‘Our youth deserve truth’: Iowa students, allies rally in Iowa City to defend LGBTQ rights and education freedom

IOWA CITY — Mica Doolan picked up the pieces of pastel-colored chalk and scrawled on the sidewalk “Our youth deserve truth.”

“They deserve to be treated with respect and deserve to have the truth told to them,” the 32-year-old from Cedar Rapids said.

Doolan was one of more than 50 educators, students, parents, community members and Democratic lawmakers who gathered Saturday in College Green Park in Iowa City for "Youth & Truth Day of Action.“

The event was part of a national effort led by the Zinn Education Project, African American Policy Forum and Black Lives Matter at School to stand in solidarity for educators and LGBTQIA rights.

Iowa is among several states that have adopted legislation that limits LGBTQ instruction and prohibits public schools and government agencies from promoting so-called "divisive concepts" in their teachings or trainings, including that the U.S. and Iowa are systemically racist or sexist.

Critics of the laws say the measures stifle teaching students about the role of racism, sexism, transphobia and other forms of oppression throughout U.S. history, and further marginalize LGBTQ students who face higher rates of depression, anxiety and suicide than their peers.

“The event’s purpose is to stand against state laws that actively harm youth and their ability to learn the truth about themselves, our world, structural oppression and history,” said Nickolas Dacre, a member of Iowa WTF, a coalition of high school students that fights “discriminatory legislation.”

Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds earlier this month signed a slate of education bills into law that limit LGBTQ instruction topics by barring lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity through sixth grade, ban books with sexual content from school libraries and require schools to notify parents if a student requests changing their name or pronouns.

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Schools must also put their library catalog online and allow parents to review certain instructional materials and have a policy that allows someone to request removal of any classroom materials.

Republicans have said measures limit what they see as a political agenda in schools and put parents in charge of their children's education, giving them more knowledge and choice over what's happening in classrooms.

Dacre, 18, of Des Moines, just graduated from high school and is gay. He worries Iowa’s new law that limits what educators can say about gender and sexuality will take away schools as a safe space for LGBTQIA students to confide in a trusted adult.

Dacre, too, worries schools disclosing a transgender student’s identity to their parents without their permission could thrust them into unsafe situations if their parents do not accept them.

“Let the kids learn what they want to learn,” he said. “We’re not harming anyone. … I totally agree with the idea that parents can be in the back seat driving what they can go ahead and teach their kids, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of other students.”

Greg Wickencamp is a Ph.D. student at the University of Iowa who taught social studies as a public school teacher in Iowa for the past decade.

Wickencamp said tensions came to a head for him last year when he faced “explicit push back from a local politician,” who accused him of “indoctrinating students to hate America and hate white people.”

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The politician claimed Wickencamp was teaching children critical race theory, the besieged academic framework that says racism is systemic in the United States and has become a catchall term for conservatives on instruction over race they view as politically motivated.

Wickencamp drew the politician’s ire over the use of a youth edition of National Book Award winner and New York Times bestselling author Ibram X. Kendi’s book “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You,” that reveals the history of racist ideas in America. The book was adapted for young people by National Ambassador for Young People's Literature Jason Reynolds.

“Ultimately, a fearful administration was unwilling to say I could teach that slavery was wrong,” Wickencamp said. “And that was kind of a turning point that sort of drove me out of education.”

With any text used in the classroom, Wickencamp said he tried to get students to think critically about it, examine it and look at other resources that represent a wide variety to perspectives.

“Getting students to think critically is what I tried to do and what I was stifled from doing,” he said.

As an advocate of public education, Wickencamp said “every teacher I know wants to work with parents to do what’s best for young people.”

“And we all want young people to think critically — to be empathetic and caring,” he said.

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