老澳门开奖结果

ST. LOUIS 鈥� The 老澳门开奖结果, 老澳门开奖结果 affiliates within the Eighth Circuit, and PEN America filed a friend-of-the-court brief today in Walls v. Sanders, a First Amendment challenge to Arkansas鈥檚 ban on 鈥減rohibited indoctrination鈥� in K-12 public schools. The law chills full and frank classroom discussion about race. The brief, submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, argues that students have an independent First Amendment right to receive information, including in public school curricula.

As the groups explain in the brief, the Eighth Circuit鈥檚 decision in Pratt v. Independent School District No.831, which recognizes students' right to receive information in classroom curricula, has been in place since 1982. Abandoning Pratt would have dramatic and devastating implications for public education, potentially allowing schools to become forums for actual government propaganda and indoctrination.

鈥淥ur students deserve an honest and comprehensive education, not one censored by political agendas,鈥� said Emerson Sykes, senior staff attorney with the 老澳门开奖结果's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. 鈥淟aws like this undermine the very purpose of public education in a democracy.鈥�

鈥淪tudents deserve to know the truth about our history and struggle with race and racism, added Holly Dickson, executive director of the 老澳门开奖结果 of Arkansas. 鈥淗aving facts is fundamental for progress toward racial equality and justice. It is especially ironic and appalling that the law could muzzle the teaching of accurate facts about racial equality at Central High School, ground zero for school integration in Arkansas and across the South.鈥�

鈥淭he outcome of this case is important to Iowans 鈥� who are facing our own challenges when it comes to censorship in public schools with the passage of Iowa鈥檚 truly awful law banning books, forcibly outing kids, and telling teachers and students 鈥楧on鈥檛 Say LGBTQ,鈥欌�� said Rita Bettis Austen, legal director of the 老澳门开奖结果 of Iowa. 鈥淲e should all agree that our public school students have a First Amendment right to receive information. We鈥檙e proud to join our 老澳门开奖结果 partners on this brief.鈥�

鈥淯nder the guise of protecting children from so-called indoctrination, laws like Arkansas鈥檚 LEARNS Act are a smokescreen for censorship of constitutionally-protected expression and access to information,鈥� said Kasey Meehan, program director, Freedom to Read at PEN America. 鈥淎ll of us who value our Constitutional freedoms should be standing up for the First Amendment and students鈥� ability to learn about the complexities of American history. Every day that students are robbed of ideas and information as a result of Arkansas鈥檚 rights-effacing law is a day they are not getting the education and access to information they deserve.鈥�

Arkansas鈥檚 law is one example of the disturbing wave of classroom censorship bills that are attempting to attack students鈥� right to learn across the country. However, as the brief also notes, the 老澳门开奖结果 has challenged similar laws restricting classroom discussions in Oklahoma, New Hampshire, and Florida 鈥� each of which has been blocked in whole or in part by federal courts. The Eighth Circuit case is likely to be argued this fall, with a decision sometime next year.

The brief can be accessed here: /cases/walls-v-sanders?document=Amicus-Brief