(The Center Square) — New York public school students would be required to learn about the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol under a proposal filed by Democratic lawmakers.
The legislation calls for amending the state’s education laws to require schools to include the instruction of the Jan. 6 “insurrection” and its aftermath alongside existing coursework in civic education and historical events such as slavery and the Holocaust.
“Five years after the Donald Trump-led Capitol insurrection, his administration continues to spin revisionist narratives to gaslight the American people into believing the events of that fateful day were somehow not a violent assault on our democracy,” state Sen. John Liu, D-Bayside, the bill’s main sponsor, said in a statement.
Liu said at a time when “conspiracy theories” are inspiring political violence, “it’s more important than ever that our schools equip the next generation with the truth, free from bias, and without prejudice, in order to protect our democracy.”
State Assemblyman Charles Lavine, D-North Shore, said the Jan. 6 curriculum proposal was inspired by Trump’s “all-out effort to erase the January 6th insurrection, which he personally led, along with many other inglorious moments in our history, from the memory of time.”
“I sincerely hope that Americans of good faith will challenge the administration’s attempts to move our nation towards an autocracy by attempting to whitewash parts of our history and instead fulfill our nation’s solemn obligation to teach our children the truth,” he said in a statement.
A draft of the bill said the goal of requiring the instruction is “to promote a spirit of patriotic and civic service and obligation” which “are essential in preparing to meet the obligations of citizenship in peace or in war.”
“Young people are looking to their teachers to help them understand both history and current events,” reads a summary of the bill. “New York’s educators have a responsibility to help our students understand what happened on that day and assist them in analyzing the legacy of that historical moment.”
On January 6, 2021, the day Congress gathered at the Capitol to certify Democrat Joe Biden the winner of the presidential election, Trump led a “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse in Washington that culminated when more than 2,000 demonstrators broke into the Capitol after crashing through police barricades, vandalizing the building and ransacking legislative offices.
Demonstrator Ashli Babbitt was shot to death by a Capitol Police officer while attempting to break into the House floor. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick collapsed and died one day after the attack, while four other police officers at the Capitol that day died of suicide half a year later. Dozens were injured.
But five years later, the leaders of both major political parties have refused to agree to an official history of what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, with most Democrats calling it a Trump-backed “insurrection” by protesters seeking to overturn the presidential election and many Republicans arguing it was a lawful protest that got out of hand.
Shortly after returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of more than 1,600 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The president has referred to the demonstrators as “patriots” who were unfairly prosecuted by the Biden administration for exercising their First Amendment rights. He has also blamed the media for exaggerating the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
