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‘What did I say in class today?’: Teachers Feel Watched Under Trump’s Anti-DEI Push
An Idaho teacher was told by her principal to take down an "Everyone is welcome here" poster in her classroom. It's a symptom of President Trump's crackdown on discussions of inclusivity in schools.
For years, Sarah Inama had a poster hanging in her Idaho classroom that encouraged her sixth-grade students to be kind and inclusive with one another.
“Everyone is welcome here,” it said in bright, multicolored letters atop a row of hands with varying skin tones.
The poster had never drawn any attention, until recently, when her principal and vice principal asked her to take it down.
“They told me teachers aren’t allowed to have posters that show their personal or political opinions on things and this was now seen as a personal opinion,” said Inama.
The poster came down, but not for long.
After a few days of losing sleep over it, Inama put it back up, a move she says the principal considered insubordination. Dissatisfied with the explanation from school administrators, Inama pressed the district’s chief academic officer for answers.
“He told me that political environments ebb and flow and what might not have been controversial three or six or nine months ago can be considered controversial now.”
The school had made the decision without a single parent complaining.
West Ada School District confirmed Inama’s account.
In a statement to NPR, a district spokeswoman said it wasn’t the words on the poster that were the issue, but the different colored letters and varying skin tones of the hands that they “determine to potentially express viewpoints regarding specific identity groups.”
Inama still teaches her world civilization class, and the poster she was ordered to take down last month is still hanging in her classroom, but she feels demoralized by the incident.
“There are only two opinions of that poster: You either believe that everyone is welcome here or you don’t,” she said.
Soon after President Trump returned to office, he signed an executive order titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” which seeks to restrict how schools discuss race, gender and “equity ideology” in the classroom. The order grants the Education Department the power to rescind federal funds from schools that violate the directive. To help enforce the new rules, the Education Department also launched an End DEI portal, where students or parents can report on teachers for diversity, equity and inclusivity lessons taught in class. All of it is raising questions about who has the right to exercise free speech in public education—
The effort to root out DEI lessons is a victory for groups like Moms for Liberty, which is described by supporters as a parental rights organization. It endorsed the creation of the portal as many public school teachers say they’re being closely watched and ultimately silenced.
“What did I say in class today?”
Talking about current events in class is a walk through a minefield for E., a social studies teacher in Oregon. She asked to be identified only by her first initial because she fears students or parents could report her for speaking against the campaign to root out DEI.
She looked up the portal page after hearing about its launch on the news. Immediately, her mind started racing. “I kept thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, what did I say in class today? What was asked in class today? What could be taken out of context in class today?'” she said. “I was pretty scared.”
From that point on, E. has been extremely cautious about how she answers students’ questions about how the history she’s teaching relates to what’s happening today.
“There are so many times where I just have to tell them I can’t answer that question or I just change the subject, or I think about how I’m going to say it in a way that gives them the information they need, but also in a way that’s going to cover my butt,” she said.
The administration’s mission to stamp out DEI from public school education has teachers like E. worried that their ability to speak — and teach — is being stifled.
“It’s becoming easier and easier for certain people to have the right to free speech and for others to be having theirs shut down.” E said. “I think it’s just been a big shift as to what’s acceptable speech and what is now considered a DEI report issue.”
The Education Department has not responded to NPR’s repeated requests for more information on how the reporting and penalty process would work for teachers when complaints are filed. The portal page states that the department vows to protect “the confidentiality of these submissions to the fullest extent permitted by law.”
Some are celebrating the White House’s DEI purge
For Tina Descovich, co-founder of the Florida-based Moms for Liberty group, the End DEI portal is serving a need that had been ignored for far too long.
With the portal now in place, she says people have flagged lessons where teachers “divide children by race and call Black children the victims or the oppressed, white children are the oppressors,” adding that “we can study history and the atrocities that have happened in American history, but to divide children today in 2025 by race is unacceptable.”
NPR couldn’t find examples of lessons in public schools where students were physically divided and labeled like Descovich described. When asked for examples, Moms for Liberty pointed to a case in 2021 involving a Florida public arts high school that planned separate student meetings for students of color and white students. It later canceled them and apologized.
Getting rid of DEI is not the only issue driving Moms for Liberty. The group has pushed for banning books on racism, discrimination, sexuality or LGBTQ+ rights. Some of its members post anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, and at one chapter meeting in Arkansas a few years ago, a member was recorded talking about gunning down a school librarian.
The group was founded at the height of the pandemic, when many parents rallied against mask mandates and school closures and shouted down members of school board meetings.
The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the group extremist in 2023 after the National School Board Association asked the Biden administration to intervene as threats against school staff and school board members spiked. The Justice Department promised to investigate and prosecute anyone intimidating or threatening violence.
Moms for Liberty frames the FBI’s investigation of violent threats against school board members as a politically motivated campaign to silence parents and their organization.
“Parents were just showing up trying to voice their opinion,” says Descovich. “We are not anti-government, but we absolutely have the right, guaranteed in the First Amendment, to address government officials when we think they are not on the right track. And it’s really been incredible to watch the forces unify against us.”
In just a few years a lot has changed.
With Trump back in office, the doors to the White House are now open to Moms for Liberty.
Representatives of the far-right group were at the signing of executive orders on dismantling the Department of Education and banning transgender athletes from women’s and girls’ sports, suggesting Moms for Liberty not only feels freer to speak these days — it has the president’s ear.
“A lot of these executive orders speak to the struggle that our organization and many other organizations have experienced over the last four and five years,” says Descovich, who believes that if others now suddenly feel “silenced in the way we were silenced the last several years,” they should organize.
“It may take time, but it does work. I am willing to stand with someone, anyone for their right to speak.”
In the meantime, policies her group has advocated for, like the End DEI portal, are chilling speech for teachers in public schools.
Transcript:
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
For years, Sarah Inama had a poster hanging in her Idaho classroom – a poster that encouraged her sixth-grade students to be kind, to be inclusive. Everyone is welcome here, it said, in bright, multicolored letters.
SARAH INAMA: It has images of hands of different skin tones underneath it that have little hearts in the palm of their hands.
FADEL: She got it at a classroom supply store, and it had never drawn any attention – until recently.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
INAMA: I just was approached by my principal and vice principal. They told me that they were having to go through the school and have posters that have controversial messages taken down.
FADEL: When she pressed them on what was controversial…
INAMA: They told me teachers aren’t allowed to have posters that show their personal or, like, political opinions on things, and this was now seen as a personal opinion.
FADEL: Today, on The State of the First Amendment: The Right from Which All Rights Flow – rooting out diversity, equity and inclusion in public schools.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FADEL: Sarah did not take the poster down for very long.
INAMA: I just woke up and was like, I just can’t stop thinking about it. It’s just so wrong. I just felt so gross feeling complacent in it. And I just came in on a Saturday with my husband and my baby and put it back up, and I emailed my principal to let him know that I had done that.
FADEL: What did the principal say?
INAMA: He did come to my classroom, and he said, that is considered insubordination. After I put it back up, one of our district personnel – our chief academic officer – he told me that political environments ebb and flow, and what might not have been controversial three or six or nine months ago can be considered controversial now.
FADEL: In a statement, the school district confirmed Inama’s recounting of what happened, saying it wasn’t the words but the colors of the letters and the different skin tones of the hands that they, quote, “determined to potentially express viewpoints regarding specific identity groups.”
INAMA: When I was told that it doesn’t allow for people to express differing opinions – there’s only two opinions of that poster. You either believe that everyone is welcome here or you don’t. I just was so shocked, especially on the basis of skin tone.
FADEL: Are they still up in your classroom?
INAMA: Mm-hmm.
FADEL: And you’re still teaching at the school?
INAMA: Mm-hmm.
FADEL: Now, she’s not the only teacher feeling watched over the hunt for diversity, equity and inclusion. When we asked you, our readers and listeners, if you felt freer or more silenced in this moment, a teacher from Oregon wrote to us. She was so worried about speaking, she asked to only go by her first initial, E.
E: Just where I live and where I teach is a really small community, and I’m definitely worried about getting reported.
FADEL: What she’s referring to there is a new portal from the Department of Education called End DEI, where you can report any instances of lessons around diversity, equity and inclusion. When E first heard about it in the news, she thought it couldn’t be real. Then she looked it up.
E: And I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, it literally just says, students, parents, teachers, you can report when you see instances. So I was like, oh, my gosh.
FADEL: E’s mind started racing.
E: Immediately, I kept thinking about, what did I say in class today? What was asked in class today? What could be taken out of context in class today? Who’s mad at me right now for changing their seats or something like that? Could someone use this against me for something I’ve done in the recent past? So I was pretty scared.
FADEL: Can you describe how that sort of changed your teaching behavior in the classroom?
E: I mean, the very next day, kids are asking me questions. There are so many times where I just have to tell them I can’t answer that question, or I just change the subject. Or I think about how I’m going to say it in a way that gives them the information they need, but also in a way that’s going to cover my butt.
FADEL: A year ago, did you feel the same way?
E: No, I did not. Right now, in our current environment and our current political place, it’s becoming easier and easier for certain people to have the right to free speech and for others to be having theirs shut down. And I think it’s just been a big shift as to what’s acceptable speech and what is now considered, you know, a DEI report issue.
FADEL: If we were doing this interview about freedom of speech a year ago, would you have given me your full name?
E: Yes, I would have.
FADEL: The Education Department has not responded to our repeated requests for comment on how this portal works or what penalty teachers reported would face. So we reached out to a group that endorsed the End DEI portal, a right-wing advocacy group called Moms for Liberty. It was founded in the midst of the COVID pandemic by moms who felt unheard and shut out by school administrators and school board members over objections to masking policies and school closures. One of its co-founders is Tina Descovich, a Florida mom who says the portal was created to serve a need.
TINA DESCOVICH: Our parents across the country, and people that aren’t even members, email us things that they find in their school districts – practices, policies that they find concerning. And there really was nowhere to report that.
FADEL: If you could give me an example of the type of complaint that you think the DEI portal would then handle.
DESCOVICH: The things that I’ve seen that I know people have forwarded on to the DEI portal are lessons where they divide children by race and call, you know, Black children the victims or the oppressed; white children are the oppressors. So that would be something absolutely somebody should fill out in the DEI portal.
FADEL: An executive order on, quote, “radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling” to end diversity, equity and inclusion in public schools makes a similar claim. But we couldn’t find examples in public schools of lessons where kids were physically divided by race, as Descovich described. Moms for Liberty pointed to a Florida public arts high school that planned separate meetings for students of color and white students four years ago. It later canceled them and apologized.
Now, getting rid of DEI is not the only issue driving Moms for Liberty. The group has pushed to ban books, largely on racism, discrimination, sexuality or LGBTQ rights. Members post anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. And at a chapter meeting three years ago, a member talked about gunning down a school librarian. All of this is why the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the group extremist in 2023. Back at the height of the pandemic, it was a charged environment. Parents were shouting down school board members.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) Shame on you. Shame on you.
FADEL: There was a spike in violent threats against school staff and school board members – like this threat.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: You know your home address is on the internet, don’t you? That could be a little scary.
FADEL: Which prompted the National School Board Association to ask the Biden administration to intervene. Moms for Liberty has framed the FBI’s investigation of those violent threats against school board members as a politically motivated campaign to silence parents and organizations like theirs. Again, Descovich.
DESCOVICH: Parents were just showing up, trying to voice their opinions, sometimes, you know, not really that nice to school board members. They were angry about things that were going on with their children. But in no way, shape or form should they have had the DOJ, the federal government, coming after them.
FADEL: You know, it’s no secret that the Southern Poverty Law Center and other organizations see Moms for Liberty as an extremist organization – as a far-right organization that actually is in opposition to LGBTQ+ and racially inclusive school curriculums, that it advocates for book bans. What do you make of that, and how is that connected to what you were describing?
DESCOVICH: I and my co-founder both served in a public school board for four years – dedicated my life during that time to that. We believe in the public education system. We believe in America’s founding principles and our government. We are not anti-government. But we absolutely have the right, guaranteed in the First Amendment, to address government officials when we think they are not on the right track.
FADEL: In just a few years, a lot has changed for Moms for Liberty. With Trump’s election, the doors to the White House are open to the group.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much.
FADEL: Members were at the signing of executive orders – one for banning transgender athletes from women and girls’ sports; another for dismantling the Department of Education.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TRUMP: And it sounds strange, doesn’t it? Department of Education – we’re going to eliminate it. And everybody knows it’s right.
FADEL: Not only does the right-wing advocacy group feel freer to speak these days – they seem to have the ear of the president.
DESCOVICH: A lot of these executive orders speak to the struggle that our organization and many other organizations have experienced over the last four and five years. I hope that government will be much more open. I think people in the administration really want to see changes that will open up the government more, and that’s good for all Americans – left, right, Republican, Democrat. I have a lot of hope.
FADEL: You know, I think there were people who felt like what you were advocating for was dangerous for certain Americans. I’m just wondering, in this moment, if it’s free speech for everyone or just free speech for some.
DESCOVICH: Well, the Constitution of the United States of America guarantees free speech for everyone. And if anyone in America is being silenced in the way that we were silenced the last several years, they need to do the things that we do. They need to organize. They need to petition their government. We have filed lawsuits, and we’ve been victorious because the legal system in America does work. It may take time, but it does work. You know, I am willing to stand with someone – anyone – for their right to speak.
FADEL: But it is the policies her group has advocated for, like the End DEI portal, chilling the speech of some teachers in public schools.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
FADEL: MORNING EDITION invited Education Secretary Linda McMahon or the vice president, JD Vance, to sit down with us for a conversation about free speech. We have not heard back, and that invitation is still open.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
