This time, however, teachers and education experts say these already difficult classroom conversations are being complicated or suppressed under a wave of state laws and school board policies that restrict the ways educators discuss racism.
Educators took to social media and wrote essays debating how to talk about the Buffalo shooting.
A math teacher in Atlanta wrote of being afraid to answer when his students brought it up.
Responding to a tweet about how teachers should discuss the shooting, an educator in east Texas wrote, “Legally, I can’t touch it.”.
NBC News sent messages to the Republican authors of four state laws that limit classroom discussions on race, including state Sen. Bryan Hughes in Texas.
“I think personally that would be an important lesson,” said Crowley, whose college courses prepare social studies teachers for the classroom.
Crowley rattled off other ways a high school teacher could connect the Buffalo shooting to historical context and current events. »