This is not a spontaneous protest by the students, the teachers have been egging them on because the new plan also bases raises on teachers performance.
Update to this story.
DENVER (AP) — Students and teachers fighting a plan to promote patriotism and downplay civil disobedience in some suburban Denver U.S. history courses are expected to pack a school board meeting Thursday where the controversial changes could face a vote.
Turnout is expected to be so high that the teachers union plans to stream video from the meeting room — which holds a couple hundred people — on a big screen in the parking lot outside. Students said they’ll protest with teachers before the school board meeting. […]
The protests started Sept. 19, when the Jefferson County school board proposed creating a committee to review texts and course plans, starting with Advanced Placement history, to make sure materials “promote citizenship, patriotism, essentials and benefits of the free-market system, respect for authority and respect for individual rights” and don’t “encourage or condone civil disorder, social strife or disregard of the law.”
Board member Julie Williams, who originally proposed that the committee review materials for classes, and other backers of the proposal say students are being used as pawns by teachers upset about the plan to base raises on an evaluation system.
Teachers upset about the history proposal as well as a merit-based compensation package they consider unfair started staging sick-ins, where they call in sick and force school to be canceled some days.
On Wednesday, eight organizations, including the National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, sent a letter to the board saying, “Decisions about instructional materials should be based on sound educational grounds, not because some people do or do not agree with the message.”