Decorum and Sanctioning Representatives Jones, Pearson, and Zephyr

Mini-Lesson Plan

Activity 1: Optional: How Can We Discuss Political Issues Constructively? (15 minutes)

Share the following passage with your students, which can also be found in the Slides for this mini-lesson:

Research shows that many voters treat politics like sports. Instead of deciding which candidates or policies to support based on issues, they are motivated by a desire to beat the other “team” or political party. This attitude can feed into political polarization and make it more difficult to talk about politics in constructive ways. ¹ Media coverage of politics can encourage this way of thinking.

Share Five Thirty Eight’s Pop Quiz: Can You Tell Political Pundits From Sports Commentators?. Ask your students to vote on whether they think each quote is a reference to sports or politics and then reveal the answer.

Then, ask your students to share their responses to the two questions below. Write down students' ideas and use them to help you determine norms to guide your conversations on political issues.

• What do you think it would look like if we treated politics like sports in our class discussions?
• What do you think it looks like if we treat politics differently than sports in our class discussions? What is gained or lost by treating politics differently than sports?
• What norms should guide our conversations about political issues?

Activity 2: What Led to the Sanctions against Representatives Pearson, Jones, and Zephyr? (25 minutes)

Explain to your students that they will be learning about state representatives in Tennessee and Montana who were excluded or expelled from their legislatures. Representatives are elected by regional districts to their state house of representatives. Play the Wall Street Journal video What Led To Tennessee’s Expulsion of Two Democrats for ‘Disorderly Behavior’ (2:33) and the CBS video, Montana bans transgender lawmaker from House floor (2:12) for your students.

Divide your class into groups of 3-4 students, and assign half of the groups to focus on the events in Tennessee and half to focus on the events in Montana. Distribute the reading Sanctions Against Representatives Pearson, Jones, and Zephyr.

Ask your students to read the section on their assigned state. They should use the information from the text and videos to help them answer the questions related to their state as a group.

Tennessee:

• What was one goal of Representatives Jones, Pearson, and Johnson? What strategies did they use to achieve this goal?
• What was one goal of the protestors? What strategies did they use to achieve this goal?
• What was one goal of the lawmakers who voted to expel Jones and Pearson? What strategies did they use to achieve this goal?

Montana:

• What was one goal of Representatives Zephyr? What strategies did she use to achieve this goal?
• What was one goal of the protestors? What strategies did they use to achieve this goal?
• What was one goal of the lawmakers who voted to exclude Zephyr? What strategies did they use to achieve this goal?

Once students have finished discussing their questions in their groups, place them in new groups with students who discussed the other state. Ask them to share their answers with their new group members.

Activity 3: What are the Implications of Using Decorum to Sanction Representatives? (20 minutes)

Representatives Jones and Pearson in Tennessee and Representative Zephyr in Montana were expelled or excluded from their state legislatures on the grounds that they violated rules of decorum governing the speech and actions of legislators. Share the following definition of the term decorum from the Cambridge Dictionary with your students:

behavior that is controlled, calm, and polite ²

Ask your students:

• Do you think this definition of decorum is a good standard for behavior in public settings, for example in schools? What, if anything, would you add or take away from this standard?
• What are the potential benefits of having norms around speech and behavior in public settings?
• What are some examples of speech you think should be forbidden in the legislature, and why?

Then, share the following three quotes with your students:

"Pushing back against the status quo will be seen as inherently uncivil by the people who want to maintain it. And there are always higher standards expected of those people pushing back." – Karen Grigsby Bates, NPR ³

"When the speaker asks me to apologize on behalf of decorum, what he is really asking me to do is be silent when my community is facing bills that get us killed.” – Representative Zephyr

“I say that what we did was act in our responsibility as legislators to serve and give voice to the grievances of people who have been silenced.” – Representatives Jones

Ask your students:

• How could rules around speech be used to silence people? Can you think of examples from your own life when you have seen this happen?
• Who do you think should get to decide what the rules around speech and behavior in the legislature are? 
• What are the potential consequences of removing a legislator or preventing them from speaking about a bill?

• 1KU News, “Most Partisans Treat Politics Like Sports Rivalries, Study Shows,” The University of Kansas, April 15, 2015.
• 2Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus, s.v. “decorum”, accessed May 2, 2023.
• 3Karen Grigsby Bates, “When Civility Is Used As A Cudgel Against People Of Color ,” NPR, March 14, 2019.