Senate Bill 1467 , sponsored by Sen. Lori Klein, R-Anthem, would require teachers in K-12 public schools, public universities and community colleges to comply with the Federal Communications Commission standards of obscenity, indecency and profanity in their classrooms.
Klein was unavailable for comment.
Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson co-sponsored the bill and said it was proposed after one of Klein's constituents complained of a public school teacher cursing in their child’s classroom.
“The teacher was using profanity and other vulgar manners of speech and asked Sen. Klein if something couldn't be done about it,” Melvin said.
He said cursing and obscenity in public classrooms wouldn't be so much of an issue if parents had more access to private schools for their children.
“This type of behavior doesn't happen in a private school or a parochial school,” Melvin said. “It only happens in public schools.”
He said parents are entitled to enroll their children in a school where teachers aren’t using offensive language.
“Parents don't use that language at home,” Melvin said. “It's their right to expect that when their child goes to a school they will not have a teacher using that vulgar language in front of the child.”
As a teacher, he said profanity is unnecessary in a classroom setting, no matter the age of the audience.
“A teacher, whether it's K-12 or the university, is in a special position of trust and power,” Melvin said. “I have my own politics, but when I teach, I leave my politics at the door.”
The bill does not specifically define its own version of what obscenity, profanity and indecency are, but it cites the FCC to define these terms.
W. P. Cary School of Business professor Joseph Carter said cursing does not belong in a classroom but felt the definitions of obscenity and indecency in the bill should be defined more narrowly.
“The FCC standards concerning obscenity and indecency seem to change with the political winds in Washington,” Carter said. “The legislation is currently too broad.”
He said the legislation would allow the FCC to control what Arizona public school teachers can say rather than leaving the decision to the state legislature and voting citizens.
“The decision of what is obscene would be decided by a small group of appointed people, and that bothers me,” Carter said.
While the actual offense involved in the bill is not clearly defined, the punishments comprise most of the legislation.
The first offense requires a minimum suspension of one week, a second offense calls for a minimum suspension of two weeks and a third offense would result in termination.
Carter said the punishments the bill would require are too harsh and harm university students.
“If I drop the F-bomb, and I'm your professor, I won't be teaching your class for a week and probably no one else will be either,” Carter said. “Learning stops for that week that the professor is suspended.”
Carter said the legislation should also take into consideration the differences of the audience.
“I don't think (the legislators are) thinking this through for higher education,” he said. “The difference is that, for the most part, at a university the students are mostly adults.”
Reach the reporter at dgrobmei@asu.edu
