Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol Riot Could Soon Be Taught About In NYS Schools: 'That's Our Obligation To Our Children'

LONG ISLAND, NY — New York State public schools may see an addition to the curriculum in the coming years. On the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack, Assemblymember Charles Lavine and State Senator John Liu are calling for the passage of their legislation to require New York State public schools to teach students about that day's history and its aftermath.

This legislation, S6123/A3966, would require schools to include the instruction of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and its fallout. It would not dictate how teachers choose to teach it, Lavine clarified. He stated that this would be alongside already existing required learning materials, such as the Holocaust, slavery, and the Irish Potato Famine.

The New York State Education Department does not require schools to teach this material in a curriculum in schools, and instead, leaves that decision up to the local level. This piece of legislation could very well change that.

"Reality is not debatable," Lavine said. "Facts are not debatable. This bill would simply require that the facts of what happened on January 6 be the subject of instruction."

Lavine said he brought this proposed piece of legislation at the end of Jan. 2025, "in the hope that it would have some symbolic value in the event that President Trump turned out to have the dictatorial inclinations that he has proven himself to have over the course of the last year."

David Laska, director of communications for the NYS Republican Party, shared a statement with Patch on the piece of legislation that Lavine and Liu are proposing:

"If we needed another reminder that Albany Democrats are not serious people, here it is. The American people rejected Democrats’ hysterics over January 6 when they overwhelmingly sent President Trump back to the White House last year. This is another in a long line of distractions from Albany Democrats’ affordability and illegal migrant crises."

He continued, stating that the bill was designed to be a catalyst to stimulate discussion.

"I am very pleased to see that the bill has been picked up by my friend and colleague, John Liu, and I am very optimistic that this may very well end up becoming law," he said.

Lavine shared that he expects "that this will be given full consideration in this upcoming session, [on Wednesday], and then it will be passed before our summer break."

In regards to what grade levels would be taught this material, Lavine said young students are not going to be instructed in this, and it will ultimately be up to the State Board of Regents, the state education department, and local districts to determine the appropriate age.

None of the programs that are described in the state education law for curriculum instruction are to be taught to students before third grade, Lavine said. Legislators do not determine curriculum, but they can require certain areas of American history or world history to be the subject of study, "but we don't prescribe the pedagogy involved in instruction itself."

State Senator John Liu stated in a press release:

"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. In an age when conspiracy theories are able to inspire and incite such wanton political violence, it is 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."

On Jan. 6, 2021, Lavine said he had colleagues in the Capitol building, some of whom agreed with the President's pardoning of rioters.

"So many of my colleagues in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, who on that day were scared for their lives and ran for their lives, to this day, refuse to hold accountable the people who caused that dark day in American history, and they come to the defense of the President," he said. "They were hiding under benches, under desks, locked doors, running for their lives like track stars. Where are their voices today? By remaining silent, they simply encourage that traitorous conduct."

Lavine said this is the only bill requiring instruction of this material anywhere in the U.S., as of about a month ago when they most recently researched the lack of teaching this subject in schools. Reflecting on that day, he said that although most people in the nation are aware of it, young minds may not be.

"We all saw this on television," he said. "Everyone saw this. Everyone knows what happened. This will make our students more patriotic and better able to stand up to anti-democratic efforts by teaching this."

Lavine continued, adding that to learn from history, one must be taught history:

"The founders wanted us, the people who wrote our constitution, to use our best efforts to form a more perfect union. The only way to form a more perfect union is by making sure that the young people we teach are fully aware of what real history is all about. The only way we learn from history is by judging what happened, what went well, and by replicating that, and what did not go well, and by learning how not to commit those same mistakes. That's our obligation. That's what education is all about. That's our obligation to our children and our grandchildren."

If the piece of legislation is passed, the earliest he believes it would be implemented would be January 2027, Lavine said.