Statewide, Iowa (RI) – A bill that’s cleared a House committee would impose new sanctions for student-led protests and any educator who publicly celebrates assassinations, or politically motivated violence — including the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk — would lose their state license.
The legislation would require schools to have a make-up day for every day there’s a student-led protest in a school district. Teachers or administrators who lead a school protest, or give advice to students about protesting, would lose their state license if the bill becomes law.
The bill passed the House Education Committee this past Wednesday night with the support of 14 Republicans, but none of them spoke in favor of the bill during the meeting. Representative Elinor Levin (L-ih-nor leh-VINN), a Democrat from Iowa City, was among the nine committee members who voted against it.
There was a subcommittee hearing earlier in the day on the original version of the bill, which just dealt with revoking educators’ licenses for making public comments celebrating politically motivated violence. Melissa Peterson of the Iowa State Education Association called revoking a teacher’s license blatantly unconstitutional.
The Iowa Association of School Boards also opposes the move. Melissa Johnson is a lobbyist for the association.
The bill mentions the killing of Charlie Kirk five times and the policy on revoking educators’ licenses to teach or be a school administrator would take effect on September 10th of last year. That’s the day Kirk was shot to death.
Last fall several Iowa teachers were suspended or fired after complaints about comments they made on social media after Kirk’s death.
