By Kayla Meraz
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Civil rights advocates here challenged the legality of Oklahoma’s HB 1775 this week, charging the measure restricts discussion on race and gender in educational settings, violates free speech rights, stifles academic freedom and hampers comprehensive education on history and civil rights struggles.
Attorneys from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma appeared in court to seek an injunction against the further implementation of HB 1775 in the case of Black Emergency Response Team v. Drummond.
The lawsuit, filed by pro bono counsel Schulte, Roth, and Zabel LLP, challenges HB 1775, Oklahoma’s classroom censorship law, which places restrictions on university faculty, public school teachers, and students discussing race and gender in the classroom.
The plaintiffs argued, according to the ACLU, these restrictions impede free speech and may constitute discrimination on the basis of race.
Legal proceedings come more than two years after a group of teachers and students, including “the Oklahoma State Conference of the NAACP, the American Indian Movement (AIM), the Oklahoma Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (OU-AAUP), and the Black Emergency Response Team (an organization of OU students), filed a lawsuit to block HB 1775,” the ACLU notes.
Maya Brodziak, counsel with the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, expressed concerns about the law, stating, “This vague and overbreadth law has a profound chilling effect on educators’ free speech rights and academic freedom. It violates students’ fundamental right to information and ideas and is constructed in a manner that is clearly racially discriminatory.
Brodziak added, “Our country needs to acknowledge and reckon with its history of systemic racism — this includes being able to teach and talk about these concepts in our schools. Laws like HB 1775 work to deny us from learning the history and lived experiences of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color; women and girls; and LGBTQ+ people.”
Lawyers argued in court that HB 1775 is currently being used to threaten teachers with the suspension or revocation of their license in retaliation for teaching banned topics. Schools found to be in violation of the law are at risk of being penalized through the accreditation process.
Civil rights advocates contend that if the law were to stand, teachers would be barred from teaching basic facts about American history, and students would be denied the opportunity to adequately learn about civil rights struggles. The defendants, however, argued the temporary injunction should be denied, and the lawsuit should be dismissed.
Megan Lambert, legal director for the ACLU of Oklahoma, said, “To this day, we continue to witness politicians’ attempts to erase Oklahoma’s history by discouraging a complete and open dialogue about the heritage and cultures of diverse communities. Today’s arguments enforced our firm stance that all young people deserve to learn a complete history in schools, free from censorship or discrimination.”
Douglas Koff, partner at pro bono co-counsel Schulte Roth & Zabel, emphasized the broader implications of the case, stating, “The US Supreme Court has already called public schools ‘nurseries for democracy.’”
Koff added, “Laws like HB 1775 undermine that and the goal of developing well-educated and well-rounded students who are capable of discussing sensitive topics and engaging in challenging conversations respectfully. This case isn’t just important to the students and teachers of Oklahoma but communities across the country.” 
