{"id":50353,"date":"2020-11-19T02:28:37","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T09:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-school-board-keeps-hands-off-controversial-topics-policy\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:50:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:50:58","slug":"durango-school-board-keeps-hands-off-controversial-topics-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-school-board-keeps-hands-off-controversial-topics-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango school board keeps hands off controversial-topics policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Durango School District 9-R Board of Education on Tuesday rejected modifying the district\u2019s policy concerning the teaching of controversial topics in the classroom.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After reassurances from student representatives that they saw no problem with the ability to address controversial topics in class, the Durango school board decided this week not to revise the district\u2019s current policy concerning how politically charged issues are taught in classrooms.<\/p>\n

Board members discussed moving oversight of the controversial-topics policy from the portfolio of the superintendent to a board\u2019s portfolio, but they unanimously rejected that course of action.<\/p>\n

District 9-R places day-to-day educational and school policies under the purview of the superintendent.<\/p>\n

The board\u2019s principal responsibilities include oversight of the superintendent along with state required reviews and approvals of budgetary and taxation matters and some other items involving the federal government and broader educational goal-setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we turn this into a board policy, it\u2019s moving us into operations. It gets us involved straight into the classroom,\u201d said board member Mick Souder, voicing his objection to altering the policy.<\/p>\n

The view was widely shared.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree with Mick; we don\u2019t need to be anywhere near the classroom,\u201d said board member Andrea Parmenter.<\/p>\n

More than a dozen people addressed the board in late October, saying they were concerned an email directive from Durango School District 9-R Superintendent Dan Snowberger that led to the removal of several posters for Black Lives Matter and Thin Blue Line was construed by teachers to ban lessons involving controversial topics.<\/p>\n

The email noted posters from political groups are not allowed in 9-R schools, which has a longstanding policy to remain apolitical on controversial topics.<\/p>\n

The superintendent\u2019s email also referenced the teaching of controversial subjects in schools \u2013 it praised the efforts of teachers to address hot topics in a fair, accurate and even-handed manner.<\/p>\n

The email stated: \u201cThere are many teachers that are doing a phenomenal job helping students explore these topics and make their own conclusions on various controversial topics, as it is just as important that we support students on researching past and present topics and ultimately reach their own decision and stances based on their home values and personal beliefs. All sides of the issue must be presented in order to allow students to derive their own beliefs about topics that are considered controversial.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snowberger said the email was misinterpreted as banning addressing controversial topics in class, and he was drafting a follow-up communication with teachers to clarify that lessons involving controversial topics are allowed.<\/p>\n

9-R\u2019s current policy allows teachers to disclose their own views on controversial topics as long as the lesson plan is fair and unbiased toward all viewpoints on politically hot issues.<\/p>\n

He also encouraged teachers who have questions about his communications to contact him directly for clarification.<\/p>\n

Under current 9-R controversial-topics policy, teachers must follow guidelines to ensure fairness, accuracy and an even-handed approach is taken in the lesson. Among the guidelines is that the lesson plan must be reviewed by the school\u2019s principal.<\/p>\n

School board member Shere Byrd said it might be advisable to address best practices and to further convey 9-R\u2019s policy on developing lessons on controversial subjects during professional development days for teachers.<\/p>\n

In a closed session Nov. 11, the school board heard from its legal counsel about the legal perils involved in changing 9-R\u2019s policy about controversial topics, which was taken from the Colorado Association of School Boards.<\/p>\n

The association\u2019s policy has been legally vetted, and changing wording could expose 9-R to increased risk of litigation.<\/p>\n

Amiah Hanson, a Durango High School student representative on the school board, said in her experience controversial topics had been covered fairly and accurately, and she appreciated the even-handed approach fostered by current 9-R policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel as long as it\u2019s presented fairly and doesn\u2019t have a bias, it\u2019s good. But if lesson plans have a bias, even a little, people will pick up on it, and it isn\u2019t good,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Paul Duft, a student representative from Big Picture High School, said he appreciates discussions in class about controversial subjects.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to have an impartial voice. It helps teach us how to listen and to come to a conclusion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Both student representatives advised against making any changes to the current controversial-topics policy.<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students say they see no problem in way hot subjects are taught<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4342,1086,155,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-curriculum","tag-durango-school-district-9-r","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87730,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50353\/revisions\/87730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50353"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}