Advocates for Inclusive Education (AFIE) stands for freedom of expression and the free exchange of a wide range of viewpoints and ideas in our public schools and in our nation.

We stand against censorship of diverse voices in our libraries and in our classrooms. We organize opposition to library policy 109.2 that paves the way to book bans for all 17,000+ students, 60+ of them challenged by just 2 people. Those books had been selected by librarian educators specifically for our students, half of which depict experiences other than cis/het/white voices have told. We fight against restrictions on teachers’ freedom of speech, including a ban on classroom discussion and décor that our opponents said would limit “indoctrination” which no one provided evidence to show it had occurred. This ban led to the removal of a quote by holocaust survivor and peace activist Elie Wiesel days before Holocaust Remembrance Day. We tirelessly champion our most vulnerable students in the face of blistering attacks by the public and some school board members, as they perceive LGBTQIA+ children and young adults as “sexualized” merely by virtue of their gender identity, expression, or orientation. We write a weekly blog and newsletter (sign up to below) to dispel the misinformation promulgated by our opponents, including Moms For Liberty and their ilk.

Our work is high leverage—we get a lot of press coverage locally and nationally (NYTimes, Fox, NPR, Reuters, other major networks)—and crucial to the national perception of issues around marginalized, vilified communities.

Our climate here is so unhealthy that the ACLU made a formal discrimination complaint on behalf of our LGBTQIA+ kids to the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, which is now investigating the alleged hostile climate for these students, which our administrators and school board majority has adamantly refused to address.

Our entire system of public education is at stake. The whole game is to discredit community schools and the teachers who make them great so as to privatize education nationally, dividing our community, rendering us unable to cooperate even to administer schools for our children.

AFIE stands for ALL the kids, every one of them, and the schools and teachers that bring them together for the sake of their own futures and the future of democracy.