Is the Educational Gag Order and Book Ban Brigade Coming to DCSD?

Estimated Read Time: 7 minutes

Since January 2021, educational gag orders, otherwise known as legislation that prohibits teaching of certain content, have been introduced in 42 states across the United States. Texas State Representative Matt Krause, a candidate for state attorney general, even created a list of 850 books that he felt “makes students feel discomfort.” Some educational gag order legislation has been codified into law in the following states (and this is not an inclusive list): Florida, South Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma, and Idaho. While this may seem far off from Colorado, there is a growing presence of people in our own community who want to ban books and create educational gag orders. 

What started as an extremist, national agenda to dismantle public education, filtered through to our local community. We started seeing our own version of the cries for educational gag orders in early 2021 during public comment at our school board meetings. Fueled by Christopher Rufo creating the “perfect villain” in critical race theory, as he admits, and funded by a litany of corporations and national think-tank organizations, led to false claims that critical race theory is being taught in DCSD schools. For historical perspective, we have seen this type of political strategy play out before in the United States with the named “Southern Strategy,” which was created in response to the passage of civil rights legislation in the 1960s. The playbook was the same, using coded racist and incendiary language to create chaos and division in communities.

It is important to note that these extremists pushing this agenda are never about supporting our youth, or even local communities. Dr. Maurice T. Cunningham, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, says this about this agenda, “They want to create chaos to destroy trust in public education and draw funding away." Notably, the only people who ever win these battles are those who already have the most financial and political power.

The result of the fervor created from this extremist agenda is that Douglas County community members were coming out to make false claims about critical race theory being taught in DCSD, filing complaints about curriculum and books, and rallying against the district equity policy that had been over a decade in the making alongside the district’s other diversity and equity efforts. Local organizations, such as the local chapter of FAIR, the Independence Institute, and the Liberty Girls, also became involved in these false narrative efforts.

Students protest book ban in Pennsylvania in 2021, Photo CNN

Students protest book ban in Pennsylvania in 2021, Photo CNN

While showing up in public comment may seem innocuous, the rhetoric has a negative impact on our district and our students. Actual DCSD district policy has already been shaped as a result of a false narrative created from outside influences. When the Resolution to the Educational Equity Policy was passed on January 25, 2022, by the majority BoE members, it included language that mirrored a near-100-year-old formula to create “moral panic” about potential “unpatriotic” and “divisive” rhetoric of equity. 

The first note of this was a proclamation made in the Resolution about the narrative of the United States: “the United States was founded upon the values of equality of opportunity, where all individuals are created as equals and endowed with inalienable Natural Rights, as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, and enshrined in the United States Constitution, and American law.” It begs the question, why is this language at all relevant in a school district’s Educational Equity Policy?

When the United Daughters of the Confederacy sought to influence school curriculum in the 20th century, one of their tactics was to sanitize United States history. We see this pattern playing out again in the context of the Resolution language: “The United States continues to shine as a beacon for unprecedented individual freedom, equality of opportunity, and prosperity for people from all over the world” and “our American aspirations have not always been achieved, to include, for example, the horrors of race-based slavery and segregation.” 

While likely all of us would agree that we would like to see the United States show up as a true “beacon,” statements like this actually undermine the lived experiences of many of our community members who experience racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, etc., and are a gross misunderstatement of the terror of genocide of Indigenous people and enslavement of Black people in the United States. 

In addition to trying to shape the narrative around the United States, we are seeing members of the community rally against books. As our district policy (the Resolution) was written to profess solidarity with the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, some community members are also attempting to censor books. As Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, notes “Using censorship as a tool is a denial of that liberty, particularly the liberty of the young people who are targeted by these book bans,” which is in direct conflict with the concept of liberty, and also with the idea of “Kids First.”

As a reminder, the current national extremist agenda to dismantle public education is using coded language of “grooming” and “obscenity” to rally against books that affirm the LGBTQ community. George M. Johnson, author of All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto, experienced this as criminal reports were filed against his book alleging violation of state obscenity laws. Notably, the criminal complaints against Johnson’s book continue to be dismissed.  

While we want to dismiss the actions of some community members and groups as innocuous, we need to recognize the impact of these statements: real danger is being created for our students and our community. Author Laurie Halse Anderson, whose books have also been targeted, notes, “By attacking these books, by attacking the authors, by attacking the subject matter, what they are doing is removing the possibility for conversation. You are laying the groundwork for increasing bullying, disrespect, violence and attacks.” 

We’ve seen public displays of racism against a DCSD school board member, antisemetic flyers placed on front porches in Douglas County, heard statements of both parents and students in this community talk about the racism and homophobia they have experienced, and have witnessed firsthand community members mocking LGBTQ students about their gender identity and pronoun use in public comment at BoE meetings.  

The reality is that our youth need to be protected. Coded statements that villainize the LGTBQ community harm the mental youth of our students. Our LGBTQ youth are at a higher risk of suicide due to how they are mistreated and stigmatized, and experiencing racism creates a negative impact on the mental health of our BIPOC youth. 

Accurate and inclusive school curriculum, fiction and non fiction books that affirm BIPOC, LGBTQ, and disabled people are necessary for our youth to feel valued and cultivate compassion for those with differing lived experiences. Author Kalynn Bayron, whose work is also being targeted by book bans, says, “It’s important for young readers who share the marginalized identities of my characters. I want them to know that I see them, and their life experience counts, that it matters, and it means something. But I think it’s equally important for young readers whose identities have historically been represented to see these stories, as well. It lets them have a window into someone else’s existence.” Shouldn’t this be our priority in DCSD? To provide our youth with an opportunity to feel cared for and develop their ability to care for others?

Let’s not end on the perspectives of adults. Let’s hear from some of the youth about their own perspectives. The New York Times hosted a forum asking for youth input on how they perceived these educational gag orders and book bans. Overwhelmingly, their responses were in opposition to book bans. They advocated for their right to learn accurate and inclusive history, gain exposure to a variety of lived experiences, and for the opportunity to develop critical thinking skills.

Censorship and sanitizing ideas and history and weaponizing the lived experiences and identities of others only harms our youth. So when we hear these false narratives, whether it is through national or local extremism, that educational gag orders or book bans put “kids first,” let’s bravely be led by our youth who want to live in a more expansive world. A world that clearly has more kindness, compassion, and integrity.  As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has said, “We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice.  Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity.”

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Book Banning and Educational Gag Orders