Free speech under fire in school censorship battles

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The Becker Public Schools board is considering an ill-advised and likely unconstitutional policy that would prohibit "political indoctrination or the teaching of inherently divisive concepts."

The policy would further mandate that classrooms be free of "any personal bias or non-school materials favoring any particular group, political ideology, favored class or promoting controversial issues."

The policy was announced following media reports of LGBTQ students feeling bullied, and a protest over a board presentation by the Child Protection League (labeled by the Southern Poverty Law Center as anti-LGBTQ).

Make no mistake, the Becker policy is a policy of censorship and erasure: an erasure of people, of identity, of our very history. This shocking policy would effectively suppress and penalize speech and teaching about LGBTQ issues and our nation's real and ugly racial history. It even applies to what students can wear or carry, presumably including Pride flags and buttons, Black Lives Matter T-shirts and even the art they create.

That's why the ACLU of Minnesota asked the Becker school board to reject this policy, noting in our letter its potential for serious infringement on the First Amendment, and how it "will effectively gag educators and students from talking about issues of the most profound national importance, such as the impact of systemic racism in our society … and discrimination people of color and other marginalized groups still face."

Sadly, the Becker school board is not alone. In Minnesota, state legislators unsuccessfully proposed a similar bill to create a statewide ban on instruction in critical race theory. At least 16 states have passed laws restricting education on race in schools or state agencies. And of course, there's Florida's infamous "Don't Say Gay" law that bans instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity in the early grades.

This trend is part of a larger movement against facts, truth and science and represents the most significant attack on free speech in a generation. It strikes at a cornerstone of our democracy.

You cannot accurately teach history without teaching about divisive concepts such as discrimination and race. U.S. history IS the history of overthrowing British colonialism, demanding equal rights for women, fighting for acceptance of LGBTQ people, and the battle against white supremacy, from slavery and Jim Crow to ongoing work to dismantle the systemic vestiges of those institutions. Erasing our history does not change our past or its consequences.

Schools are not the place for nationalistic, sanitized histories.

Schools are spaces for robust, vigorous and open discussions about controversial issues. This is especially true today as our country emerges from political upheaval, unrelenting attacks on democratic institutions, and a rollback of women's rights and reproductive freedom. We need to learn from the past, not bury it.

The stakes are high and potential consequences severe. Not even our Constitution would escape unscathed. How could you teach the First Amendment — ratified to protect dissenting political views, unpopular speech and religious freedom — without teaching the "inherently divisive" underlying controversies the Becker policy would ban? Remember its text:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Without history and context, our rights quickly become unrecognizable. How can our children fight for their rights if they are never accurately taught where those rights came from and why they matter?

The ACLU has always fought to protect the First Amendment. In 1969, when schools banned students from wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War, the ACLU argued and won Tinker v. Des Moines, in which the U.S. Supreme Court famously held that students and teachers do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." We believe that's still true today, and the ACLU of Minnesota stands ready to fight government attempts to erase or manipulate history.

Censorship can never win. It is the weak option deployed by tyrants and despots. It threatens our most cherished values. We must be better than that. For our children. And our nation.

Deepinder Mayell is executive director of the ACLU of Minnesota.