Students Use Civil Disobedience To Protest Removing It From History Curriculum

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Hundreds of Jefferson County, Colo. high school students walked out of class on Monday to protest the district school board’s plan to remove the teaching of “civil disobedience” in the AP U.S. History curriculum.

Students believe the proposed changes are an act of censorship, prompting 100 to 200 Evergreen High School students to walk out of class in protest for about 45 minutes, the Denver Post reported.

“I want honesty in my classroom,” the students said in a letter to the school’s superintendent, Dan McMinimee, according to the Denver Post.

About 900 students from Arvada West High School and Arvada High School protested the new curriculum plans as well, according to CBS Denver. And about 300 students walked out of Golden High School in protest.

“Students at my school plan to walk out of classes in protest of the Jeffco school board’s new proposed Advanced Placement U.S. History Curriculum Revision Committee which aims to teach students to become more ‘patriotic’ and less ‘rebellious’ by portraying the history of our country in a better light,” Arvada West High School senior Jack Shefrin said in a statement, according to CBS Denver.

The Jefferson County school board last week discussed revisions to the AP U.S. History course.

The board proposed creating a new review panel that would oversee the district’s curriculum and assessments, according to Chalkbeat Colorado. If the committee is created, it will likely take up the AP U.S. History curriculum as its first order of business.

The panel would be charged with ensuring that the course materials “present positive aspects of the United States and its heritage” and don’t “encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.” This approach was drawn up by Julie Williams, a school board member who campaigned for the seat as “the conservative choice.”

The College Board’s new course framework for the AP U.S. History exam has sparked backlash from the right. The Republican National Committee officially condemned the new test over its “radically revisionist view of American history that emphasizes negative aspects of our nation’s history while omitting or minimizing positive aspects.”

The Colorado state school board rejected a resolution to denounce the new framework.

Jefferson County teachers protested the school board’s changes to the way teachers are compensated last week, forcing the district to shut down two schools, according to the Denver Post.

Latest Livewire
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: