(Center Square) – The Anti-Semitic Education Act goes to Arizona Governor Katy Hobbs’s desk after the final passage by Congress.
Arizona House passed House Building 2867 with 38-20 votes on Wednesday, receiving bipartisan support. The law prohibits public schools and universities from promoting anti-Semitism and creates disciplinary procedures for violations.
The bill states that teachers, principals, other school administrators, contractors and volunteers cannot direct or train students on anti-Semitic or anti-Semitic conduct. They are forbidden from creating “hostile educational environments” and cannot seek genocide from any group.
The law also states that students do not need to defend “anti-Semitic perspectives” or promote anti-Semitic behavior. It also prohibits the use of public funds for anti-Semitic leadership.
HB 2867 also provides that schools cannot require high school students taking such courses to require curriculum that includes anti-Semitic or anti-Semitic conduct.
Under the law, the first offence by a teacher or principal leads to formal responsibilities. Their professional certificates are suspended for the period after the second violation and revoked after the third. The bill also allows students and their parents to take court action after the administrative relief runs out.
“Arizona students and teachers deserve to learn and work in an anti-Semitic hate-free environment,” state Senator R-Queen Creek, a congressional sponsor, said in a House news release. “This bill ensures that schools are not a battlefield for political indoctrination, but a place of learning.”
The release said the bill is part of a priority in the House Republican Majority Plan to promote public safety and combat hatred in schools in Arizona.
Opponents to the bill include the Arizona Education Association. They say existing disciplinary actions are sufficient to prevent teachers from acting in discriminatory ways. They added that they are concerned that the bill will strip expert liability protection educators if they are falsely accused of anti-Semitism.
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“On behalf of our members, we are writing strongly against House Bill 2867 to exacerbate the decline of Arizona public schools, to pose serious and unacceptable personal liability to public school educators, encourage malicious and costly litigation, and exacerbate the attrition of Arizona public school educators, while writing to the tragedy of Arizona public schools and other letters, writing to the other enemies, and to praise the enemy, the enemy.
Opponents added that they are worried about hate crimes that have almost doubled in schools and are committed to working with Congress “to protect students from all forms of hatred.”
