Alecia Magnifico

I oppose this bill because it is an attack on teachers' and students' freedom of speech that has already been found to be unconstitutional due to its vagueness. In response to the vagueness of the original version of this legislation, many schools and districts white-washed and limited the teaching of content that is central to our nation's history (e.g. the writings and history of people of color and queer people) because school staff were concerned that even raising these topics for discussion might open them up to legal action. The same "chilling effect" would likely happen under this legislation because adding "knowingly" doesn't change the difficulty of interpreting what counts as teaching discrimination under this law. Our students deserve the right to an education that exposes them to the difficult, challenging lessons of the past -- how our nation has made progress and prevented it at various times -- and teachers who can help them make sense of it. Teachers deserve freedom to do their jobs without fear of political prosecution from lawmakers.