Laurel School District et al. v. Pennsylvania School District, et al.

Three western Pennsylvania school districts, along with educators, parents, and students sued the Pennsylvania Department of Education for unconstitutionally forcing educators to inject ideological, “woke” activism into school curricula across Pennsylvania. In response to the Culturally-Relevant and Sustaining Education (CR-SE) Program Framework Guidelines issued in November 2022 by the state’s education department, Thomas More Society attorneys filed suit on behalf of school districts, teachers, and families, in April 2023.

Pennsylvania’s CR-SE guidelines sought to mandate that educators affirm and impose on their students highly ideological beliefs about contentious social and political issues. This required educators throughout Pennsylvania to make acknowledgments of the “biases [that] exist in the education system,” “microagressions,” and “unconscious biases,” among other ideologically tinted points. Examples of ideological standards in the CR-SE guidelines include mandates that educators:

• “Believe and acknowledge that microaggressions are real and take steps to educate themselves about the subtle and obvious ways in which they are used to harm and invalidate the existence of others...”

• “Disrupt harmful institutional practices, policies, and norms by advocating and engaging in efforts to rewrite policies, change practices, and raise awareness...”

• “Engage in critical and difficult conversations with others to deepen their awareness of their own conscious/unconscious biases, stereotypes, and prejudices...”

• “Design learning experiences and spaces for learners to identify and question economic, political, and social power structures in the school, community, nation, and world.”

On November 13, 2024, in response to Thomas More Society's legal challenge, the Pennsylvania Department of Education rescinded the Culturally-Relevant and Sustaining Education (CR-SE) Program Framework Guidelines. School entities are no longer obligated to comply with the program.