Milford School Board holds public meeting to discuss censorship Policy 6103
DELAWARE – Teachers, tension, and textbooks. The Milford school board is proposing a censorship policy, and the community has a lot to say about it. The Milford School board held a board meeting last night to consider revisions to an existing but controversial policy 6103, on censorship in school.
Board member Alan Brownstein opened the meeting by explaining the reason behind the policy change. A Jewish child was offended and felt unsafe when spotting a Black Lives Matter poster, due to a recent social media post made by the broader organization supporting Palestine. Therefore, all matters deemed political, controversial, or insensitive came into question. At that time, Brownstein said that 3 of the Board Members went to 6 random classrooms at Milford High. “In half of the classrooms, we examined there were examples of emblems that had political or Quazi political affiliations. Half.”
Teacher of 25 years, Kristina Feher, says the policy amendments are just ways to distract from what they really need in the classrooms. “First of all, it takes away from teaching opportunities, it takes away from our LGBTQIA+ community, it takes away from representation for our Black Lives Matter community. It takes away from marginalized communities… We could get bogged down with a lot of arguments over policies like this, and not focus on the real things we have to work on.”
Some in attendance shared opinions from historical context like 71-year-old resident Mitchell Curry who says he was around during the integration of Milford. He says he remembers those times all too well and said this policy shares some similarities. “It’s reminiscent of a time when, an attitude, when this area felt more comfortable to be segregated than to afford equal opportunity to everyone.”
Mike Brickner Exc. Director of the ACLU of Delaware was also in attendance and says this change will open the door for legal situations in the future. “What it will often do is restrict people from being able to talk about issues like race, gender, sexuality, different scientific principles, and that’s going to hurt the kids that are trying to learn.”
In the end, Brickner says this policy can cause more legal issues than the district can foresee. “We do appreciate that the board did make some amendments to the policy, but we still very strongly believe that will violate people’s 1st amendment rights.”
The meeting resulted with the board attempting to permanently table the policy, which failed, and they ultimately voted to table it until such a time that a new policy can be brought back once, it’s approved by staff, parents, teachers, and community members. WMDT will have more details to come as the story unfolds.
