It is abhorrent that openly stating “Black Lives Matter” in your classroom or with your students could get you disciplined or your license revoked.

Teachers and the education system are part of the problem that perpetuates not only systemic racism in public institutions but also the individual racism of American citizens. One of the hopes I have about the current outrage over the murder of George Floyd is that our school systems will start to see that saying “Black Lives Matter” is not a political statement. It is the philosophy every school and educator should adopt and promote.

However, some educators do fear being “too political.” That fear, to this point, has been justified as there are examples where teachers have not been supported when deviating from approved curriculum to address supposedly “political” issues. The Washington ACLU has this site I’ve referred to often both for my own self-check and to support fellow teachers. From the link:

School districts have the authority to control course content and teaching methods. You are generally considered to speak for the school district when you are in your classroom. Therefore, your speech in the classroom does not have much First Amendment protection.  This can be a murky area, however. Some courts have ruled that schools cannot discipline teachers for sharing words or concepts that are controversial as long as the school has no legitimate interest in restricting that speech and the speech is related to the curriculum. In general, you should exercise caution so as not to give the appearance that you are advocating a particular religious or political view in the classroom.

Washington ACLU

A review of teacher free-speech cases in the Phi Delta Kappan included that the US Supreme Court in 2006 “held that when public employees make statements pursuant to their official duties, the employees are not speaking as citizens for First Amendment purposes; as such, the Constitution does not protect them from employer discipline. For example, when talking to students during classroom instruction, teachers cannot assume their speech is protected. ” Further, the article noted that “the First Amendment does not entitle public school teachers to cover topics or advocate viewpoints that depart from the curriculum adopted by the school board.”

This is why I asked my district leadership to develop a public statement that explicitly supports and defends teachers’ use of proactive antiracism in curriculum implementation and pedagogical choices.

I do not pretend to be an expert on antiracism. The kinds of things I’m thinking about, though, include teacher moves like these below. This is a woefully incomplete and potentially misguided list, of course, but I’m brainstorming…these are also admittedly “secondary” as that is my limited experience. Teachers of other levels or content areas, please share ideas in the comments.

• In an English or Social Studies class, explicitly instruct about out how white privilege impacts the context in which a text was created, particularly if the author is white.
• In English or Social Studies, explicitly teach about systemic injustice and racism to help establish context for text; assign work to students that requires them to confront present day evidence of systemic racism.
• In math or statistics: Use the concept of composition index or disparate impact to teach about percentages as a segment in a data literacy unit.
• In health or PE, teach how stereotypes about black athletes or that “white men can’t jump” is rooted in both systemic disparities in access to education as well as historic white fragility and fear of any challenge to white social dominance.
• In art, deliberately explore how visual/performing arts have been used throughout history to express calls for justice, and how the censorship or control of arts (including deliberate propaganda) have been used to reinforce a racial hierarchy.

Teachers have a lot of work to do on ourselves, of course. White teachers in particular need to come to terms with our own privilege and how it manifests in what and how we teach. If our systems are working, every teacher would be able to explain the nuance between “Black Lives Matter” and “All Lives Matter” and how the latter deflects from urgent issues and instead perpetuates injustice. Every teacher would be able describe ways their own race, gender, or socioeconomic privilege manifests (which means deeply understanding that privilege is an observable, documentable, study-able reality, not a political construct). These stances, whether deliberately woven into curriculum or addressed in-the-moment as situations arise, should not be considered political speech, and should receive the explicit support of our employers.

There are individual classrooms where all of this is already happening, of course. Many teachers are doing the good work of antiracism and have been for a long time thanks to the implicit support of their departments, schools, or districts…or their sheer strength of will and character. I’ve spent the last few years striving to shape my classroom practice and content toward overt antiracism. I have a long way to go still, and I make plenty of mistakes.

Now, though, is the perfect moment for districts to make perfectly and unequivocally clear that they will back their antiracist teachers.