ATLANTA — Educators, students and parents around the country are inviting supporters to join Teach Truth Day of Action rallies around the country to speak out against politicians’ efforts to restrict access to certain content in school.

The rallies have taken place for the past two years as a way to support “teaching truth” as it relates to content on race, gender and other topics that have been attacked in recent years.

“We are channeling our anger into multi-layered comprehensive actions to beat back these oppressive and offensive laws that are having a chilling effect on what we can teach and what our students can learn,” said Rebecca Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the largest labor union in the U.S. “…These so-called woke laws that don’t allow our students to study why and the way that race and racism have impacted every social system in this country that ultimately shows up at the doors of our school houses.”

PEN America, a nonprofit focused on free expression advocacy, reports that during the first half of the 2022-23 school year there were 1,477 instances of individual books banned, affecting 874 unique titles — an increase of 28 percent compared to the prior six months, January to June 2022.

PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans shows that those pushing book bans overwhelmingly target stories by and about people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.

In the first half of the 2022-23 school year, 30 percent of the titles banned are books about race, racism, or feature characters of color, and 26 percent of titles banned have LGBTQ+ characters or themes.

“These attempts to erase LGBTQ+ identities and erase BIPOC identities from the books in schools and from the conversations that educators are having, making it so that students not only don’t have access to those stories anymore or to that history, but it’s making students feel like they don’t have a place in that school or the classroom is not safe for them,” said Michael Rady, of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network).

Laws have been introduced or passed in at least 44 states that restrict, ban or censor what educators can teach and what their students can learn about history, LGBTQ+ rights, race, and gender, among other topics.

Last year’s #TeachTruth rallies had more emphasis on restrictions on race-related content, as a slew of laws passed banning the teaching of critical race theory. Supporters of laws limiting race-related curriculum say that its teachings could promote racism or cause students to feel uncomfortable.

For example, Georgia’s new law, in part, prevents teaching topics that could portray that one race is inherently superior to another race; that the U.S. is fundamentally racist; and that an individual is inherently or consciously racist or oppressive toward individuals of certain races.

“We are not protecting all children, we’re protecting white people which is a problem,” said Ahren Lake, a white teen attending a metro Atlanta school, at last year’s Teach Truth rally in Stone Mountain, Ga. “That is blatant discrimination to a point. I get it if you’re protecting children in all uncomfortable subjects, but you’re not… What about all the African American children who have gotten uncomfortable when we start talking about slavery or any of this stuff?”

This year’s rallies, in addition to race-related content restrictions, will add emphasis to heightened restrictions on LGBTQ+ content in schools.

More than 70 restrictive LGBTQ+ laws have been passed in the U.S. in recent years.

Zinn Education Project, in conjunction with more than 50 racial and social justice organizations, report that organizers will host more than 100 actions and events on June 10.

“(Lawmakers) have put fear in the hearts of educators, most of whom want to do the right thing, but are increasingly fearful about teaching LGBTQ+ topics,” said Ellen Kahn of the Human Rights Campaign. “They’re in a self preservation mode and we’re losing teachers. and as they step away, LGBTQ+ youth are more vulnerable…Censorship, silencing and stigmatizing have no place in our schools. Our kids can handle the truth, and it is up to us, the grown ups in the room, to clear the path for that learning.”

A map of exact locations for Teach Truth Day of Action sites can be found online at www.zinnedproject.org/news/teach-truth-days-of-action-sites-2023/.