If you are a member of the Boston Teachers Union, another education worker, a community member, a student, an alum, or a family member, please sign this petition to demand that BPS, the Boston City Council, and the Boston School Committee release a statement (Linked Here) protecting the rights of teachers to teach real history and engage students in a critical questioning of the world, particularly around issues of racial oppression. Boston Public Schools, in its most recent budget, includes anti-racist practices as one of the pillars of its plan to meet the needs of students. Part of this commitment must include clearly stating that BPS trusts educators to engage in this work with young people. At a time of a national teacher shortage and attacks on teachers, it is important that the city signals its trust in educators!
This petition has been endorsed by: The Boston Teachers Union (BTU), Racial Justice Committee (BTU), Unafraid Educators (BTU), Ethnic Studies Now Committee (BTU), Jewish Voices for Peace, Boston Workers Circle, Boston Liberation Center, Citizens for Juvenile Justice, New England Jewish Labor Committee, BPS Vietnamese Dual Language Committee, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC), Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC), Massachusetts Asian American Educators Association (MAAEA), Citizens for Public Schools (CPS), APALA-MA, A. Philip Randolph Institute Boston Chapter, UFCW Local 1445, Black Teachers Matter Inc.. This is not a complete list and we will be adding more endorsements as we continue to organize! If you are in an organization that is interested in endorsing, please indicate when you sign on!
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NATIONAL CONTEXT
Right now we find ourselves in a critical moment where progressive and social justice values in education are heavily under attack. Legislation that aims to prohibit teachers from teaching real history is being debated or has passed in 42 states. According to PEN America, the free speech advocacy organization that documents book bans nationwide, more than 2,500 books were removed from school libraries and classroom bookshelves as a result of book challenges and bans during the 2021-2022 school year. Many of these books feature writing or characters pertaining to race, civil rights, and LGBTQ+ experiences.
CENSORING AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES
One recent attack originated in Florida where Governor Ron DeSantis is blocking high school students from enrolling in the Advanced Placement African American History course. Administrators from the DeSantis administration accused the course of “lacking educational value.” And instead of swiftly rejecting Florida’s attempts to gut the course, the College Board caved to growing right wing pressure from across the country by making significant reductions to the syllabus. Highlights include removing the names and works of many Black scholars associated with Black feminism and Black queer experiences, changing Black Lives Matter from a required to an optional topic, and adding “Black conservatism” as an option for a research subject. The gutting of the AP African-American course should be viewed in the broader context of anti-CRT hysteria: baseless accusations that progressive and anti-racist educators are “indoctrinating” students by engaging with the topic of race and “grooming” students by talking about LGBTQ+ identities.
ATTACKING QUEER AND TRANS YOUTH AND EDUCATORS
There are serious consequences to these attacks for students, educators, and our whole community. For example, queer and trans students and educators themselves continue to be threatened, which is contributing to a mental health crisis for young people. A 2022 survey by the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization focusing on LGBTQ+ youth, revealed that 86% of queer and trans youth sampled reported negative effects on their mental health as a direct result of the increasingly hostile campaign being waged against LGBTQ+ people nationwide. Nearly half of the youth sampled seriously considered suicide in the past year.
"ANTI-CRT" ATTACKS ON TALKING ABOUT RACIAL OPPRESSION
The origins of the current “anti-CRT” (Critical Race Theory) and “anti-woke” attacks can be traced back to a conservative backlash to the multinational uprisings in response to the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police. While Black Americans were demanding a racial reckoning in all areas of American life, conservative politicians and think tanks claimed that even mentioning race in the classroom was racist. And while many local anti-CRT groups claim to represent parents, they are often funded by wealthy Republican donors who have a national agenda of attacking public education, weakening teachers unions, and undermining the basic rights of people of color and people within the LGBTQ+ community.
ATTACKS ON ETHNIC STUDIES
Even before this current frenzy, the attacks on teaching truth and real history in the US have been ongoing for years. Ethnic Studies courses in particular have been a flashpoint for rightwing attacks against public education, from banning of the Tucson Ethnic Studies program, to the elimination of Arab American Studies curriculum and censorship of the California Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum designed by educators and activists. Ethnic Studies is a course founded on the principles of self-determination, community, and solidarity, rooted in the study of history from the perspectives of Black, Indigenous, Asian American, and Latinx people. These relentless attacks by a range of right-wing groups intentionally disrupt students' critical engagement with complex history and systems of oppression.
FEAR AND BURNOUT
These attacks are nothing more than a new red scare, designed to create a climate of fear in public schools where educators are afraid to teach critical historical perspectives or to even share their own identities in the classroom. Unfortunately, these nationwide attacks are having a profound effect. In the 2021-2022 school year, more teachers than usual reported leaving the profession due to dissatisfaction or concerns about the working environment. One national survey by the RAND Corporation found that more than a third of teachers reported being harassed last school year "because of their school's policies on COVID-19 safety measures or for teaching about race, racism, or bias." Another study found that 1 in 4 teachers in the nation are altering lesson plans due to anti-CRT laws that have been passed or proposed. The anti-CRT attacks are part and parcel of a rising tide of fascism in the United States, and they are happening across the country. Massachusetts and Boston are no exceptions to the trend.
STATE AND CITY CONTEXT
At the state level, the national organization “Parents Defending Education” is now going after Massachusetts districts and educators for policies and practices regarding race, gender, sexuality, and diversity. For example, the organization filed a federal civil rights complaint against Newton North High School, claiming the school excluded white students from auditioning for a student-led play titled, “Lost and Found: Stories of People of Color by People of Color''. However, Newton Public Schools set the record straight: the accusation was untrue. Other “incidents of indoctrination” that the website lists in Massachusetts include having racial affinity groups for students, having “LGBTQ+ Safe Space” signs on classroom doors, holding restorative justice circles, asking students for their names and pronouns, and teaching students about systemic racism or internalized racism.
At the city level, the Ethnic Studies program in Boston Public Schools has faced scrutiny by organizations seeking to eliminate or censor Ethnic Studies by using the same right-wing talking points that have been deployed against districts across the nation. “Parents Defending Education” lists the Ethnic Studies program in Boston Public Schools as a threat, though it offers no explanation of what is inaccurate about the curriculum. Other critics of Ethnic Studies have argued that a curriculum that explicitly names white supremacy will make white students feel guilty and unsafe. In fact, research by scholars such as Christine Sleeter and Miguel Zavala have shown that Ethnic Studies classes improve the educational outcomes and school experience for white students as well as students of color. No matter who these accusations come from, they are clearly drawn from the same conservative playbook that seeks to criminalize educators for teaching historically accurate information.
As union members, we must remember our labor history and recognize that these attempts to divide and weaken us must be met with unity and solidarity. And as students and community members, we know these right-wing attempts to erase our stories and histories from the education system are nothing new - and must be opposed once again.
We are calling on the school district, city council, and school committee to release a statement expressing their confidence in their educators to craft curricula that encourage students to think critically, engage in complex discussions about oppression, and take action to strengthen their communities and challenge injustice. This statement would give educators, students, and community members the confidence to continue doing the work we know is so important in our classrooms without fear.
If you believe that education should include critical thinking, real history, and challenging conversations about society, race and racial oppression, gender and sexuality, identity, and more, then please sign the petition and share it widely. Together we can make our voices heard!
