BOISE, Idaho — In May, the West Ada School District’s Board of Trustees decided to make changes to what teachers can display in their classrooms. The district is beginning to hear revisions to a policy that would dictate what can and cannot go inside classrooms.
Revisions to policy 401.2 would place a limit as to what teachers can display on school grounds and limit the information they ask from students.
Teachers in the West Ada Education Association were not pleased to hear some of the policy revisions. President of the association, Zach Broman, said the policy would require administrative approval on any surveys given to students and what those surveys can ask.
“A teacher often does a survey to get to know them and nicknames about them that might help you find ways to connect with them,” Borman said. “There was a big push where teachers gave surveys for pronouns and there was a big uproar at that point.
"The intent appears to be that teachers just can’t ask specific questions regarding a kid’s sexual identity and orientation and that they are attempting to make the classroom as neutral as possible, by not allowing political or quasi-political materials to be displayed in the classroom that didn't directly relate to curriculum."
The other notable policy change was regarding what teachers could hang or display on school grounds. The policy read, “staff shall not use school property including the classroom, conference room, office, desk area, to hang, post, erect, or display any posters, signs, flags, banners, pictures or other digital or physical image that depicts support or opposition relating to political, quasi-political, or controversial topic”.
The district defines a controversial topic as, “one that a professional educator could reasonably understand to have students on more than one side of said issue”.
According to Borman, the policies are intended to create a neutral learning place for students.
“For me, it’s hard to say that the classroom is going to be a neutral environment because humans are not neutral," Borman said. "What is personal and what is political, it mucks it up and could lead to a further chilling effect of teachers being afraid to talk about things or to be themselves in the classroom."
The draft was one of more to come. Borman said West Ada School District’s Board of Trustees must approve three readings of the drafted policy before giving it the green light.
"To be neutral in a sense is almost a way to hurt these kids," Borman said. "To say that its divisive, you can’t put a pride flag in your classroom, is to basically say that 'well, some people don't believe that you have the right to exist and be you and therefore we can’t have that in your classroom,' but that doesn't mean that the kid just goes away."
The second draft will come together in the coming weeks and be presented to the West Ada School District Board of Trustees on July 11.
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