More than 3,000 educators gathered in Orlando, Florida on July 5 to advocate for truthfulness in education, and this included almost 90 members of the Hawai’i State Teachers Association (HSTA), according to a news release by the HSTA. The Freedom to Learn rally was organized by HSTA’s overseeing body, the National Education Association (NEA), and it urged politicians to stop the prohibition of books and the politicization of public education.
“We shouldn't be politicizing education in our state or in our country, and that education is a right for all, and that our schools are open to anybody regardless of who they are, that we really believe that our students should be who they are and be their authentic selves,” Sarah Tochiki, Chiefess Kamakahelei, Middle School Band Director in Kaua’i, said in a video included in the release.
She added, “We're really lucky in Hawaiʻi that we’re not having book bans, and we’re not having parents come in and say what teachers should be teaching within their classrooms. We want to make sure that it stays that way. We also want to make sure that we are uplifting the voices of everybody in our state, regardless of who they are and what they believe or who they choose to love and what race they are, what nationality they are, because Hawaiʻi is an accepting place."
According to the release, 90 HSTA members, seven retired HSTA members and one “aspiring educator” are at the 2023 NEA Representative Assembly in Orlando this week. Educators from each state in the U.S. have the opportunity to debate and vote on important issues that affect public education, and also set NEA policies for the upcoming year.
There is a 6,000-person delegation that has approved a comprehensive plan to support the "LGBTQ+" community after targeted attacks and "anti-LGBTQ+" initiatives. The plan also includes increasing “culturally responsive pedagogical and curricular resources.”
“Hawaiʻi is a diverse place, and we want to make sure that we show the rest of the country how awesome it is that we are in Hawaiʻi, and we really are accepting of others, and let’s keep it that way,” Tochiki said.
According to the press release, the HSTA said that the recent actions of Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Florida) regarding education have harmed the rights of educators to teach and students to learn. They specifically mentioned that DeSantis has banned books about Martin Luther King Jr. and Anne Frank. The press release claimed that instead of tackling concerns like gun violence, inadequate educator compensation, and the shortage of teachers, these actions inject hatred and division into our classrooms.
The release adds that politicians are attempting to “erase and dehumanize the LGBTQ+ community” and block students from learning AP African American studies.
“In states like Florida and throughout the country, efforts are underway to ban books, to stop teaching the truth about history, and to stop saying gay,” HSTA President Osa Tui, Jr. said in the release. “These are things that we need to make sure don’t come to our shores in Hawaiʻi. We’ve seen it starting; we want to make sure it stops. We’re here to support our delegates from across the country that are going through these issues, and Hawaiʻi stands strong with them.”
However, according to Click Orlando, DeSantis has claimed that the books he has eliminated from classrooms are only those which promote political agendas or feature sexual content. He said, “You have a right to know what is being taught in your kid’s school. If there are materials that are inappropriate because of age or they violate Florida standards, you have the right to blow the whistle on that.”