Directions:
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Name ____________________ Block _____
Read the article. Look up words you do not know and write definitions in margins.
Label: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
Answer the questions at the end of the article.
Kansas Bill Could Send Teachers To Jail For Six Months For
Teaching ‘Harmful’ Materials
by Kay Steiger Posted on February 25, 2015 at 5:10 pm Updated: February 26, 2015 at 9:24 am
www.thinkprogress.org
A lawmaker in Kansas is seeking to criminalize the distribution of “harmful” materials to minors
in schools, lifting an exemption for teachers using approved materials. Advocates working
against the bill worry it will have a “chilling” effect on teachers in the state.
“It’s purely a reaction to this instance of this one particular sex ed poster,” said Micah Kubic, of
the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, who testified against the bill. “This poster must
be the most impactful poster in the history of the poster.”
The text-only poster, displayed in Hocker Grove Middle School in Shawnee, Kansas, in 2014
was titled, “How Do People Express Their Sexual Feelings?” and included the words “hugging,”
“grinding” and “anal sex.” Kubic said the bill is unnecessary. “The teacher who put that up was
disciplined by the school almost immediately after that parent complained,” he said.
“There was a list of sexual acts, some of which were highly offensive,” Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook
told KMBC 9 News. Pilcher-Cook previously introduced a bill that would criminalize surrogate
parenting, saying “you are creating a child purposely that you know is not going to have a
biological mother.”
The bill would criminalize displaying material to minors that is “harmful,” including “any
description, exhibition, presentation or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual
conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse when the material or performance.” The
bill looks likely to pass the state Senate this week, and carries a penalty of up to six months in
jail. Kansas already has a law that protects minors from “harmful” material, mainly to prevent
adults from distributing pornography to minors. As it is written now, the law includes an
exemption for teachers, but this bill aims to remove that exemption. Pilcher-Cook has not yet
responded to ThinkProgress’ requests for comment.
ACLU Kansas and teachers worry that the language is overly broad, and that teachers could be
targeted for things that are part of a normal curriculum, including books with sexual or
controversial themes like Huckleberry Finn. A lesson an anatomy, say, might be dicey for a
biology teacher, or an art history class could be scrubbed because some of the content included
nudes.
Marcus Baltzell, communications director at the Kansas National Education Association, warned
that teachers already worry about the effect. “One person’s objection about something is now
putting a blanket of silence, a blanket of censorship over an entire state. Is that what we want?”
“It makes me feel like I need to self-censor,” Baltzell, who is a certified teacher, said. “Now I
have to consider anything that would have any kind of text or imagery or anything that would be
remotely questionable by say one individual I can be brought up on charges for that.”
Baltzell pointed out that there are already rigorous standards in place to deal with parents who
object to materials presented by teachers. “This is a solution in search of a problem,” he said.
Another bill inspired by the poster that inspired the “harmful” materials bill would require
schoolchildren to “opt in” to sex ed rather than “opt out.” Baltzell, though he didn’t comment on
the details of the state’s sex ed program, did note that an opt in standard is harmful. “We think
that’s difficult and dangerous for the child who needs this education but doesn’t have that same
active and involved parent that another student does,” he said.
According to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, Kansas’
statewide curriculum already prescribes “a complete program of abstinence until marriage in
human sexuality that is developmentally appropriate, including information about sexually
transmitted diseases, especially HIV/AIDS.” Research has shown that students educated in an
abstinence-only environment tend to have sex earlier and more often than students educated with
more comprehensive materials.
ACLU Kansas’ Kubic pointed out that there are only three other states that currently have “opt
in” requirements. “We’ll be going in the wrong direction,” he said.
Note: the bill passed the Kansas state Senate in a 26-14 vote on Wednesday, February 25, 2015.
Questions:
1. What is the goal of the bill that gives this article its title? Highlight textual evidence.
2. What is the concern about the bill? Highlight textual evidence in another color.
3. How does this connect with what we have been studying?
4. How would Drummond vote? Why?
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was involved in the Scopes Trial as well.
Stay tuned for information on this.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/02/25/3627138/kansas-bill-allow-teachers-arresteddistributing-offensive-material-schools/