Knox County Schools approves changes to anti-discrimination guidelines, bans dozens of books

Knox County school board member Katherine Bike voices her support for new changes to district anti-discrimination guidelines at Thursday’s board meeting. (Screenshot)

Knox County Schools (KCS) Board of Education members unanimously approved proposed revisions to district guidelines on discrimination and harassment at Thursday’s board meeting.

According to board member Anne Templeton, the changes were made after state leaders revised the state’s teacher code of ethics, which now excludes references to students protected under federal Title IX guidelines, such as LGBTQ+ students and other minority groups.  

Templeton said during Monday’s school board work session meeting that the district’s law department recently recommended revising its current guidelines to state that Knox County Schools prohibits harassment “on any basis.” However, on Thursday, the board ultimately opted to include an additional line within its guidelines that state that “the Knox County Board of Education/Knox County Schools prohibits any form of discrimination or harassment, and promotes equal opportunities with regard to programs and activities regardless of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, or disabilities." The policy also allows students to anonymously report discrimination to school leaders.

According to documents from the board, similar changes were also made to the district's Rights and Responsibilities policy. The proposal that passed Thursday revised that policy to say students should "not be discriminated against on any basis, including but not limited to all applicable federal and state laws regarding protected classes."

“I feel like this is a situation that we can compromise on. We all want the best for our kids,” Templeton said.

Board member Katherine Bike said the changes could help send a clear signal to students with disabilities that district leaders have their back. Like many others with disabilities in previous decades, she said she often felt “othered” as a K-12 student.

“I have an autism diagnosis and I have an OCD diagnosis, and those are things that I have struggled with for nearly 42 years,” she said. “Knowing that it is protected and that someone is going to protect it and a body is going to protect this is very important to me.”

In other business, the meeting was also the first since the district released a list of nearly 50 additional books that have been removed from school libraries in order to comply with Tennessee's Age-Appropriate Materials Act. Opponents of the law and of schools’ book bans have long stated that they believe the legislation doesn’t clearly define “inappropriate” books, and that the law is designed to remove books touching on sensitive topics like racism and LGBTQ+ issues.

According to a report from WBIR, the banned book list includes titles such as “The 57 Bus” by Dashka Slater, which recounts a violent hate crime that occurred against an agender student in 2013. The new list also includes classics such as “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut and “Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, among others.

Knox County educator Stacey Reese was among the attendees who returned to the board Thursday to voice opposition to recent book bans. She said she believes banning literature about sensitive topics like racism and anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination sends the wrong message to students.

“Now those conversations can’t be had,” she said.

For more information on the board discussion or to view the full meeting, visit www.knoxschools.org.