bans and school boards’ censorship

    Gov. Newsom poised to sign legislation to counter book bans and school boards’ censorship


    Gov. Gavin Newsom

    Credit: AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File

    Three months ago, in a confrontation over the inclusion of LGBTQ+ content, Gov. Gavin Newsom warned the politically conservative Temecula Valley Unified school board that either it replaces an outdated history social studies textbook for elementary school students or the state would buy an updated version on the district’s dime, and fine it for its recalcitrance.

    There was no High Noon, as it turned out. The school board backed down within days and agreed to purchase a more inclusive textbook that a committee of 47 Temecula Valley teachers had recommended.

    But Newsom is about to gain the formal authority to head off similar actions by other like-minded school boards. On Thursday, the Legislature passed Assembly Bill 1078, which his advisers helped craft. The nearly party-line votes of 30-9 in the Senate and 55-16 in the Assembly provided the two-thirds “urgency” margin the governor wanted for the bill to take effect as soon as he signs it.

    The bill, authored by first-term Assemblymember Corey Jackson, D-Perris, in Riverside County, would expand existing state law, including the 2011 FAIR Act, which requires instructional materials to accurately portray the history, viewpoints and experiences of California’s diverse and underrepresented racial, ethnic, and other groups, including LGBTQ+ Californians. It says that school boards that refuse to include materials or remove library books or textbooks that would interfere with the FAIR Act would be committing censorship and discrimination.

    “Schools may not adopt textbooks or other materials or sponsor instruction or activities that promote discriminatory bias against or reflect adversely on persons” on a range of characteristics, including race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, gender identity, gender expression, and religion, wrote Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, a sponsor of AB 1078, in a June 1 letter that referred to the FAIR Act. It was sent to all county and district superintendents and charter school administrators.

    AB 1078 would create a new complaint process for parents and other residents to ask the state superintendent of public instruction to investigate and overrule a board’s book ban if found to violate the FAIR Act or other anti-discrimination laws.  California school librarians report that orders to remove books more often come not from school boards but from principals pressured by parents angered by sexually graphic novels or what they consider age-inappropriate books on gender. 

    In a situation where the superintendent determines that a district school board failed to provide students with sufficient instructional materials in order to avoid FAIR Act compliance, the state department of education would order and provide the textbooks that students needed and fine the district.

    Newsom praised the quick passage of the bill Thursday, saying it would send a message to school boards not to put their own political agenda ahead of the education rights of children.

    “California is the true freedom state: a place where families — not political fanatics — have the freedom to decide what’s right for them,” Newsom said. “With the passage of this legislation that bans book bans and ensures all students have textbooks, our state’s Family Agenda is now even stronger. All students deserve the freedom to read and learn about the truth, the world, and themselves.”

    But Bill Essayli, a first-term Republican assemblymember from Norco, in Riverside County, said that the real intruders on freedom are Newsom and state leaders who are running roughshod over school boards that families chose to elect.

    “You have Sacramento politicians who do not like decisions being made by duly elected school boards, and are trying to erode their control and attack their authority,” Essayli said. “This should be viewed as nothing short of an attack on democracy. And that’s something that we must be very vigilant of.”

    While Newsom had Temecula Valley and rear-guard tactics of conservative boards in mind, the new complaint system could prompt people with opposite politics to demand action against materials and curriculums they claim are discriminatory. Jewish groups have characterized Santa Ana Unified’s ethnic studies treatment of the Arab-Israeli struggle as anti-Semitic. The newly formed Los Angeles-based Coalition for Empowered Education, which says it opposes “dogmatic, politicized agendas in K-12 education across the country,” could be motivated to file complaints of bias in the Liberated Ethnic Studies curriculums adopted by some California districts.

    Jackson said he foresees complaints against districts that have banned the teaching of critical race theory, a school of thought that analyzes white privilege and the persistent and enduring forms of institutionalized racism. Jackson said districts are banning critical race theory as a means to suppress honest discussions of race. But only an investigation could establish a school board’s true intention, he said.

    The problem, Essayli countered, is that “the complaint process is extremely subjective. It puts the determination in the hands of another politician (the state superintendent of public instruction) who has political motives.” Disputes like these should be done by an impartial judge through a lawsuit, he said.

    Troy Flint, the school boards association’s chief information officer, said the uncertain scenarios that the bill could produce are a reason CSBA opposed the bill.

    “There are a number of different ways that people could apply this law beyond what was intended. That’s a byproduct of the fact that AB 1078 was reactive,” he said.

    Flint said the school boards association is troubled that complainants will be able to file directly with the state superintendent, who could intervene without giving school boards an opportunity to respond before making a finding.

    Jackson said he wasn’t concerned about people filing complaints. “I really think that no matter what a parent’s concerns are, they deserve to be investigated. Now, they might not like the outcome of the investigation. But this is not meant to exclude people.”

    He said he would watch the complaint process unfold. “If the state superintendent or the governor feels like this is becoming a problem, then we will address it with cleanup language next year,” he said.

    Incensed by Temecula Valley’s board 

    Newsom was drawn into the issue by the resistance of Temecula Valley’s newly conservative majority to buy an urgently needed new history-social studies series.

    The committee of teachers and parents who volunteered to review proposed textbooks had vetted and recommended Social Studies Alive! Its fourth-grade textbook on California history included a section on the gay rights movement, including the struggle for gay marriage. The majority said they opposed “sexualized” materials for elementary students and the inclusion in a teacher’s guide of material on gay rights activist Harvey Milk, the first gay elected official in California, whom board President Joseph Komrosky denigrated as a pedophile.

    The board’s plan to delay that approval meant Temecula Valley would have begun the year with a 17-year-old out-of-print textbook with insufficient copies for every student, a violation of state law. The state already had the authority to order new textbooks and charge the district in such a situation. 

    The delay also created a dilemma for teachers. As Carolyn Thomas, a Temecula Valley Unified teacher, told EdSource in May, “We also find ourselves in the precarious position of determining how to teach the required state standards while simultaneously complying with our employer’s decision to restrict us from teaching about the historical contributions of diverse individuals.”

    AB 1078 would additionally impose a financial penalty, not for a FAIR Act violation per se, but for a district’s intentional inaction to provide all students with enough textbooks at the start of a year. The penalty would amount to what a district received a decade ago when the state still earmarked funding for textbooks and materials, adjusted for inflation. The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated that would amount this year, in today’s dollars, to about $95 per student or $950,000 for an average district with 10,000 students. For 27,000-student Temecula Valley, that would have been about $2.6 million.

    Jackson said he believes other districts with “extremist” boards have adopted Temecula Valley’s strategy of delay — ignoring buying new textbooks because they include covering the deep history of racism in America and perspectives on ethnicity and gender. “So they are gaming the system,” he said.

    Essayli said that Jackson is reading into their motives, and “I don’t think that is proper to do.”

    AB 1078 had the support of the California Federation of Teachers, the ACLU and some organizations advocating for students of color. Opponents included the county school boards in County and Placer counties, the California Policy Center and the state school boards association.





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  • Learning at Temecula Valley Unified suffers as censorship fears rise

    Learning at Temecula Valley Unified suffers as censorship fears rise


    Credit: Alison Yin/EdSource

    May 12 began as a typical school day for Temecula Valley High School drama teacher Greg Bailey.

    But when he opened his mailbox, he found a printed copy of an email, sent on May 7, complaining that he taught the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Angels in America” by Tony Kushner, which deals with the AIDS epidemic in New York during the 1980s.

    Allegations mounted that Bailey was grooming students and that he forced them to perform a short, explicit scene involving a gay man who makes questionable choices while dealing with the pain of his partner who was dying of AIDS.

    Two days later, he was called to the principal’s office at Temecula Valley High School, and about 48 hours after that meeting, he was pulled out of the classroom and placed on paid leave, leaving his students in the hands of a long-term sub and the theater department that he runs in limbo.

    “Most kids who take Drama 1, that’s the only drama class they will ever take in high school, and my whole goal is to bring in the most important, most talked-about plays,” Bailey said during an August interview.

    “I tell them that it is about the AIDS crisis in the ‘80s in New York, that it contains adult language, that it has graphic situations in it. And it’s clear from the very first day of class in the fall semester that if students are uncomfortable with anything in the material or the way that anyone talks about them, that they just need to come to me, and we’ll make them comfortable because being comfortable in drama class is really, really important.”

    While Bailey has since returned to the classroom awaiting potential discipline, his three-month-plus suspension has had a chilling effect on district teachers, many of whom are having to censor course materials, compromising student learning, for the sake of keeping their jobs.

    Edgar Diaz, president of the Temecula Valley Educators Association, the district’s teachers union, said teachers sometimes feel like they have “36 eyes, 36 cameras” focused on them at any given moment — a situation some say has been challenging, especially since the school board banned critical race theory, temporarily removed the Social Studies Alive! curriculum over a mention of LGBTQ+ activist Harvey Milk and passed measures that would require school officials to notify parents if their child shows signs of being transgender.

    “You just never know what someone else takes as the main focus of what you’re trying to say in a lesson or side conversation, or take something out of context,” Diaz said, adding that teachers fear they’ll be accused of violating the state’s education laws and losing their teaching credentials. “If your credential comes under fire, then you’re no longer able to carry out work anywhere in the state. And that’s a scary thing.”

    The Temecula Valley Unified School District did not respond to EdSource’s requests for comment in response to Bailey’s story or to the allegations raised by teachers.

    In the theater 

    Bailey, who has taught in the district for five years, often incorporates a unit focused on American playwrights.

    At the start of the unit, he briefly introduces and summarizes 10 plays, and students pick one of them to study in groups. “Angels in America” was listed as one of the 10 options.





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  • Bonta backs motion blocking censorship, transgender notification in Temecula schools  

    Bonta backs motion blocking censorship, transgender notification in Temecula schools  


    The LGBTQ+ community rallies in solidarity, opposing the Social Studies Alive! ban in Temecula Valley Unified in June 2023.

    Credit: Mallika Seshadri / EdSource

    California Attorney General Rob Bonta is formally backing a motion to prevent the Temecula Valley Unified School District from implementing policies that could censor instruction about race and gender as well as those that force employees to notify parents if their child shows signs of being transgender. 

    In August, Public Counsel, the nation’s largest pro bono law firm, and Ballard Spahr LLP, filed a case against Temecula Valley Unified School District on behalf of its parents, teachers, the teachers union and students. A hearing on the motion for a preliminary injunction to block the board from enforcing its policies as the case moves forward will take place on Jan. 24. 

    Bonta’s brief, in support of the plaintiffs, marks the first time in recent history that the state has intervened in litigation to curb ideological censorship in the classroom, according to Public Counsel’s Opportunity Under Law project supervising attorney Amanda Mangaser Savage. 

    “The state is recognizing that this case will be a bellwether for courts across the state and for, frankly, states across the nation in terms of what school boards can and cannot do in classrooms,” Mangaser Savage said. 

    “It is abundantly clear under the law that school boards can’t restrict students’ access to ideas on an ideological basis, but that is precisely what is happening.”

    The lawsuit comes after the Temecula Valley Unified School District school board’s conservative majority — elected in November 2022 — banned critical race theory, temporarily took the social studies curriculum Social Studies Alive! off the shelves due to a mention of LGBTQ+ rights activist Harvey Milk in the supplemental material, fired former Superintendent Jodi McClay and passed a policy that would require school officials to notify parents if their child shows a sign of being transgender. 

    Temecula Valley Unified’s school board has since received backlash from the community, which lodged a campaign to recall its three conservative board members — and submitted enough signatures to move forward in the recall process for board President Joseph Komrosky. 

    This isn’t the first time Bonta has opposed transgender notification policies percolating in about half a dozen California districts. He previously opened a civil rights investigation of the same policy implemented at the Chino Valley Unified School District and had called the measures approved by Temecula Valley Unified a “grave concern.” 

    “The attorney general’s participation just really highlights and emphasizes that illegality. It emphasizes the strength of the legal claims that the students have brought here,” Mangaser Savage said. “So it’s really heartening to see the attorney general participate in this and certainly aligns with what we understand to be his commitment to safe, inclusive, equitable schools.”

    Bonta’s brief specifically states that “forced disclosure provisions” regarding transgender students “violate these students’ state constitutional right to equal protection and statutory protections from discrimination.” 

    It also states that the transgender notification policy infringes on student’ right to privacy and discriminates against transgender and gender-nonconforming “students for forced disclosure, and not their cisgender peers.” It further alleges that the policy is based on outdated social stereotypes that being transgender is a mental illness. 

    Bonta’s brief also alleges that board policies censor materials about race and gender and that censoring aspects of a curriculum has to be “reasonably related to legitimate educational concerns,” not based on religious or philosophical disagreements. 

    Censored materials, according to the brief, might include speeches written by Martin Luther King Jr., major court rulings, discussion of the U.S. government’s treatment of Native Americans, study of the women’s suffrage movement and police violence against Black Americans. 

    “These harms aren’t limited to Temecula, students and teachers, although they are certainly the most directly and most significantly impacted. But the threat here is to the entire system of public education in California,” Mangaser Savage said. 

    “When teachers are limited in teaching accurate history, when books are taken off of library shelves, when material that the state has determined is necessary for its students to learn to be meaningful participants in our democracy is being censored … that is deeply problematic and that poses a threat not just to Temecula students again, but to students across the state and to the health of our democracy as a whole.”





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  • How to resist Trump’s order imposing classroom censorship and discrimination 

    How to resist Trump’s order imposing classroom censorship and discrimination 


    The LGBTQ+ community rallies in solidarity, opposing the Social Studies Alive! ban in Temecula Valley Unified in June 2023.

    Credit: Mallika Seshadri / EdSource

    This week’s executive order by President Donald Trump disingenuously titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” is a brazen assault on our educational freedoms and civil rights. The order directs the secretary of education and other department heads to develop a plan to terminate federal funds that directly or indirectly support classroom instruction on systemic racism or provide supportive school services and protections to transgender youth. 

    The order’s sweeping definition of what it calls “discriminatory equity ideology” could lead to a ban on teaching about slavery, segregation, redlining, voter suppression and other historical realities that continue to shape life and opportunity in America today. The order could also result in a ban on ethnic studies, gender studies, queer studies and other rigorous academic disciplines that prepare students to think critically and to live in a multicultural, multiracial society. 

    Equally troubling is the order’s attack on transgender students and the educators who support them. By directing the attorney general and federal prosecutors to coordinate investigations and prosecutions against educators who provide basic support to transgender students, like psychological counseling, or who use the student’s preferred pronouns, the order puts already vulnerable students at grave risk. 

    Put this all together and what results is a stunning proposal for a federal takeover of local education, where the president of the United States dictates what local schools can teach and which type of student belongs in our classrooms. It is also another attempt by President Trump and many of his right-wing supporters to purge our nation’s history of uncomfortable truths and erase the lived experience of people of color, women and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

    While the potential consequences of this order are staggering to imagine, the most effective way to resist it is clear: Schools, educators and communities should not cave in to threats and intimidation and rush to voluntarily comply with this likely unconstitutional and unlawful order. Stay the course, partner with students, families and community organizations, and resist unless and until the courts have authorized any aspect of these outlandish proposals. 

    Trump tried something similar and failed in his last days of his first presidential term by issuing Executive Order 13950, which prohibited federal agencies and grant recipients from conducting trainings that included “divisive concepts” such as systemic racism, white privilege and unconscious bias. The order was blocked by a court in Northern California on First Amendment and Fifth Amendment grounds and later rescinded by the Biden administration. 

    Similar attempts to censor classroom discussion and discriminate against transgender students have also faced legal challenges in states across the country, and most challenges have prevailed. Courts have generally protected local control and academic freedom as essential to democracy and have struck down restrictions on federal funding that essentially coerce states to the point of compulsion. Multiple federal statutes dating back to the founding of the U.S. Department of Education, including the bipartisan-supported Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, also prohibit federal officials from controlling specific instructional content or curriculum, and expressly leave such decisions to state and local officials. 

    Even if there are legal setbacks, it will take time, perhaps years, for the courts to resolve these issues. In the meantime, schools have a legal and moral obligation to protect all students and provide an inclusive and honest education. They should stand firm while legal challenges proceed.

    But the fight for educational justice belongs to all of us, not just to lawyers — and it requires a broader movement. Students, parents, educators and community leaders must speak out and stand firm against this dangerous attack on our values. Together, we must continue to make the public case for inclusive education. This includes sharing stories of how discussions of history and identity have transformed our classrooms and our life journeys. Documenting the positive and life-saving impact of supporting LGBTQ+ students. Helping parents understand why preparing diverse teachers to work with students of all backgrounds makes education better for everyone. And importantly, we must document the harm this order would cause to students’ educational experiences. These stories and voices — not just legal arguments in court — will ultimately determine whether we can build schools that truly serve all students.

    In the meantime, stand firm, keep supporting all students and continue teaching truth. 

    •••

    Guillermo Mayer is president and CEO of Public Advocates, a nonprofit law firm and advocacy organization that challenges the systemic causes of poverty and racial discrimination by strengthening community voices in public policy and achieving tangible legal victories advancing education, housing, transportation equity and climate justice.

    The opinions expressed in this commentary represent those of the author. EdSource welcomes commentaries representing diverse points of view. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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