Lawsuit Filed As Texas DEI Ban Extends To Public Schools

Group of schoolchildren at the desk smiling at the camera — Source: adamkaz / Getty

Several new laws went into effect this week in Texas, including one that expands the state’s ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in public schools. The ACLU has filed lawsuits against portions of Texas’ DEI ban as educators have increasingly expressed concerns about the scope of the law.

According to NBC 5, Senate Bill 12 went into effect this week, which prevents DEI from being used in hiring at K-12 schools and bans lessons on sexuality and gender identity. Texas’ DEI ban also prohibits after-school clubs focused on sexuality and gender identity, like the Gay-Straight Alliance. The lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Texas and the Transgender Law Center argues that Senate Bill 12 violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as the Equal Access Act, which mandates that publicly funded schools provide equal access to extracurricular clubs.

“Senate Bill 12 is a blatant attempt to erase students’ identities and silence the stories that make Texas strong,” Brian Klosterboer, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, told the Texas Tribune. “Every student — no matter their race, gender, or background — deserves to feel seen, safe, and supported in school.”

“This bill legalizes hate. It legalizes transphobia. It legalizes homophobia. It says you are no longer welcome — and it very explicitly does so — and that causes a lot of [that] kind of rhetoric to go further,” Hayden Cohen, state policy director for a student advocacy group, told 3News.

Dr. Bill Chriss told 3NEWS that Senate Bill 12 also impacts how educators can teach about historical events. “How do you explain how the abolitionist movement came about to abolish slavery unless you go into some detail about how slavery was?” Chriss said. “What I’m teaching my students has no value because I’m really not even telling them what happened because there are certain subjects that are just off limits.”

Chris added that one unintended consequence of Senate Bill 12 is that educators will begin to quit in droves as schools overcorrect to comply with the law. Texas’ DEI ban allows parents to report schools if they feel they’re violating the terms of Senate Bill 12, though it’s unclear what disciplinary action would occur after a grievance is filed.

The success rate for lawsuits against DEI bans has been shaky, to say the least. A lawsuit filed against Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill reached a settlement that didn’t strike down the law, but allowed sexuality and gender to be discussed in specific classroom settings.

Senate Bill 12 is only the latest DEI ban in Texas. The state legislature also passed Senate Bill 17 in 2023 that required all public universities and colleges to shutter their DEI departments. Earlier this year, the Texas state legislature passed Senate Bill 37, which targeted curriculum in public universities. Under Senate Bill 37, Texas universities are required to submit their curriculum to a governing board to ensure it meets state requirements and doesn’t teach any topics they believe are inappropriate. If universities run the risk of losing state funding, should they fail to comply with Texas’ DEI ban?

With these constant efforts to censor and whitewash education, why would anyone want to enroll their children in Texas public schools and universities? I know if I had kids, I would tell them to steer far away from any Texas university because it’s clear the state legislature is shaping a curriculum that’s not based on historical fact, but instead is intended to indoctrinate kids with right-wing ideology. Which is deeply ironic, considering that the state legislators who authored the bills argued they were designed to prevent political ideology from being taught in classrooms.

It’s one thing to implement a politically neutral curriculum; it’s another thing to deny support for Black, brown, and LGBTQ kids in public schools and to outright censor curriculum in public universities.

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