Pentagon schools in the US and across the globe are suing US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. Twelve students have picked up the baton to fight the ban on books by Hegseth, whose aim is to remove titles on gender and race from their reading material in the libraries.

Advertisment

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit has been lodged on behalf of the students on Tuesday. It argues that the decision attacks the first amendment rights are can cause irrepable harm and may be in a hinderance in the learning process.

WATCH | Trump vs Ivy League showdown escalates: Harvard says federal demands violate academic freedom

The censorship has been applied on all Pentagon schools. In the larger scheme of things, it will be refusing children acess to critical information on biology, abuse, health and hygience among other things.

Advertisment

“The quality of children’s education, their exposure to ideas and the preparing of citizens in the next generation are all being harmed by this censorship,” Emerson Sykes, the ACLU’s senior staff attorney and the lead counsel in the case was quoted in the news outlet Guardian.

Also read: Should India allow the streaming of Netflix’s Adolescence in Indian schools, like Keir Starmer has in the UK?

“This is not how public schools are supposed to work – students have a right to learn and to access information that should be above the political fray," he added.

Advertisment

The suit also brought to light that children’s yearbook entries have begun to be rid of content related to gender. A circular by the school management read: "Student yearbooks are not to include any visual depictions, written content, or editorial choices that would directly or indirectly support the instruction, advancement, and/or promotion of ‘gender ideology’ and/or ‘social transition."

And the Pentagon schools students staging protests against this move have been warned that they could face disciplinary action.