HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3059        FILED ON: 1/16/2015

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 473

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_________________

PRESENTED BY:

Jeffrey N. Roy and Karen E. Spilka

_________________

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act concerning genocide education.

_______________

PETITION OF:

 

Name:

District/Address:

Date Added:

Jeffrey N. Roy

10th Norfolk

1/16/2015

Karen E. Spilka

Second Middlesex and Norfolk

1/16/2015

Jonathan Hecht

29th Middlesex

1/21/2015

David M. Rogers

24th Middlesex

1/24/2020

Shawn Dooley

9th Norfolk

1/24/2020

Paul McMurtry

11th Norfolk

1/24/2020

Lori A. Ehrlich

8th Essex

1/24/2020

David K. Muradian, Jr.

9th Worcester

2/4/2015

Steven Ultrino

33rd Middlesex

1/24/2020

Jason M. Lewis

Fifth Middlesex

1/24/2020


HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3059        FILED ON: 1/16/2015

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 473

By Representative Roy of Franklin and Senator Spilka, a joint petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 473) of Jeffrey N. Roy and others relative to the teaching of genocide education in the public schools.  Education.

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

 

_______________

In the One Hundred and Eighty-Ninth General Court
(2015-2016)

_______________

 

An Act concerning genocide education.

 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

Section 1. Chapter 15 of the General Laws is hereby Amended by adding the following section:-

Section 67.  Acts of genocide across the globe shall be included in the Massachusetts history and social science curriculum frameworks for United States and world history to address the notion that national, ethic, racial, or religious hatred can overtake any nation or society, leading to calamitous consequences. To reinforce that lesson, such curriculum unit shall include, but not be limited to, the Nazi atrocities of 1933 to 1945 known as the Holocaust, the Famine-Genocide in Ukraine known as Holodomor, the Armenian Genocide, the Pontian Greek Genocide, and more recent atrocities in Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Sudan. The studying of this material is a reaffirmation of the commitment of free peoples from all nations to never again permit the occurrence of another genocide and a recognition that crimes of genocide continue to be perpetrated across the globe as they have been in the past, and to deter indifference to crimes against humanity and human suffering wherever they may occur.

The department shall recommend curricular materials detailing the underlying causes, international reaction, progression and aftermath of the aforementioned genocides, including those recommendations established by chapter 276 of the acts of 1998.

The department may provide trainings, seminars, conferences and materials for educators to use in the teaching of genocide.