Unbiased in the Classroom: Teachers remain uncontroversial in their classes due to the upcoming election, following district policy to prevent teachers from politically influencing their students

With the presidential election coming up on Nov. 5 and students divided on the topic, government teachers are trying to keep their political bias out of the classroom in accordance with district policy.

All teachers were sent an email on Oct. 30 as a reminder of district policy that while teaching about the election is important, teachers should not talk about their political beliefs to their students.

“It’s a constant, daily thing I have to practice and think about,” AP Government and U.S. History teacher Benjamin Hendricks said. “It’s a struggle internally [and] something I’ve gotten better and better at over the years, [but] it’s not easy, especially when you feel passionate about a subject.”

In contrast, AP Government teacher Jacob Penner, in his second year teaching at East, doesn’t find it hard to keep his opinion to himself when he teaches the structure of the government regarding legislation and how bills are passed to his students.

“I never had a [government] teacher tell me, ‘You know what? I’m just a good old fashioned Republican or a Democrat,’ so I’m not going to do that either,” Penner said.

This is the first year East isn’t holding a mock election for the presidential election where the entire school would vote between presidential candidates, according to Penner, due to the political division it would create.

“I think it’s sad,” Penner said. “What they’re afraid of is that the school [would be] saying, this person won, and [it] might make people feel like their opinions don’t matter at school.”

In order to not influence students politically, government teacher Bryan Brogren thinks that getting rid of having a mock election is an important step to remain unbiased.

“It’s not our job to become this kind of school or that kind of school,” Brogren said. “Let’s say 90% of the kids are for one candidate and 10% of kids are for another candidate. Simply by letting those 90% gang up on [the other 10%], we’re actually in plenty of bias and it makes them think, ‘Okay, there’s nothing I can do in my community because my school is [against me].’”

Though government teachers aren’t allowed to show their political bias, they still highly encourage their students to vote. Recently, they showed their students how to register to vote in person or online.

For senior Carter Smith, it’s important that students’ opinions are heard without having a teacher influence them.

“High schoolers are mature enough to make decisions for themselves,” Smith said. “[Teachers] shouldn’t voice their opinions clearly and endorse someone.”

Penner lets students think for themselves while teaching them about current events and how the government works in a way that is unbiased.

“I mean, you can just be very factual with it,” Penner said. “I’ll say that Donald Trump is at a McDonald’s. He was there for 25 minutes. Those are all just facts. I don’t have to go into whether or not I think it was a good or a bad decision.”