Last week, despite being a legal requirement since late summer, a Nashville elementary school teacher posted a video on the social media outlet TikTok her intent to ignore Tennessee state law. She told viewers, “We were finally told that we must log all of our books into a system, so that, I guess, parents, or the public, or whoever can view it, um, to make complaints.”
In her eyes, she explained, the request is stupid – and asking teachers to do it is degrading. She tells her audience she’s not going to comply.
“I don’t need someone from the state or the district, or whoever to micromanage me in my classroom. And if it’s coming to that point, I’m almost like, maybe this isn’t for me now, and maybe I should get out,” she said.
This teacher at @WestmeadeElem says that she is not going to comply with Tennessee law, which requires teachers to log which books are in their classrooms. pic.twitter.com/Z3xkcmUS7h
— 👁️ Inside The Classroom | Anti-Trans Cult (@EITC_Official) February 8, 2023
At issue is a recently-enacted Tennessee law requiring educators to catalog all the books in their classroom libraries.
The Westmeade Elementary School teacher justified her stance, telling viewers, “I mean, I went to school for this, I attend ongoing PDS, I’m certified, I’m more than competent to make decisions for my students in my classroom.”
She added, “When you take away teacher autonomy and teacher trust, why would we want to work in a profession that I have to be micromanaged in?”
It’s an argument that leaves some parents puzzled.
“Every profession has rules,” parent Robin Steenman said in a phone interview with The Tennessee Star, “I mean, if you look past the ideology argument, you are still left with the fact that every job has expectations and requirements. There are rules that employees are required to follow. I wish her luck in finding another job where she is allowed to freely act without any input from management.”
The Star reached out to Metro Nashville Public School (MNPS) spokesman Sean Braisted for confirmation that the woman in the video is, indeed, employed by the district and how MNPS feels about her threats.
Braisted replied:
We understand the frustration many teachers across Tennessee have expressed regarding this law. However, like all other districts in the state, we are required to comply with the law and our expectation is that all schools will be in compliance by the end of the school year.
Metro Schools, through our partnership with Nashville Public Libraries, has one of the best school library systems in the state with an online catalog open to parents, students, and community members alike. Therefore, we were already in compliance with the new law as it applies to school libraries.
The state’s last-minute interpretation of the law as applying to classroom teachers as the school year began was unexpected and has resulted in an additional burden to Tennessee’s teachers who rightfully want to be focused on instruction and student support.
Initially, districts were under the impression that the law would only apply to school libraries. A memo issued in September by the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) broadened the scope, much to educators’ surprise.
“We don’t think that was the legislative intent,” Dale Lynch told ChalkbeatTN in response to the memo. Lynch, who leads the state’s superintendent’s organization, conceded, “It obviously means a whole lot of work for teachers.”
The memo left it up to districts in determining how to comply with the law. At that time, MNPS’s Sean Braisted told ChalkbeatTN, “We will seek to do so in such a way that minimizes any burden placed on teachers who are rightfully focused on providing the academic instruction and support to their students.” He further indicated that the district was exploring various alternative means to assist teachers in meeting the requirements of the law.
Six months later, Braisted is maintaining that the district is meeting its obligation. He told The Star, “Metro Schools developed and provided guidance and support to teachers and school administrators to assist in cataloging these classroom materials in an effort to lessen the burden placed on teachers by this law and will continue to do so going forward.”
In regard to this specific teacher, the Metro Nashville Schools spokesman said, “The teacher involved has been counseled by the principal on appropriate social media usage and why we must follow the law. The school administration has also offered staff support to assist in cataloging these materials for their teachers with the expectation that the school will be compliant with the law.”
Whether this case is an outlier or an indicator of widespread dissatisfaction is hard to measure. A recently released survey conducted by the TDOE doesn’t ask specifically about the new law but indicates that over 50 percent of the state’s educators feel that they are treated with respect.
In an email exchange with The Star, Professional Educators of Tennessee (PET) Executive Director JC Bowman wrote, “Like many pieces of legislation, it is the law of unintended consequences. Anecdotal evidence based on teacher comments demonstrates the implementation was rolled out too quickly, and not clearly defined, and little guidance was given seemed to contradict legislative intent.
Subsequently, he said he believes “The Tennessee General Assembly may need to revisit this issue just to better give clarification, and it may be easier addressed at the local level. The Textbook Commission lacks necessary resources.”
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TC Weber is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. He also writes the blog Dad Gone Wild. Follow TC on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected]. He’s the proud parent of two public school children and the spouse of a public school teacher.
