Teachers and staff at the Monroe County Community School Corporation say a website from the Indiana Attorney General’s Office is inciting a “climate of fear” across the district.
In February 2024, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita launched the "Eyes on Education" portal, an effort to “empower parents to further engage in their children’s education,” according to a press release.
The portal allows students, parents and teachers to report any “objectionable curricula, policies, or programs affecting children” from Indiana classrooms. The Office of the Attorney General will review the submissions and post their findings on the website. The website currently catalogues “potentially inappropriate” materials from 28 school corporations in Indiana.
Some of the materials submitted include a poster for an equality club reportedly from Carmel Clay Middle School and a gender support plan allegedly from New Prairie United School Corporation. Additionally, one person submitted a document claiming diversity, equity, inclusion, justice and LGBTQ “agendas” are pushed by Jay Hess, the dean of the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Other items submitted to the portal are controversial library books, screenshots of course material and teacher training materials that include topics like Black Lives Matter, critical race theory and gender. None of the submitted materials contain explanations or evidence from the attorney general’s office confirming their validity.
The press release said the office will review submissions and may contact people who submit materials for clarification or additional information. The “Eyes on Education” website says the Office of the Attorney General will investigate materials submitted to the portal that could be in violation of Indiana law.
In 2024, a spokesperson for Rokita told The Guardian that all posts were accurate and that even if a concern submitted to the portal has since been changed, “It’s important for parents to see what the adults in their child’s school are capable of.”
The Indiana Capital Chronicle reported in 2024 that one submission to the portal is an outdated gender support plan from Clark-Pleasant Community School Corporation. A Clark-Pleasant spokesperson told the Indiana Capital Chronicle he was disappointed no one from the attorney general’s office reached out to confirm the information. The portal has since been updated to say that the policy listed was retired.
The Office of the Attorney General did not respond to the IDS’ requests for comment by the time of publication.
Myra Farmer is an instructional coach at Tri- North Middle School and Batchelor Middle School in Bloomington. She said the portal made her feel like she was in a “dystopian movie.”
“It’s a ‘gotcha’ method to try to pin things on teachers, oftentimes things that don’t exist,” Farmer said.
According to Farmer, critical race theory has never been taught in public schools, but many people discuss the topic as if it is. Four submissions to the portal include CRT in the submission title.
In 2023, Sen. Jeff Raatz (R) authored a bill to limit discussions of race in the classroom. Much of the opposition to this bill argued that bills like it are censorship and erase the truths of history, harming all students. The bill ultimately died in committee.
There is some fear that passing similar bills to remove material containing topics of race and racial justice would be a “whitewashing” of history and could "halt the teaching” of some history lessons if they make a student uncomfortable.
“I can tell you that from a teacher's perspective, we teach the state standards,” Farmer said. “It's hurtful when you do what you think you're supposed to be doing, and somebody thinks you are doing something wrong.”
Farmer also noted that although the “Eyes on Education” portal is designed to show examples of “objectionable curricula,” parents are on textbook adoption committees and oversee the material that is put into the curriculum.
The Indiana Department of Education also has a High-Quality Curricular Materials advisory list of materials “to support schools in the implementation of literacy instruction,” that follow state laws and rubrics for different grade levels
MCCSC’s current guide for addressing concerns about grades, curriculum, progress and behavior in class encourages first reaching out to the teacher, then principal, then director of the appropriate school level, before eventually reaching out to the MCCSC superintendent or Board of School Trustees.
Farmer said this increased oversight makes teachers feel like they’re always under suspicion. People go into teaching because they want to educate children and be role models, not to spread an agenda, she said.
Bloomington High School North English teacher Matthew Lynch said he thinks there may be teachers who self-censor or “water down the curriculum” to avoid the hassle of getting in trouble.
Erich Nolan, a chemistry teacher at Bloomington High School North, said the portal is “reckless,” referencing a photo of a classroom door posted on the site. Nolan said the post identified the school and would make it easy for someone to find the exact location of the classroom.
“If some terrible person wanted to harm or intimidate these teachers or students, the attorney general is pointing them out to the public,” Nolan said.
Nolan said a large part of being a teacher is trying to model good citizenship and empathy. A portal like this, he said, is “attacking that basic notion.”
Last year, the Hamilton Southeastern Education Association posted a statement on X urging Rokita to take down the portal, saying that the documents on the portal had “not been vetted” and that the portal doxes teachers without their knowledge by including their names.
Nolan said he believes the portal doesn’t really exist to change policy or people’s minds, but to create a “climate of fear.”
In recent years, several pieces of legislation limiting certain topics in curriculum have passed. In 2023, HEA 1608 was passed, prohibiting schools from providing any instruction on “human sexuality” for students in pre-K through third grade.
Right now, SB 289 is pending. This bill, titled “Nondiscrimination in employment and education” would require schools to post training and curriculum related to “nondiscrimination, diversity, equity, inclusion, race, ethnicity, sex, and bias” on their websites. Also, it would prohibit schools from compelling students to “affirm, adopt, or adhere to certain beliefs or concepts.”
Nolan said when he worked in a rural school district, it was important for teachers to support LGBTQ students because oftentimes, other community members weren’t as supportive.
“Those teachers really showed bravery, and I think it's the thing that teachers will always do in the face of these kinds of political moves or anti-inclusivity, anything that targets potentially vulnerable people,” he said. “I think teachers will always stand up.”
Without some of the material that is being exposed in the portal, Nolan said kids at school will miss out on feeling love, safety and support from teachers.
According to a 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Mental Health from The Trevor Project, while 37% of surveyed LGBTQ youth reported identifying home as an LGBTQ-affirming space, 55% identified school as an LGBTQ-affirming space.
Lynch said that efforts to suppress certain kinds of conversations “minimizes or erases the lived experience” of kids in the classroom who are part of those groups. Lynch specifically referenced the importance of reading books by diverse authors in English classes.
“By not reading those things, we're depriving ourselves of getting the full experience of human life,” Lynch said. “I think that if we’re only reading books written by one group of people, the implicit message it sends to a student not of that group is that, ‘Your experience doesn't matter, that no one from your group has written anything of merit,’ which is rarely true.”
Lynch also said that trying to limit what can be talked about at school does a “disservice” to kids who need a place to experience having difficult conversations.
“Young people are smart and caring and capable, and I think that they can talk intelligently and responsibly about these kinds of things,” Lynch said. “I don't really know how we're going to expect them to inherit such a complicated world if we can't have these kinds of conversations in a place where people can safely and freely discuss what's on their minds.”
Lynch said he wishes people understood that the role of teachers is to encourage students to develop their own opinions.
“The joke I always say is, ‘Do you know how hard it is to actually indoctrinate a teen?’” Lynch said.
Lynch also said he feels fortunate that Bloomington parents are supportive of teachers and value education. Nolan said if something from MCCSC was submitted to the portal, the community would rally to support them.
“We're really worried about public education, which we see as kind of a bedrock of the country,” Lynch said. “We think of education as a human right, so we just encourage folks to be involved and to advocate for public education, for education for everyone.”
