Over the last three years, there has been an onslaught of state legislation introduced to limit teaching themes covering race, gender, history, sexuality, and identity in school-like settings. Policies restricting the teaching of these topics are referred to as educational gag orders.

According to PEN America, as of November 2023, there were 40 gag orderers introduced across 22 states. Educators have reported that these policies are restricting classroom discussions and content, resulting in weakened curriculum quality and sanitized learning. In addition, educators say their students specifically ask for lessons and discussions on race, history, current events, and forms of discrimination they may have experienced. These policies have created a culture of fear in schools, intensified by constant scrutiny, surveillance, and censorship.

In this month’s episode of PHPod, host Kara Schmidt sits down with Leah Watson, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Racial Justice Program, to discuss themes relating to censorship in the classroom. Watson is a former high school teacher in Atlanta, Georgia, and her current focus with the ACLU is on classroom censorship efforts. She has written articles about the fight against censorship published by the ACLU.

This is the second episode of a two-part series on book bans and censorship in the classroom. Listen to the first episode here.