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Teachers association files suit to stop Tennessee's 'prohibited concepts' law – Tennessee Lookout [1]

['Sam Stockard', 'More From Author', '- July']

Date: 2023-07-26

The state’s largest teacher organization and five educators are challenging the constitutionality of a two-year-old law against teaching “prohibited concepts,” mainly ideas surrounding race and gender.

The Tennessee Education Association and the group of teachers filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the state’s education commissioner and State Board of Education members, claiming the law prohibits them from teaching “core subjects” in Tennessee standards, putting them in an “impossible situation” and depriving students of a good education. Teachers could be fired or suspended and lose their license if found to have violated the law and school districts could lose funding, the filing claims.

“There is no group of individuals more passionate and committed to ensuring Tennessee students receive a high-quality education than public educators,” Knox County teacher and TEA President Tanya Coats said in a statement. “This law interferes with Tennessee teachers’ job to provide a fact-based, well-rounded education to their students.”

The filing in U.S. District Court in Nashville argues the law is unconstitutionally vague and could lead to subjective enforcement, interfering with instruction on “difficult but important topics.” Teachers largely contend they should never get in trouble for using state-approved books and standards but that the new law on “prohibited concepts” puts their careers in jeopardy.

The lawsuit specifies that the law fails to give teachers a reasonable understanding of what is prohibited, setting up “arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.”

“Laws need to be clear,” Coats said, noting the law conflicts with the state’s standards and curriculum, forcing educators to spend hours trying to navigate the new requirements. The plaintiffs also say the law could make Tennessee students fall behind their peers nationwide.

The filing asks the court to issue a permanent injunction against the law and declare it unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Legislation sponsored by Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, passed on the final day of the 2021 session and was signed into law by Gov. Bill Lee that May. The law is believed by some to be a reaction to heightened awareness of racial crimes, including the death of George Floyd in Minnesota.

The lawsuit contends the ban affects the education of nearly a million students. For example, a Tipton County school replaced a yearly field trip to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis with a trip to a baseball game. Meanwhile, a Shelby County Schools choir director is worried that teaching students to sing and understand the history behind spirituals sung by slaves could be considered “divisive” and a violation of the law.

A veteran Blount County instructor also spent months in administrative hearings and faced losing her job after a parent complained about an award-winning book approved by the local school board and placed in the district’s curriculum.

In addition, the filing points out teachers in third through fifth grade are required to teach how slavery became a national issue in the mid-1800s but because of the ban they can’t include an explanation that the institution of slavery stemmed from the belief that one race was superior to another or that a person shouldn’t face discrimination because of race or sex.

Ragan declined to comment Wednesday on the litigation but gave a statement related to the state law: “Tennessee’s K-12 public and charter school rooms are not political forums. Furthermore, these classrooms exist for the purpose of education, not political indoctrination. Moreover, local education authorities employ educators to teach topics in those classrooms according to the State School Board standards and law. Additionally, these school board employees are not legally authorized to supplement, delete or modify these standards to suit personal political beliefs or opinions.”

Ragan noted that a state ethics code requires teachers to abide by “all applicable federal and state laws.”

Asked whether teachers should be disciplined if they follow state standards and use state-approved books, Ragan said, under the law, the Department of Education is charged with investigating complaints and, if they’re found to be true, to withhold funding from the school district until the matter is resolved. He noted teachers are not mentioned in the section of law dealing with prohibited concepts.







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[1] Url: https://tennesseelookout.com/2023/07/26/teachers-association-files-suit-to-stop-tennessees-prohibited-concepts-law/

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