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Felt like a ‘witch hunt’: NH teacher on what it was like to work under the divisive concepts law

Felt like a ‘witch hunt’: NH teacher on what it was like to work under the divisive concepts law

Sean O'Mara—a middle school teacher—shared his experience working under the state's divisive concepts law, which prevented him from discussing race and gender-related issues in his classroom. (Courtesy Mrinali Dhembla)

By Mrinali Dhembla

July 12, 2024

To Sean O’Mara, a middle school teacher from Keene, the last two years felt like a “witch hunt” against him and the community of educators in the state. That’s because New Hampshire’s divisive concepts law—which was passed by state leaders in 2021, and barred K-12 public school teachers from discussing crucial social and historical topics in their classrooms—was open to interpretation. 

“The problem was that there was what the law said, and then there was the way in which the law was being touted and weaponized by the Department of Education,” he said, adding that he thought that the law was too vague, which created confusion for teachers. “… And then (certain activist groups) were trying to root out teachers who were violating the law. It did feel like there was sort of a witch hunt atmosphere.”

O’Mara is no stranger to reading legislation. For the past 23 years, he’s taught American history at Keene Middle School. Yet O’Mara—a member of the New Hampshire National Education Association—said the divisive concepts law was too ambiguous, leaving teachers in a tricky position of not knowing if their lessons on topics such as slavery, Civil War reconstruction, and the Jim Crow era would put their jobs at risk. 

Under the law, any parent who objected to historical content being taught inside their child’s classroom could file a complaint against the teacher through the Department of Education website. 

“It did a good job of sowing fear and distrust with the population,” O’Mara said, noting that the legislators who passed the law created a false narrative around what was happening in schools across the state.  

Rep. Alicia Lekas, a Republican representing Hudson, defended the law on the House floor, saying, “Many of us—including people in this room right now—have had our kids and our friends’ kids come home upset because they were being taught that all white people are racist.”

Miford Rep. Peter Petringo, a Democrat, was part of the push to repeal the law. Also on the House floor, Petringo said that the reason educators teach the realities of the past is to work toward making the future a better place for everyone. “Not everyone who agrees with this law is a racist,” he said. “But everyone who is a racist supports this law.”

The Hard Work Pays Off 

After nearly two years of sustained efforts from New Hampshire Democrats, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Federation of Teachers-New Hampshire, a federal court judge in May deemed the law unconstitutional and a violation of the 14th Amendment.

“By working together, we beat this bill in NH—and by working together, we will beat bills like these across the country,” wrote Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, on X.

And while New Hampshire’s teachers are relieved to be able to go back to teaching the state curriculum, O’Mara says it’s important to keep this lesson top of mind.

“We kind of saw it creeping into the state from the federal to the state level, and then it being championed eventually once it was passed by the New Hampshire commissioner of education,” he said, adding that he believes that the right-wing ideological movement—restricting classroom discussions and banning teaching of the critical race theory in certain states—that started during the Trump-era trickled into New Hampshire. 

(The bill) was based on the idea that somehow schools were teaching students that they were inherently racist or inherently sexist, that students were responsible for both historical problems in our country and current problems that resulted from historical discrimination and injustices in our country,” said Deb Howes, president of the New Hampshire chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. 

O’Mara said that the divisive concepts law prevented public school students from learning about structural racism, and understanding how the remnants of that have seeped into the present-day privilege some white families have inherited. 

“It seemed like the law was designed to convince white parents that somehow there was anti-white racism being peddled in schools. And that’s just not happening,” he said, adding that it is impossible to teach American history without acknowledging that for the longest time, decision making powers were vested in people based on their race. 

“I think it’s not a matter of what white people did or what Black people did,” he said. “It is a matter of what human beings did. Human beings who had the power of legislation, the power of laws, who had the ability to write the laws, and execute the laws.”

O’Mara said that while he didn’t personally circumvent teaching any topics to his students due to censorship, he started preparing detailed bibliographies—something that wasn’t part of standard procedure previously—and reviewing them with his school’s principal. 

“We’ve always, as a part of our review process, shared our units with the principals, but we do not create bibliographies for every unit that we teach because we are not anticipating somebody putting a bounty on our heads,” he said.

Setting Public School Teachers Up to Fail

There’s a saying that “all politics is local,” and this American history teacher has been living in a real-time example of it since the ambiguous divisive concepts law was passed.

“It seemed like the Department of Education was unwilling to clarify or help schools actually understand what was or was not going to be allowed, in terms of materials that could be used in the classroom,” O’Mara said. “But at the same time, in speeches and in editorials, the commissioner of education was railing against certain materials … but then would not specify or clarify with any schools that specific books would be a violation of the law.” 

New Hampshire’s Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut has previously come under fire for taking a conservative stance on the issue by penning op-eds—and giving ideological speeches. 

In public comments, Edelblut has also labeled diversity, equity, and inclusion training as “discriminatory,” and provided a direct line for parents to call with suspicions about teachers breaking the divisive concepts law.

Edelbut’s office is supposed to be non-political. It’s also not elected—the New Hampshire governor appoints an education commissioner every four years. In other words, when voters elect a governor, they’re also indirectly electing an education commissioner to oversee all public schools in the Granite State.

There are currently 11 candidates running to replace Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican who announced he won’t be seeking reelection. The primary election—to narrow the candidates down to one per party—is Sept. 10. Winners of the primary will appear on the general election ballot on Nov. 5. All registered voters in the Granite State may vote in both elections.  

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include that O’Mara is a member of the National Education Association.

Author

  • Mrinali Dhembla

    Based in Manchester, Mrinali Dhembla is Granite Post's multimedia reporter. She's previously worked as deputy editor at The Keene Sentinel, and has experience writing for many national and international publications. When not doing journalism, she likes to cook food (and eat it).

CATEGORIES: EDUCATION
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In his decision, Judge Paul Barbadoro held that the law, known by opponents as the “divisive concepts” or “banned concepts” law, violated teachers’ 14th Amendment rights because it is too vague for them to follow.

“The Amendments are viewpoint-based restrictions on speech that do not provide either fair warning to educators of what they prohibit or sufficient standards for law enforcement to prevent arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement,” Barbadoro wrote, referring to the statutory changes passed by the law.

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