*This article has been updated to reflect the upcoming hearing date.
The book could be removed because Katie Gates, a parent of an Ashley High School AP Language and Composition student, appealed the decision of two school committees that previously allowed the book to stay in the curriculum.
Gates spoke during Tuesday’s public comment period.
“I remain concerned over the infiltration of socialistic principles, the fulfillment of communist goals that I see permeating the schools, promoting divisive, anti-American sentiment,” Gates said.
Gates said educators should teach history not through people’s “feelings” but through “truth.” She said moving forward, after speaking at the board’s meetings for two years, she wouldn’t be able to attend as many in the future although she didn’t elaborate why.
Kelli Kidwell, who assigned the book, also spoke. Four of her Ashley High English colleagues: Lisa Williams, Hannah Owen, Michelle Munoz, and Joseph Skladanowski stood behind her at the podium, wearing their high school t-shirts labeled, “Team Family” as she said, “I am driven by intellectual freedom, open conversation, and engagement with thought-provoking questions and topics as the only way to have authentic learning.”
Kidwell reminded the school board that the College Board could cite censorship or a book ban in a decision to remove the AP designation from that course and its inclusion in the AP course ledger provided to colleges and universities.
The board’s discussion
After the public comments, a majority of which were in support of keeping the book in the district’s schools, Board Member Hugh McManus said he fears what comes next if the board moved forward with the hearing.
“We don’t need to start a precedent to ban books. I don’t want to be a member of a group that agrees to ban books. [...] Because once you start banning, then you’ll be asked to ban more. [...] Once you start, you can’t stop. [...] I hope this [granting of the hearing] will not pass. This will be monumental,” McManus said.
McManus added that students who are taking AP courses will become “our future leaders” — that they needed to be exposed to diverse viewpoints, ones they don’t necessarily have to accept.
Board Member Stephanie Kraybill said she didn’t one parent to dictate curriculum to thousands of high school students. She also said she wanted the board to trust its educators.
“If we’re not going to appreciate their wisdom, their expertise, the college classes they took in order to get where they are, in favor of some community members who think they know more than our educators know — I’m having a problem with that,” Kraybill said.
Board Member Melissa Mason said she’s mainly concerned about the book’s low difficulty level, rather than its content.
“The reading level of that book is actually middle school to high school. If this is an AP course, we want to raise the standard for our kids,” Mason said.
But Kidwell said she takes issue with this argument.
“Some of the greatest texts in literature like Night by Elie Wiesel, are a very low lexile [score] and considered literary texts to use at a college level. Sound in the Fury is another one. A lot of Hemingway. The style of those writers is to use short, simple text, and the challenge comes from interpreting the subtext and the inferences and that kind of writing,” Kidwell said.
But Board Member Josie Barnhart agreed with Mason on the reading level concern, citing that her copy of the book came from Castle Hayne Elementary’s library, and said that curriculum review is the board’s responsibility.
“When the idea and concept came up about curriculum selection, which is our job, approving is our job, and as a district we’ve gone to streamlining curriculum and content,” Barnhart said.
Kidwell has been on the defense since Gates filed her first complaint back in December. Now that the hearing is moving forward, Board Member Stephanie Walker fears the position she and the district will be in.
“I think we are at a point where we’re having a circus — and [we’ll be] pulling apart a book and our teachers in front of everyone because that’s what’s going to happen,” Walker said.
Walker also warned the board that any attempt to ban Stamped could open them up to civil litigation, like the kind that is currently unfolding after a school district in South Carolina banned the book.
Board Member Pat Bradford said this hearing would be furthering due process. But she also indicated concern about the structure of the school system’s current book review process, suggesting revaluation of those processes.
“I look forward to better understanding the school district’s committees' process for a book because right now I don't really understand it: exactly who’s in there, who’s doing what, and how it’s done,” Bradford said.
WHQR reported the makeup of Ashley’sMedia and Technology Committee (MTAC) in January, and the district’s MTAC committee last month. Last revised in May 2022, Policy 3210 outlines how the board’s processes work around parents’ objections to reading materials.
Both Bradford and Gates’ public comments echo the legislative efforts of NC Senate Bill 49, the “Parents Bill of Rights” which would grant North Carolina parents additional access to review and contest educational material in public schools. Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the bill last week, and Republicans in the General Assembly are expected to attempt an override vote soon. There's also language in the recently filed Senate Bill 90, the so-called "Children's Laws Omnibus," which would remove protections for schools and libraries (and their employees) and add additional restrictions on certain materials.
Hearing process, and what's next
McManus, Kraybill, and Walker advocated for a ‘document-only’ hearing — but the board’s four more conservative members voted to proceed with a testimony-style hearing, where each side will have up to 20-minutes to present their arguments.
The four Republicans also declined to publicly hash out further procedures for the hearing, as Kraybill and Walked had requested.
Bradford and Barnhart also suggested that rather than speak for herself, Gates could be represented by outside counsel if she chose. At the board’s June agenda briefing, the board discussed the idea that Assistant Superintendent of Technology and Digital Learning Dawn Brinson would likely argue in favor of the district’s decisions.
The board declined to set a date for the hearing that evening.
After the vote, Kidwell said, “I'm just frustrated because I just really can't understand how a book can instill the kind of fear that would cause people to try to remove it from other people's access. It just doesn't make sense. It's very confusing.”
As for the impending hearing results, Kidwell said, “I don't have high hopes. I feel like I'm a character in Waiting for Godot right now. So I imagine the outcome is already determined. And I don't know that there's much that will persuade members of the board to actually logically consider what it means to start banning text. [...] It is just a very scary precedent to watch. It's very reminiscent of movements during World War II with burning books, McCarthyism.”
WHQR reached out to Katie Gates for comment and has yet to hear back. She declined an interview with WHQR immediately following the public comment period.
