Teachers, Parents File Lawsuit Against New Hampshire’s ‘Divisive Concepts’ Law - U.S. News & World Report
A group of educators and parents in New Hampshire, backed by the American Federation of Teachers, filed a federal lawsuit Monday challenging the state’s restriction on teaching “divisive concepts” in public schools – one of the first lawsuits in the country to take on the wave of contentious legislation stemming from the GOP-backed culture war against critical race theory.
“This law has created fear among teachers who are not actually violating any New Hampshire law but fear they could be targeted without evidence by people with a political agenda,” Deb Howes, president of New Hampshire’s AFT chapter, said on a call Monday. “Educators are terrified of losing their teaching license over simply trying to teach.”
The lawsuit, filed Monday morning in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire in Concord, alleges the law is at odds with the state’s Constitution, prevents teachers from meeting certain education standards and violates their constitutional rights to free speech and due process.
New Hampshire is one of eight Republican-controlled states that’s passed laws aimed at restricting how educators teach or talk about racism, sexism, discrimination and other topics related to inequality. At least a dozen other states are considering similar measures.
New Hampshire’s law, which Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed in June, bans teaching that certain groups of people are inherently racist, sexist or oppressive in other ways – even if it’s an unconscious bias – and also bars staff training that involves those concepts. The bill’s language mirrors an executive order issued by former President Donald Trump, which was subsequently scrapped by the Biden administration – though not before gaining popularity in New Hampshire among parents who were critical of the state’s COVID-19 restrictions and a handful of conservative and white nationalist organizations in the state.
The law is enforced by residents of New Hampshire, who can log onto a website to report teachers they believe are flouting the new rules or sue the school district over educators they believe are violating the law. The law also allows the State Board of Education to terminate teache
“Nothing in this language prevents schools from teaching any aspect of American history, such as teaching about racism, sexism, or slavery – it simply ensures that children will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, gender, sexual identity, or religion,” Sununu said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed.
While the measure does not ban teaching about race or racism, educators say the language used is vague about what the law allows and does not allow – the state’s attorney general has had to clarify the statute at least three times already – and has created a culture of fear.
Indeed, last month, Moms for Liberty, a national conservative group, tweeted that they would give $500 to the first family in New Hampshire who successfully filed a complaint against a teacher.
“These educators are faced with an excruciating Hobson’s choice – all at the hands of this effort to smear and shame educators,” Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.7 million-member teachers union, said on the call Monday.
That was the case for John Dube, a high school history teacher at Timberlane Regional High School and one of the plaintiffs in the case, who, according to court filings, signed an online petition promising to teach “honest” history after the law was passed. But a New Hampshire-based right-wing group published all of the names of teachers who signed the petition, pledging to “shame” them on social media. According to court filings, Dube was subject to online harassment, threats and obscenities, which required intervention from local law enforcement and the FBI.
“He continues to fear for his own personal safety and, in fact, has had to install personal security and safety equipment at his home in light of the threats,” the court filing reads.
Other plaintiffs complained of having to significantly curb what they teach in class and avoid certain topics altogether out of fear of being targeted.
The federal lawsuit specifies that the law is at odds with the state’s Constitution, as well as a pre-existing law that mandates schools teach “intolerance, antisemitism and national, ethnic, racial or religious hatred and discrimination that have evolved in the past” and that students learn about controversial events from multiple perspectives and ideologies.
“Either teachers attempt to follow a law so defectively vague and broad that they can’t fulfill their instructional duties to adequately educate their students or they choose to teach as they have and as the state law has long required, and risk career-ending repercussions,” Weingarten said.
source: https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2021-12-13/teachers-parents-file-lawsuit-against-new-hampshires-divisive-concepts-law
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