PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — Republicans in the South Dakota Senate have passed a proposal from Gov. Kristi Noem to ban public universities from using training and orientation material that compels people to feel “discomfort” based on their race. The bill’s passage on a 27-8 vote was its final major hurdle in the Legislature. Noem has billed the proposal as a repudiation of so-called “critical race theory.” But critics warn it will put a chill on academic freedom and sanitize the most painful facts of U.S. history.
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The ACLU of South Dakota opposed House Bill 1012. Jett Jonelis, ACLU of South Dakota advocacy manager, says “Our country needs to acknowledge and reckon with its history of systemic racism — this includes being able to teach and talk about these concepts in our schools. In the university setting, House Bill 1012 encroaches on principles of academic freedom that protect a professor’s right to make teaching choices without government interference. That’s because the First Amendment protects academic freedom and the right to share ideas, including the right of individuals to receive information and knowledge. House Bill 1012 creates more questions than answers and leaves South Dakota educators and administrators with the burden of navigating exactly what it means to comply with this law. It opens the door for a wide range of interpretations that could be used to chill free speech and academic freedom, discouraging open and honest discussions about systemic racism in classrooms and in higher education communities. That House Bill 1012 passed shows the very need for the types of discussion our government is trying to prohibit.”
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