PORTLAND, Ore. — A new administrative directive restricting political signs and displays at Portland Public Schools is causing friction with the union that represents teachers and staff in the district. The Portland Association of Teachers filed a grievance against the directive last month, arguing that it violates the terms of the district's collective bargaining agreement with the union.
In a lengthy statement to KGW, PPS said development of the directive began last summer "to address requests from schools about murals in their buildings." But the final directive appears to go beyond questions about murals and artwork installed by schools.
"Personal expression by employees is not in furtherance of PPS’s academic purposes," the district wrote in part. "Academic purposes, of course, will vary depending on the course content. Displays should be focused on students' needs and tethered to the curriculum, not on the personal views of the teacher."
The statement notes that classes such as social studies will naturally tackle "controversial issues," and lists a series of questions that teachers should ask themselves such as whether the issue is pertinent to the course, whether students have the intellectual and emotional ability to deal with it, whether adequate materials are in place to explore and examine the topic and whether the teacher has an adequate background to deal with the issue.
In its own statement, the union described the directive as "unworkable, overly broad, and vague," and said it appears to violate the academic freedom safeguards in the union's contract, as well as workplace rights regarding union business and postings.
"Setting aside the logistical nightmare of the district reviewing and passing judgment on whether every item placed on a classroom wall or hallway is sufficiently tied to the adopted curriculum, the directive suggests numerous problematic scenarios," the union wrote in part. "For instance, if an LGBTQ educator shares a photo of their family with a poster that reads, 'Families come in all shapes and sizes,' would that be inappropriate?"
Political display controversies
The Newberg School District was recently roiled by a years-long controversy over a similar policy, although the subject matter in question appears to be different; in Newberg's case, a conservative-majority school board implemented a ban on LGBTQ Pride and Black Lives Matter displays in particular.
The board quickly backtracked in response to criticism and switched to a more general ban on "political" displays, but the district was still sued by teachers and the ACLU, who argued that the new policy was simply a continuation of the old one under a content-neutral veneer. A judge ultimately ordered the district to rescind the policy, ruling it unconstitutional.
PPS's statement specifically mentions that "the rainbow flag and BLM poster are district-approved symbols of inclusion to often marginalized students," indicating that they would not be restricted under the new directive.
The district goes on to state that "posters advocating for specific positions on political positions are not student centered" and "personal expression by employees is not in furtherance of PPS's academic purposes," but does not provide examples of what sort of political positions might create a problem.
The PPS and PAT statements both suggest that the new policy was not created in response to a specific topic or incident; the district's statement declares that the directive is content-neutral, and the union states that its grievance was filed on behalf of all members rather than for a specific member.
However, the dispute comes a few months after a very public controversy over a set of pro-Palestinian teaching guides that were posted to the union's website, drawing criticism from Jewish parents and teachers who argued that the materials were antisemitic and one-sided. The union quickly took some of the content down for review, before moving it to a less-visible part of the website a few days later and then eventually removing it entirely.
The Oregonian reported that the new policy was first enforced at Grant High School earlier this month to remove "Stop the Genocide" posters from a social studies teacher's doorway, a reference to the civilian death toll in Gaza amid Israel's war with Hamas over the past year.
Reporter Katherine Cook contributed to this story.
