Proposed New Laws Targeting TX Public Colleges Would Create a “Climate of Fear and Self-Censorship”
“Taken together, SB 16, 17, and 18 would make Texas public higher education inhospitable for free expression,” said Jeremy C. Young, senior manager of free expression and education at… More
Florida Adopts Even More Punitive Provisions Against Teachers and Students To Implement New Controversial Education Laws
(NEW YORK)-- A new set of rules passed by the Florida Board of Education to implement controversial laws like the “Don’t Say Gay” and “Stop W.O.K.E” acts are “alarming”… More
Q&A with Burbank Unified School District Students
To make Black literature only accessible to students taking advanced courses narrows the amount of students that are able to have the in-classroom reading experience with the guidance of… More
5 Myths about Educational Gag Orders
The legislators behind these gag orders are not interested in a productive back-and-forth with educators; what they want is simply to dictate the terms of teachers’ surrender. More
Letter to Hinds County School District Regarding Termination of Assistant Principal Toby Price
PEN America today sent a follow up letter to the officials of the Hinds County School District, concerning the ongoing adjudication of the decision to terminate former Gary Road… More
For Educational Gag Orders, The Vagueness Is The Point
We find that instead of clarifying the laws, guidance documents have muddied the waters, further eroding academic freedom and students’ right to learn. More
PEN America & FIRE Object to New Restrictions of Free Expression for Mississippi Professors
Today, PEN America and the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) sent a joint letter to the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Education Board of Trustees (IHL) opposing recent changes to… More
Conservatives Oppose Educational Gag Orders, Too
Casual observers of the recent wave of educational gag orders could be forgiven for thinking that views on this issue are perfectly polarized along ideological lines. Conservatives support these… More
Educational Gag Orders Seek to Enforce Compulsory Patriotism
Three New Bills Become Law in Florida, Mississippi, and South Dakota Monthly Roundup, March This post is part of a series from PEN America tracking the progress of educational gag orders… More
Educational Gag Orders In Your Community: A Tip Sheet for Changing the Conversation
Here are a few steps you can take to help change the conversation about educational gag orders in your community. More
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My latest op-ed on school librarians. @becalzada @technolibrary @MaryWoodard @KPekoll @OIF #Freadom @ashleyhopeperez @halseanderson https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/school-library-book-banning-bill-gop-abbott-lege-17857122.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaG91c3RvbmNocm9uaWNsZS5jb20vb3Bpbmlvbi9vdXRsb29rL2FydGljbGUvc2Nob29sLWxpYnJhcnktYm9vay1iYW5uaW5nLWJpbGwtZ29wLWFiYm90dC1sZWdlLTE3ODU3MTIyLnBocA==&time=MTY3OTcwNDU3Nzg4MQ==&rid=NDBiMmRkY2UtYTdjZC00NWU2LWE0NmQtMDZmMTlkNWE2OGIw&sharecount=MQ==
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“#FirstAmendment rights do not stop at the schoolhouse door,” PEN America’s Nadine Farid Johnson reminds
@JudiciaryGOP, highlighting the need to prepare students for "life in a participatory democracy, one that requires us to debate, to understand & to discuss." #StudentsRights