Fremont-Mills Community School District: Teacher  posts list of banned words, phrases, and references in classroom

At Fremont-Mills Community School District in Tabor, Iowa, seventh-grade teacher Leah Ingraham maintains a list of “banned words” in her classroom. The list categorically bans ordinary words that also have slang meanings — including “Ohio” and “chat” — and “references” to drugs, Nazis, or the Holocaust. 

On December 10, FIRE wrote to Freemont-Mills CSD explaining that while schools have a legitimate interest in preventing classroom disruptions, that does not justify a categorical ban on certain words or references without regard to context. FIRE called on the district to remove the list from Ingraham’s classroom.