Robin Steenman pulled her daughter out of public school over a mask mandate last year but is keeping her out until the school board bans books she says make
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In May, Gov. Bill Lee signed HB 580, a law aimed at banning so-called critical race theory from schools. Educators argue that critical race theory is not taught or included in the K-12 curriculum and is usually an elective class in college or law school.
Section 51, part 6 of the Tennessee law makes lesson plans illegal if students “feel discomfort, guilt, or anguish.”
[Moms for Liberty's] Steenman doesn’t like a lot of the curriculum at Williamson County Schools. But four books in the second-grade lessons plans are the target of her campaign.
Three of the books, about the civil rights movement, are problematic for the way they’re taught, she says. One is a
children’s book about the March on Washington written for young readers.
Two tell the story of Ruby Bridges, a 6-year-old who integrated an elementary school in New Orleans in 1960. “Ruby Bridges Goes To School,” written for elementary school students by Bridges herself, is fine for kids to read, Steenman says. But she says
teachers should not be allowed to lead discussions of the pictures in the book – one of which is the famous Norman Rockwell painting of Ruby, the US Marshals who had to protect her from an angry segregationist White crowd, and the ugly slur hurled at her by adults.
Florida bill to shield people from feeling ‘discomfort’ over historic actions by their race, nationality or gender approved by Senate committee
The legislation would prohibit individuals from making people “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin.”
The law, which passed, has been declared
unconstitutional with respect to employers and universities, on the basis that it restricts free speech. But it still applies to K-12, and obviously it restricts free speech that might cause students 'discomfort'.
