Indiana education parent portal encroaches on teachers’ safety, tries to expose ‘left wing nonsense’

An alliance of Indiana teachers unions is demanding that state Attorney General Todd Rokita take down a portal he set up earlier this month to essentially spy on educators. Citizens can use the “Eyes on Education” portal to report on so-called “woke” educators and expose “examples of socialist indoctrination” in classrooms across the state.

Leaders of six teachers unions representing more than 4,000 educators posted a letter on social media on Feb. 11 expressing concern about the accuracy of documents posted on the portal, the IndyStar reported. The letter from the Hamilton Southeastern Education Association said the portal also compromises teachers’ privacy and safety:

“The portal violates teachers’ liberties by posting their names as an intentional act of doxing (sic), which could lead to teacher safety concerns,” the letter read.

“Furthermore, the Attorney General is weaponizing a government website for his personal benefit. This further breeds misplaced mistrust in Indiana teachers, pitting teachers against the communities they willingly serve.”

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The teachers’ unions’ statement concludes:

“We call on the attorney general to take down the Eyes on Education portal immediately and cease the political and vicious attacks on Indiana teachers. … Our students deserve better, our teachers deserve better and Hoosiers deserve better.” 

The letter also urged Gov. Eric Holcomb and the Indiana General Assembly to denounce the portal and take it down.

The right-wing Rokita launched the portal on Feb. 6. In his announcement, Rokita said: 

“As I travel the state, I regularly hear from students, parents and teachers about destructive curricula, policies or programs in our schools. Our kids need to focus on fundamental educational building blocks, NOT ideology that divides kids from their parents and normal society. “

Rokita was even more explicit in an interview for Fort Wayne television station WTPA in which he said the portal would help combat what he called “left wing nonsense” and “trans-sanity.”

However, the new state website claims it is nonpartisan, emphasizing “the need to focus on fundamental educational building blocks, not political ideology—either left or right.” But the examples listed on the state government-sponsored portal when it was launched would have fit right in on the Libs of TikTok social media account.

Among the examples listed on the Eyes on Education portal were a gender support plan from Clark-Pleasant Community School Corp., which directs faculty not to disclose any information that reveals a student’s gender identity to others, including to their parents or guardians. Another example was a pride flag featuring a Black Lives Matter symbol in a classroom in Kokomo. And, of course, the portal makes a reference to “critical race theory.” It cited a 2020 presentation by the Franklin Community Schools superintendent about the need to address issues of racism and social justice for students. 

Rolling Stone wrote that the supposedly objectionable material includes a screenshot of a social media post by Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., in which she writes: “There is no form of protest against racism or method of teaching about racism that will be palatable to racists.” 

The portal reflects a nationwide drive by conservative politicians and right-wing organizations like Moms for Liberty to restrict what students learn about race and gender. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin set up a similar concept as a tip line in 2022 for parents to report “divisive” content in schools. It was shut down within months after a poor response and defeat for his administration in a public records lawsuit filed by media organizations.

In Arizona, the state’s Republican Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne set up an “empower hotline” last year to take reports of “inappropriate” school content, particularly regarding race and gender ideology, but it received about 30,000 prank calls and emails, and only a handful of genuine complaints, the Arizona Mirror reported.

Already this year, conservative lawmakers in Florida and Iowa have introduced bills to allow cameras in K-12 classrooms, allowing parents to see livestreams. Becky Pringle, the president of the National Education Association, the largest educators’ union in the U.S., told NBC News: 

“Some politicians around the country want to limit not only what history our kids can learn about and what books they can read, censor the truth of our history in some cases, and, now in Iowa, they want to install classroom cameras for live monitoring of teachers.”

“Instead of wasting public funds on monitoring equipment, we should employ additional qualified professionals, reduce class sizes, and provide more programming that helps students acquire the skills they need,” Pringle said by email.

An analysis by PEN America, a free speech advocacy group, found that in the first three weeks of 2024, at least 71 bills have been filed in state legislatures across the country to regulate the instruction of topics such as race, history, and sexuality. And Indiana is among the states where such legislation has been introduced. Rolling Stone wrote:

Rokita’s pressure campaign against liberal teachers comes at a moment when the GOP-dominated state assembly has been passing laws targeting the LGBTQ community in Indiana schools, including a measure that bans “human sexuality” content being taught before third grade, and forces schools to alert parents if a student requests a different name or pronoun be used in class. (The state American Civil Liberties Union chapter campaigned against the measure, arguing it forces districts to out trans youth.)