9/11 instruction in K-12 schools promotes ‘safe spaces,’ emotional monitoring, ‘Islamophobia’

While Americans across the country remember the tragic terrorism 25 years ago on 9/11, many students are learning to define “Islamophobia” and “stereotype” in classrooms.

Approximately 40 states offer some policy on 9/11 education in elementary and secondary schools, according to AP News. But the content of the curriculum differs drastically from state to state and school district to school district. Students living in nearby ZIP codes may discuss radically different topics during 9/11 instruction.

The Illinois Board of Education offers an “Inclusive Calendar” for teachers with links to 9/11 materials such as “Countering Islamophobia.” This curriculum, from the Southern Poverty Law Center – a radical leftist nonprofit that designates Christian and conservative organizations as “hate groups” – includes two handouts for high school students: “Debunking Misconceptions about Muslims and Islam” and “Hijabs in Europe.”

In Virginia, Fairfax County public schools (FCPS) offers teachers a guide with “dos and don’ts” for 9/11 instruction, according to Fox News. The list orders teachers not to “associate the 9/11 attacks with Islam or Muslims” or “center the extremists or the acts of the extremists.”

Roughly half of the 1,740-word document addresses how to create “safe spaces for Muslim and Middle Eastern students,” and 35% of the guide suggests how to manage “emotional responses,” according to Fox’s digital analysis. It also includes a section titled “Responding to Racism, Hate, and Bias against Muslims and Middle Eastern People,” as well as 30 references to Islam, “Muslim families,” “Muslim students,” “anti-Muslim racism,” “anti-Middle Eastern” rhetoric, “Islamophobic rhetoric” and “Middle Eastern students” and families, according to Fox.

In Colorado, high school students must learn about “the war on terror,” including 9/11, the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and “Middle Eastern discrimination and the evolution of U.S. counterterrorism efforts,” AP reports.

But in Florida, students receive at least 45 minutes of 9/11 instruction each year “to ensure this important event in America’s history is not only remembered but also integrated into civics and resiliency education statewide,” the state Department of Education said, according to AP.

In 2021, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) offered “Teaching September 11, 2001 in Diverse Classrooms” to “Philadelphia and Delaware Educators and Parents.” The guide cautions teachers against using “inaccurate and inflammatory terms such as ‘Islamic terrorists,’ ‘jihadists,’ or ‘radical Islamic terrorists.’”

The next year, CAIR partnered with Teaching While Muslim, a New Jersey-based advocacy group, to create “The Impact of 9/11 on Muslims,” and sent the elementary, middle and high school curriculum to approximately 55 public schools in New Jersey school districts, according to a press release.

Other education organizations are promoting similar ideas. Erinn Leone of EdSource encourages teachers to “examine consequences that are often left out of conversations about 9/11,” such as the effects on Muslim, Arab and South Asian Americans, the rise of “Islamophobia,” and the shift in foreign policy, national security and immigration regulation.

But retired Navy Vice Adm. Lou Crenshaw, who was stationed inside the Pentagon when al-Qaeda terrorists crashed a hijacked plane into the military headquarters, told Fox News the emotional approach to education that FCPS promotes is “a vanilla way to do things.” 

“To me, that’s not exactly what we need to do,” he said. “We need to make sure that the kids have learned a lesson here. And that’s not going to happen if we try to shave the facts to the point where it’s hard to figure out what we’re talking about.”

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon sent a letter Thursday to American K-12 schools, calling for 9/11 instruction to keep the tragedy from becoming “distant historical events” for students born after it happened.

“A quarter century has passed since that terrible day, but we must never forget what September 11th means for the United States. This year, I call on American schools to educate students with moral clarity about the events of that day and its significance for the Nation’s history,” she said, referencing the brave Americans who overtook the hijackers on United Flight 93 and saved countless lives but lost their own when the plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

She added that teachers have “a solemn responsibility” to orient younger generations within America’s own history, which includes “the terrible reality” of 9/11 and Americans’ “incredible response.”

“It was a time of solidarity in which Americans came together to give blood, joined our armed forces, and supported their neighbors,” she said. “It was a time when the American people demonstrated courageous resolve, standing strong in the face of evil.”