Arizona Lawmakers Push Bill to Stop Teachers from Swearing in Class

PHOENIX - Teachers in Arizona's public schools who use obscene, indecent or profane speech in front of students will not just have to wash their mouths out with soap if a new bill calling for G-rated classrooms passes -- they could get fired.

Several Republican state lawmakers are backing Senate Bill 1467, sponsored by state senator Lori Klein, which creates punishments for publicly-funded educators who stray from speech that would comply with the Federal Communications Commission regulations for what can be said on TV and radio broadcasts.

Those punishments would range from a one-week suspension for a first offense to the possibility of a teacher being fired for a third offense.

"Students are young and impressionable, and teachers should not be using four-letter words in the classroom," Klein said, adding it was likely that a final draft of the law would lower the punishment for a first offense to a warning.

The bill would affect teachers working in public preschools and K-12 schools.

Even though the bill is in its infancy, Democrats are already blasting it.

"Frankly school boards are the ones who should be making these decisions," says State Senator David Schapira, D-Tempe. "I was a high school teacher and I taught in a high school where I never heard anything like this, I never heard from a student, parent or teacher that this was a problem in any classroom."

"I think it is a rare occurrence and I think school districts know how to handle it when it comes about," says State Senator David Lujan, D-Phoenix. "I think our standards are broader than what the federal government would allow. I think the FCC guidelines say that there are seven words that you can't say on TV and we would tell our teachers there are a lot more that we would feel are inappropriate here."

Klein said it was not her intention for community college or university classes to be included in the final bill.

The state's Senate Education Committee has yet to schedule a hearing to discuss the bill, but Senate Majority Leader Andy Biggs already signed on to support it, saying he does not believe the proposed legislation would violate teachers' freedom of speech.

State Senator Lori Klein says it was a complaint from a parent that prompter to draft this legislation.

SB 1467: Public Classrooms; FCC Compliance
Click Here for a summary/fact sheet