A judge rules that Little Rock Central High School teachers can discuss critical race theory in class

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – A federal judge has ruled that Arkansas cannot bar two highschool teachers from discussing critical race theory in class, but stopped wanting broadly blocking the state from enforcing a ban on “indoctrination” in public school spaces.

U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky issued a narrow, preliminary injunction against the ban on Tuesday evening. It was one in all several changes adopted as a part of the education reform bill that Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law last 12 months.

The ban is being challenged by two teachers and two students at Little Rock Central High School, the location of the 1957 desegregation crisis.

In his 50-page ruling, Rudofsky said the state’s arguments clearly show that the law doesn’t “expressly prohibit ‘the prohibition of classroom instruction that teaches, uses or references any theory, idea or ideology.’

His ruling barred the state from punishing teachers for teaching, mentioning or discussing critical race theory, an educational concept from the Nineteen Seventies that focused on the concept that racism was embedded in the institution of the nation. The theory shouldn’t be a everlasting a part of K-12 education, and the Arkansas ban doesn’t define what constitutes critical race theory.

Rudofsky said that while his ruling was narrow, “it should provide comfort to teachers across the state (and their students) that Section 16 doesn’t prohibit teachers from teaching, using or referencing critical race theory or every other theory, ideology, or idea about so long as teachers don’t force their students to just accept such a theory, ideology or idea as valid.”

Rudofsky said his decision still prevents teachers from taking steps akin to grading based on whether a student accepts or rejects a theory or giving students preferential treatment based on whether or not they accept a theory.

Both the state and teachers’ lawyers hailed the ruling as the primary victory in the continuing legal dispute.

“We are very pleased that the court recognized that the plaintiffs have brought colorful constitutional claims,” said Mike Laux, an attorney for the teachers and students who filed the lawsuit. “With this opportunity under our belt, we look forward to continuing this incredibly important cause.”

David Hinojosa, director of the Educational Opportunities Project on the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law – who also represents plaintiffs in the case – said the ruling “essentially gutted the Arkansas School Censorship Act, rendering the law virtually meaningless.”

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Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin said the ruling “simply prohibits doing what Arkansas has never done.”

“Today’s decision confirms what I have been saying from the beginning. “Arkansas law does not prohibit the teaching of the history of segregation, the civil rights movement or slavery,” Griffin said in a press release.

The lawsuit stems from the state’s decision that the Advanced Placement course in African-American studies is not going to count toward state credits for the 2023-2024 school 12 months. In the lawsuit, teachers argue that the state’s ban is so vague that it forces them to self-censor what they teach to avoid violating it.

Arkansas is amongst several Republican-led states that have imposed restrictions on how race is taught in schools, including bans on critical race theory. Last 12 months, Tennessee teachers filed an identical lawsuit difficult that state’s sweeping bans on teaching certain concepts related to race, gender and bias in the classroom.