Race, Sex, and Academic Freedom in Elementary Education
Annual Meeting of the Academic Freedom Coalition of Nebraska (AFCON)

Around 80 people participated in AFCON's annual meeting on No​vember 13th at 10 am via Zoom. We enjoyed a lively and thoughtful discussion of academic freedom in elementary education, featuring a diverse set of panelists, with a focus on two Nebraska issues that arose  in 2021:
(1) the banning of Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice from the Papillion La Vista Community Schools.
​(2) the controversy over proposed state health education standards, especially with regard to teaching about topics related to sex and gender in elementary schools.
 
Our panel consisted of

• Shee Covarrubias: A Papillion La Vista Community Schools parent’s recounting of the banning of Something Happened in Our Town: a Child’s Story of Racial Injustice at PLCS.
• Elizabeth von Nagy: A school librarian talked about advocating for students and the action steps she took to accomplish that in connection with the removal of Something Happened in Our Town.
• Parent Pam Mock and Grandparent David Moshman: Reflections on reading the book Something Happened in Our Town with children, and the children’s reaction to the book.
• Wyatt Packard: NLA Intellectual Freedom Round Table Chair spoke about controversy over the Nebraska Library Association’s Golden Sower Award chapter book nominee list.
• Sarah Centineo: Nurse/Lawyer/School board member shared her perspective on the importance and difficulties of new health care standards in public education.
• David Moshman: A short explanation of the AFCON Board’s Statement on “Race, Sex, and Academic Freedom in Elementary Education.”

Following the panel presentation was an interesting and thoughtful period of questions, in which such interesting topics as how to cool the temperature of discussions about hot button issues were addressed.