(NEW YORK)— PEN America today urged Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger to veto HB 333, a bill that would both prohibit, as well as mandate, certain ways of teaching public K-12 students about the events of January 6, 2021. The bill is slated to become law in Virginia if the governor does not veto it before April 13.
PEN America acknowledges the real challenges posed to public education by efforts to distort public memory about the events of Jan. 6. Nonetheless, in an April 2 letter to the governor the writers and free expression organization explained that this bill is the “wrong answer” to that problem, as it mirrors state efforts to censor public education that have been spreading across the country since 2021. Even educational gag orders that are well-intentioned, PEN America explained, effectively chill the learning environment in schools, “substituting dogma for critical thinking and nuance.”
Read the letter in full below:
Dear Governor Spanberger,
I am writing on behalf of PEN America, a free expression and literary membership organization, to respectfully urge you to veto House Bill 333. On behalf of the 135 professional and reader members in the Commonwealth of Virginia as well as our supporters across the state, we advocate against bills and policies that threaten to constrain students’ freedom to learn by stopping educators from introducing specific subjects, ideas, or arguments in their classrooms.
As an organization that has worked to combat disinformation, we understand the need to push back against the false account of Jan 6 being pushed by President Trump and his allies. But we are concerned that HB 333 is the wrong answer. In educational gag orders across the country, we’ve seen a pattern of vague prohibitions and mandates that leave teachers, principals, and school boards to try to parse what exactly is or isn’t allowed in the classroom all under threat of potentially violating state law.
HB 333, for example, prohibits “a description or portrayal of the actions precipitating or involved in the events of the January 6, 2021, insurrection as peaceful protest” from being even “presented” as credible. Subject expert Nora Neus, who recently published an oral history of Jan. 6, has noted that, though the crowd was overall “bloodthirsty and violent,” there were also peaceful protestors present. Might the law suppress the full discussion of actions on that day?
Regardless of legislators’ intentions, codifying content-based restrictions in law subjects teachers to intense scrutiny. Instead of ensuring that students are taught factual information, HB 333 would preclude nuanced conversations that could allow students to grapple with how such a violent day occurred. Dictating the content and perspectives allowed in classrooms should never be in the purview of elected politicians. This is work that should be carried out by academic experts and experienced educators through state curricular processes or local, educator-driven procedures.
Since 2021, PEN America has tracked educational gag orders, legislative efforts to directly restrict teaching about such topics as race, gender, American history, and LGBTQ+ identities. These measures, which have overwhelmingly come from conservative activists and politicians, set the harmful precedent that the state should exercise control over how teachers discuss some topics. These kinds of restrictions on instruction and classroom discussion chill speech in public schools, substituting dogma for critical thinking and nuance. Democrats have largely eschewed these efforts as censorship. Unfortunately, if this bill becomes law, Virginia will follow in the footsteps of a raft of states that have instated viewpoint-specific restrictions on education. This bill could also set a harmful new precedent: legislating what viewpoints are acceptable in instruction on specific, recent events.
We recognize that Virginia educators need resources and guidance on how to teach this subject accurately. We urge you to consider alternative steps such as reviewing educational standards and curriculum as well as investing in professional development opportunities to provide this support.
We hope you will signal Virginia’s commitment to students’ freedom to learn and veto this bill.
Sincerely,
Laura Benitez
Senior Manager, State Policy and Government Affairs/PEN America
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.
Contact: Suzanne Trimel, [email protected], 201-247-5057