Lexington students oppose anti-CRT legislation at ‘Stop the Teacher Gag Bill’ rally.

Lexington students joined Defenders of Accurate History, a Facebook group of educators and others at a rally at the state capitol in Frankfort Wednesday.

They were opposing House Bills 14 and 18 that make it illegal to teach that an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously. House Bill 18 is sponsored by state Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville

Additionally, House Bill 14, sponsored by State Rep. Joe Fischer, R-Ft. Thomas, would allow any local resident who suspects the law has been violated to file a complaint with the Attorney General’s office, which then can impose fines until the issue is remedied.

The legislation is sometimes referred to as anti-Critical Race Theory Bills though the bills don’t mention the controversial CRT specifically.

The Kentucky Student Voice Team joined students and educators from across Kentucky to rally against the two bills that team members said if passed, would undermine teaching and learning truthful history and accounts of current events.

House Republicans did not immediately respond Wednesday afternoon.

Pragya Upreti, a senior at Lafayette High School in Lexington, was among those at the Stop the Teacher Gag Bill Rally. Tyler Terrell, an 8th grader at Leestown Middle School in Lexington was another. Dozens of students held signs, some of which read “Teach Honest History,” “Diversify our Curriculum,” and “Students for Critical Conversations.”

Terrell said in a statement that the bills only add to the problem of his feeling ‘very unrepresented in my education.”

“If you read House Bills 14 and 18, you’ll see that our legislators are debating whether we should even be able to talk openly about the history of people like me in the classroom,” Terrell said.

“We need our history and classroom discussion to include us—because without that—how are we to know we are also worthy,” he said.

Upreti said Kentucky students are living in a world that is more diverse and different than the one in which parents and policymakers grew up and that the bills would undermine what young people need to be successful in it.

“The ability to better understand diverse perspectives and people is not only an essential civic skill, but it is also the key to flourishing in a dynamic economy,” she said.

Despite the debate about whether and how to discuss them in school, race and ethnicity matter to the majority of Kentucky middle and high school students, she said.

More than six in ten students who responded to a survey “agree” or “strongly agree” that their race or ethnicity is an important part of their identity. And for students of color, that figure was nearly nine in ten.

Second, although the overwhelming majority of students consider race and ethnicity to be an important element of who they are, at least a third report that their curriculum and classroom experiences “rarely” or “never” reflect the histories and present realities of people of different races or ethnicities in class, she said.

Nearly 50% of students reported that they “sometimes” or “often” discuss issues related to race and ethnicity outside of the classroom.

Nearly two-thirds of students surveyed reported that they sometimes or often heard students make insensitive remarks about the race or ethnicity of other students in school.

“House Bills Fourteen and Eighteen undermine our success not only as individuals but as a commonwealth,” Upreti said.

This story was originally published January 12, 2022 at 5:14 PM.