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Resident urges board to support teachers amid state bills targeting curriculum and reading materials
Summary
During public comment the district heard a resident raise concerns about recent state legislation that leaves definitions of "obscene" and similar terms unclear and about pending bills that would remove affirmative defenses for teachers who use materials for educational purposes.
At the March 9 meeting, a resident addressed the board during the citizens-to-be-heard period to ask trustees to support teachers amid state-level bills that affect curriculum and book selection.
What was said: The speaker said the state's HB 900 (the Reader Act) and other measures use terms such as "obscene" or "explicit" without clear definitions, leaving classroom professionals uncertain about what materials are permissible. The resident warned that lack of clarity forces teachers to self-censor and avoid challenging texts even when those texts serve clear educational objectives.
The speaker also cited two bills then under consideration (SB 412 and HB 267) that she said would remove or narrow the affirmative defense teachers currently use when providing materials for educational purposes; that change would, the speaker said, increase the legal exposure of teachers who select classroom texts. She urged trustees to publicly and privately make clear to teachers that the district supports them and will stand behind professional instructional choices as allowed by law.
Context: The resident framed the remarks as a follow-up to comments she made at an earlier meeting and urged trustees to back English teachers in particular, who she said are frequently targeted. The board stopped the public comment when the speaker reached her time limit.
What the board can act on: The comment was a request for moral and political support to protect teachers making professional decisions about curriculum and classroom texts. The speaker asked the board to communicate to staff that the district will provide backing for teachers within the limits of state law and to continue monitoring the bills named in her remarks.
