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TABOR, Iowa, Dec. 10, 2024 — An Iowa social studies teacher is banning students from saying a list of words in her classroom. But in her quest to police student expression, the seventh-grade teacher is running headlong into the First Amendment.

Today, the FIREis calling on the Iowa school district to remove the unconstitutional list of banned language from the classroom.

An entire state is on the list: Ohio, which some use as a synonym for something that’s cringe or dumb. Also on the list: barking, meowing, “womp womp,” and the podcast Talk Tuah. 

The teacher also banned “refrences” (ugh!) to drugs, Nazis, and the Holocaust. That’s particularly surprising in social studies: a class that examines civics and history.

Saying a banned term leads to a punishment of detention. A parent reported to FIREthat at least 10 students have been punished so far.

“What a terrible lesson this teacher is giving her students about their speech rights — that words can be arbitrarily banned by government employees,” said Aaron Terr, FIREdirector of public advocacy. “FIREhave First Amendment rights and they don’t shed those rights when they put on their backpacks. Free speech is a nuanced issue, but this obnoxious list is anything but.”

All teachers have a legitimate interest in preventing actual classroom disruptions. Some uses of the banned terms in some circumstances may cause disruption. But that does not justify any educator categorically banning a long list of words, phrases, and references without any regard to their context.

As the Supreme Court said, “America’s public schools are the nurseries of democracy.” They have an interest in protecting students’ freedom to express themselves. While schools may restrict speech in limited situations for certain limited purposes, without “a specific showing of constitutionally valid reasons to regulate their speech, students are entitled to freedom of expression of their views.”

����鷡’s&�Բ�����;letter calls on the Fremont-Mills Community School District to remove the poster and stop censoring non-disruptive student expression. 

Sadly, our reaction to the poster would be banned in this particular classroom:

“Womp womp,” said Terr.

The FIRE(��֭����) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought — the most essential qualities of liberty. FIREeducates Americans about the importance of these inalienable rights, promotes a culture of respect for these rights, and provides the means to preserve them.

CONTACT:

Daniel Burnett, Senior Director of Communications, ��֭����: 215-717-3473; media@thefire.org