The Kansas state Senate passed a bill allowing teachers to be charged with a class B misdemeanor for including "harmful materials" in their curriculum, reports Courthouse News Service.
Teachers could face up to 6 months in jail for teaching materials that a “reasonable person” would believe lack "serious literary, scientific, educational, artistic or political value for minors."
"This bill threatens to put a blanket of silence on every public school in Kansas," Marcus Baltzell, spokesman for the Kansas National Education Association, told the news service.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reported the bill stemmed from a 2013 incident where a poster placed on the door of a middle school classroom contained offensive content of a sexual nature. The poster was taken down after complaints, but state Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, R-Shawneee, said, “The damage it caused could not be undone. This should not be trivialized.”
“You had 12- and 13-year-old children seeing things that I don’t think they should have seen,” said Mark Ellis, whose daughter told him about the poster, reported Education News.
Pilcher-Cook defends the bill as a safeguard for children. “Pornography and obscene materials are becoming more and more prevalent in our society, and it is all too common to hear of cases where children are not being protected from the harm it inflicts,” she told the Topeka paper.
Critics of the bill claim it harms the ability of teachers to effectively do their job. “If a teacher is afraid they’re going to be tried and charged and convicted of a misdemeanor, they’re going to be less likely to share information (in fear) that someone somewhere might potentially object it,” Micah Kubic, the executive director for the ACLU of Kansas, told a legislative committee, according to Education News.
The bill passed the Senate and is before the Kansas House for consideration.