A school district in Upstate New York is facing potential legal action from a conservative legal organization that has accused a middle school teacher of violating parental rights by instructing students to visit the Keith Haring Foundation website, thereby exposing them to “mature adult content wholly inappropriate for 11 and 12 year old children.”

In mid-September, an art teacher at Case Middle School in Watertown, New York, asked students to interpret and sketch two artworks from the artist’s 1980 to 1990 period, a two-week project that spanned multiple classes. Haring is known both for his bold-outline style that bridged pop and street art and prominent role as a gay rights and HIV/AIDS activist.

At a school board meeting in early October, a handful of parents raised concerns that their children had been exposed to sexually explicit materials, but when the school failed to take action, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) got involved.

On November 21, the ACLJ sent a letter to the Watertown City School District superintendent, Larry Schmiegel, on behalf of two parents. The letter alleged that the District’s lax monitoring of its curriculum and teachers had led to the constitutional rights of parents and their children being violated. The ACLJ demanded that a letter of reprimand be placed in the teacher’s employment file, the school send out parental consent forms before showing sexually explicit content, and counseling be provided at the school’s expense for the children who were “psychologically affected” by the Haring assignment.

If the District failed to respond by Dec 1, the ACLJ wrote, it would assume the organization intended to “resolve the matter through litigation.”

A spokesperson for the Watertown City School District said that the District does not comment on proposed or pending litigation.

Keith Haring Untitled, (1982). Private collection. © The Keith Haring Foundation.

Though the letter does not state which specific Haring images the children encountered in art class, Haring Foundation’s website does include images of artworks with sexual and violent content—albeit in the cartoon style synonymous with the artist. A spokesperson for the Haring Foundation said that it was aware of the ACLJ’s letter and acknowledged that some of his artworks may be inappropriate for some audiences. The spokesperson also noted that the website’s homepage includes a tab directing visitors to Haring Kids and that the website contains language suggesting teachers use their discretion in regard to student age when creating lesson plans.

At the October meeting, the president of the Watertown teachers union called for teachers to attend in solidarity with the art teacher and told board members that there was a “chasm of difference between an honest mistake and intentional actions.” According to local news, the art teacher resigned in November and has been rehired as an English teacher.

Keith Haring, Untitled (1985). © Keith Haring Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Image Courtesy of the Foundation and Gladstone. Photography by David Regen.

The ACLJ is a conservative, Christian-based legal organization that has weighed in on parental rights over the past year. Its website notes it strives to fight “against efforts to indoctrinate our children and prioritize social engineering over basic education.” In March, it filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which questioned whether parental rights had been violated by a school district by not allowing them to have their children opt out of instruction involving LGBTQ-themed storybooks. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the parents.

More broadly, ACLJ has proven closely aligned with the Trump administration. It has been a staunch defender of Israel, filed amicus briefs defending expansive executive powers, and its chief counsel Jay Sekulow served as a personal attorney to President Donald Trump during the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

This is not the first time that the ACLJ has become legally involved with the Watertown Board of Education. In the late 1990s, it acted as counsel to the Liberty Christian Center which claimed its first amendment rights had been violated after the school had blocked it from using the cafeteria during non-school hours for worship services. In 1998, the district court ruled in favor of the Liberty Christian Center.