Op-Ed: Bucks County school districts lead troubling literary trend
A dangerous phenomenon is spreading across public school districts in Pennsylvania and the nation. Some newly elected school board members who ran on a “freedom platform” in response to the pandemic are now working to take away cherished and vital freedoms from students, parents and teachers. These new policies are trampling important legal rights, denying parents’ freedom to make choices for their own children, and making it harder for teachers to teach and students to learn.
Two Bucks County districts are leading this worrisome trend. In recent months, the boards of the Central Bucks and Pennridge school districts have put forth dangerous policies in the name of protecting students from a number of invented “problems” and purportedly advancing parents’ rights.
In Central Bucks, a newly enacted policy is designed to ban and remove “inappropriate” library books and could lead to the exclusion of classics like Romeo and Juliet and stories with LGBTQ characters. In Pennridge, proposed policies would also forbid students from communicating about any issues or events not explicitly part of the school curriculum, prevent teachers from engaging in “advocacy” (a vague term that is not defined), and dramatically limit teachers’ ability to cover many current events.
These are classic scare tactics. Every one of these policies is designed to stir up fear and chip away at freedom. They undermine students’ freedom of inquiry and freedom to express themselves — depriving students of both First Amendment rights and essential skills for participating in a democracy. They limit parents’ choices to decide what is best for their children and their families. They make it impossible for teachers to do their jobs effectively.
We already see how merely proposing these policies creates a suffocating atmosphere where teachers worry they will be disciplined for saying the wrong thing. And students, especially those from marginalized groups — including children of color and students who are immigrants or identify as LBGTQ — now feel targeted, like they are under siege.
Take Pennridge’s latest draft proposal that would forbid students to “disseminate non-school materials to others.” This could apply to any message not approved by the school — slogans on t-shirts or buttons, stickers on notebooks and backpacks, and any message shown to others on a smartphone or tablet screen.
Under this proposed policy, the school could discipline your child for bringing in the “wrong” book, sharing a news article about a controversial issue, or displaying an unapproved message on clothing or personal property. Or even for inviting their friends to an off-campus event.
These policies aren’t just about taking away students’ freedom of speech and thought; they also impact district staff. While many districts prohibit teachers from engaging in political campaigning on the job, Pennridge is replacing such a ban on political expression with a broader ban on “advocacy,” which they don’t define. Teachers will steer clear of any content that is remotely controversial, which will quash important and even essential educational content.
The new and proposed policies also undermine parents’ rights. While many of these board members claim to empower parents, what’s really happening is that a small faction of people is deciding what’s right for all students and parents, removing all other options. Every family is different, with varying backgrounds, religious beliefs, cultural traditions and values. Schools and libraries need to serve everyone.
The new policies, like the “Library Materials” policy the Central Bucks’ board adopted, will guide future book acquisition in a way that will reflect the extremist board members’ parochial political, cultural, and religious views. Their personal viewpoints cannot decree for everyone else what all students can and cannot read. Again, that’s not freedom.
Parents already have meaningful ways to supervise their child’s education. When school board members or their hand-picked designees impose their narrow view of what they find acceptable to restrict available books, they override the choices of families who have different traditions and values. That's the opposite of freedom. That’s Orwell’s 1984, which might now be on the endangered list in the Pennridge or Central Bucks libraries.
At the ACLU of Pennsylvania and the Education Law Center, we have received calls from parents in school districts across Pennsylvania concerned about school board members advancing similar restrictive policies that hurt students’ learning opportunities. We stand with parents who want a rich, inclusive education for their children and don’t want schools trampling on fundamental rights. We encourage parents and students to advocate for their school boards to maintain these principles to serve all students. We are ready to fight alongside communities against policies like these to prevent their adoption and enforcement.
Vic Walczak is legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. Maura McInerney is legal director of the Education Law Center-PA.
This article originally appeared on The Intelligencer: Op-Ed: Bucks County school districts lead troubling literary trend
