5020

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

5020

Teachers shall be protected from censorship or restraint which unreasonably interferes with their obligation to expose students to controversial issues and to help students express their own views on such issues.

5020.1

Controversial issues arising from classroom situations and subject matter may be discussed and explored in classrooms.  Care shall be taken not to inhibit the dignity, the personality, or the intellectuality of either the teacher or the students.

5020.2

Freedom to learn requires that students be given an opportunity to develop an understanding of ideas and people who may seem alien to them and that they develop a capacity to discern the difference between fact and opinion, and to weigh arguments, slogans, and appeals.

Adopted: August 20, 1976