ALLENTOWN (TNS) — The first anniversary of the Capitol riot was marked last week with the expected political drama.

Democrats including President Biden condemned that dark day and called for justice and reckoning.

Republicans generally laid low. A few offered conspiracy theories.

Donald Trump barely noted the date’s significance. In a statement blaming Biden for everything except the weather, he said only that Democrats want to “own this day” to “stoke fears and divide America.”

I hope our schools had the courage to acknowledge the anniversary. What happened on Jan. 6, 2021, was unprecedented. It was historical and should be part of our history curriculum.

I raise this point because there are controversies about that in communities and their school districts across the country — and in Pennsylvania.

Pennridge School District in Bucks County instructed teachers not to “wade into” discussions with students about the events of Jan. 6 “due to the current polarization and strong emotions,” WHYY reported on Jan. 5.

WHYY obtained a copy of an administrative email to social studies teachers and principals about how to respond if students ask about what happened at the Capitol.

Teachers were told to “simply state that the investigation is ongoing and as historians we must wait until there is some distance from the event for us to accurately interpret it.”

That’s the wrong approach.

The facts of that day should not be subject to interpretation. They should be taught now.

And they should be taught in a politically neutral manner. Trigger terms such as “riot” or “insurrection” shouldn’t be used.

Students can come up with their own words to describe what occurred. But they must learn that:

Trump supporters, wearing his hats and waving his flag, broke into the Capitol. That followed a rally held by the president nearby where he alleged the election had been stolen from him.

Police officers were assaulted and one later died. The building was damaged. Items were stolen. A woman was shot dead by a Capitol police officer as the woman tried to climb through the broken window of a door to the House of Representatives.

The violence caused representatives to evacuate and delayed their certification of Biden as winner of the 2020 election. The House later impeached Trump on a charge of inciting violence against the government. He was acquitted during a Senate trial.

Those are the facts, at the minimum. Educators shouldn’t be afraid to share them with students. And they shouldn’t be barred from sharing them.

Whether Trump incited the violence with his speech remains a matter of debate. He told rally attendees that, “If you don’t fight like hell you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Whether there was a twisted conspiracy that led all the way to Trump to stop Biden from taking office also remains debated.

As the investigations wrap up, they can be rolled into future history lessons.

But there’s plenty of history to teach now. So let’s teach it.

After seeing the WHYY report about Pennridge, I reached out to Superintendent David Bolton.

He told me Monday that teachers were not gagged.

“At no time did we issue a directive that teachers could not teach about January 6th” he said in a statement. “We have always trusted our teachers to do what is best for our students, and we have no interest in stifling them.”

The district issued guidance after multiple teachers expressed concerns as the anniversary neared, “because of the heightened emotions surrounding the storming of our U.S. Capitol,” Bolton said in his statement. “We suggested that, if asked, staff could discuss the role that time plays in forming historical views.”

“Pennridge teachers remain able to address any topic of current events in a constructive and appropriate manner,” he said.

When I asked whether students were taught about Jan. 6 on the anniversary, Bolton told me “discussions” occurred in multiple classrooms.

“I cannot provide specifics since it was discussion-based and based on student questions,” he said.

That’s good to hear.

If conversations start to get political or heated, teachers can steer them back to a fact-based discussion.

But they shouldn’t steer clear of the topic.

The failure of schools to address it would just be another sad chapter to teach about the history of that day.

(Paul Muschick is a columnist for The Morning Call of Allentown.)