Sides battle over effort to repeal anti-discrimination teaching in schools
Jan. 12—CONCORD — Public school teachers, students and advocates for minorities and civil rights charged Thursday that the state's ban on teaching discrimination in public schools has muzzled dialogue in the classroom about racism and sexism.
Defenders of the controversial law insist it merely prevents teachers and private employers from openly advocating the view that one race, ethnic group or gender is inherently superior to another.
"The law has nothing to do with real discrimination; instead the law was meant to silence teachers' voices," said state Rep. Peter Petrigno, D-Milford, who sponsored legislation (HB 61) to repeal this language attached to the state budget in 2021.
Petrigno, a retired social studies teacher, was New Hampshire's Teacher of the Year in 2000.
Rhoni Harding of Wolfeboro, an opponent of the bill, said she taught elementary school in Texas and Florida in heavy minority communities where no more than four students in a class were White.
"I don't think kids go to school every day thinking I am different because of my hair or my gender or my race. Adults bring that attitude to the classroom as teachers and I don't think it's healthy," Harding said.
This legislation has at least a shot of passing the closely divided House since Republicans now only have a 201-197 partisan advantage.
If that happens, the bill could end up on life support in the state Senate since the GOP has a 14-10 edge and new Senate President Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, was the chief architect of this final language.
Most of the roughly 100 who turned out to testify in Representatives Hall backed the move to repeal it.
"Giving children a simple place, a safe place to hear and explore these topics in an age-appropriate way ... can help empower them and make the changes they want to see in the world," said Emma Sevigny with New Futures, a public health organization.
The state's two largest unions with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire have brought two lawsuits in federal court, insisting this law is unconstitutionally vague and violates a teachers' freedom of speech rights.
"The banned concepts act is so unclear and vague that it fails to provide necessary guidance to educators about what they can and cannot include in their courses," said Frank Knaack, policy director with ACLU-NH.
Megan Tuttle, a former social studies teacher, is president of the National Education Association of New Hampshire.
"We need to be trusting educators to ensure their kids get the best education possible," Tuttle said.
Self-censoring texts
Some teachers said they have self-censored the teaching of certain texts for fear it would put them at getting what Knaack called the "career death penalty," the loss of their license to teach.
Retired teacher Deborah Brown of Hanover said conservative activists used it to offer cash bounties for any parent who complains that a teacher is advocating discrimination.
"Under the surface of that seemingly open language, there are dark forces that want to dismantle any conversation about race, gender identity, and equal rights," Brown said.
Rep. Jonah Wheeler, D-Peterborough, said as a Black child living in a White town with a White mother he didn't understand the struggles of his race until a third-grade teacher began to teach him about slavery and civil rights.
"I want us as a country to come together but we are not able to do that if we don't understand our full history as it happened," Wheeler said.
But House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, and Deputy Leader Jim Kofalt, R-Wilton, said the claims of critics are unfounded.
"The testimonies we heard today were pure myths and scare tactics. The current law does nothing to prohibit the teaching of racism and its effects throughout history. Despite what you heard, the current law does not mention critical race theory," Osborne and Kofalt said in a statement.
"What it does prohibit is teaching children that some of them are inherently racist based on their skin color, sex, race, creed, etc. Is that not what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called for when he said, 'I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character?'"
Al Brandano of Kensington said parents asked lawmakers for this law to assert more control over what their children were taught.
"This bill will not stop people's' feelings being hurt, it won't create safer spaces and it even won't stop identity crises," Brandano added.
