The Beverly Hills Unified School District (BHUSD) Board, at its June 24 meeting, considered a new policy governing how teachers discuss controversial topics in their classrooms.
The proposal was brought forth by Board Member Sigalie Sabag.
Sabag sought to make clear, she said, that teachers are not to introduce controversial issues that do not pertain to the subject they are teaching.
“This is a policy that we don’t have that needs to be implemented,” said Sabag, adding, “If you have a curriculum like, let’s say health, and you are teaching regarding gender or teaching any which way, this policy tells you how to go about it responsibly.”
The draft policy brought forward by Sabag defined controversial issues as including topics such as religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and geopolitical conflicts.
It identified courses such as history, civics, government, geography and economics as classes that may warrant the discussion of such issues.
The proposed policy further identified mathematics, English, science, physical education, world languages, the arts and technical electives as courses in which “teachers must refrain from introducing political, ideological, or personal commentary unrelated to approved instructional goals.”
Under the proposal, other staff members would be encouraged to report violations of the policy.
In elaborating on her point, Sabag described an incident in which a BHUSD music teacher showed a film about protesting.
“In this circumstance … she wasn’t teaching music; she was only teaching about protesting,” Sabag said. “That’s all she was teaching. She is not teaching according to her class. You teach according to your curriculum and class.”
During public comment, Katherine Warren, the president of the Beverly Hills Education Association (BHEA), the union that represents the city’s public school teachers, requested that the item be tabled. Warren said the collective bargaining agreement already has guidelines for teaching controversial issues, and that document takes precedence over board policies.
“If the board wishes to revise or clarify language related to controversial issues, the appropriate venue for that discussion is the bargaining table,” she said. “BHEA requests that the agenda item … be tabled and brought to the bargaining team for any changes in language.”
Board Member Amanda Stern spoke at length against the proposed changes. Expressing a conviction that teachers should be able to instruct students in critical thinking, analytical thinking and how to compose an argument, Stern said educators need the freedom to “think out loud and show their reasoning.”
“We don’t want robots for teachers,” she said. “We want people that we trust … if we want a machine to just give feedback and a binary response, we can move in that direction. Sadly, I feel that the schools in 30 years may well be that way because of the environment and regulations such as these.”
Agreeing with Sabag that violations “must be disciplined and enforced,” Stern went on to note that “I stop short of trying to censor some of the activity that makes classrooms stimulating and fun and speaks to these very standards.”
Stern added that the policy proposed by Sabag seems to contradict itself with respect to its purported disdain for bringing partisan politics into the school setting.
“When I look at this new policy … it’s talking about not introducing [issues] along partisan lines, but it seems to me that this policy itself, I want to say it’s a playbook from some ideology that is partisan based,” she said.
Stern and Sabag agreed to collaborate on the policy before further board discussion.
In other district news, Career Technical Education instructor and Media Director Romeo Carey has announced his retirement.
In a message sent to the KBEV community, district representatives lauded Carey’s achievements during his more than two decades of teaching at BHUSD.
“Romeo Carey’s dedication to student learning, media excellence, and public service has left a mark that will be felt for generations,” said BHUSD Superintendent Alex Cherniss. “We thank him for his unparalleled contributions and wish him the very best in his next chapter.”
Carey was at the center of a controversy beginning in December 2024, when he was placed on paid administrative leave for reasons that were not disclosed to the community. Stakeholders, including students, parents and former students, expressed their outrage for months during public comment at board meetings.
Carey was reinstated in March.
In the same statement released by the district, Carey reiterated his mission and his hope for the future.
“My duty as a mentor was to instill the idea that the pillar of a free and open society is a free press that acts as a watchdog, holding those in power accountable and informing the community about public affairs,” he said. “To my students who boldly took on their duty as broadcast journalists by holding truth to power, I will forever be indebted to their tenacity and courage.”
