Since January, a parent, Katie Gates, has been pushing to ban the book and now, after her request was denied in two different appeals, the school board is deciding its fate. When Gates first complained, her daughter had been assigned Stamped as part of an AP course. Since then, her daughter accepted an alternative assignment and has since completed the course, but Gates has continued to pursue getting the book removed.
Assistant Superintendent of Technology and Digital Learning Dawn Brinson will be representing the district.
On August 8, New Hanover County school board attorney Jonathan Vogel sent a memorandum to both parties — Gates and Brinson — about the procedures for the upcoming hearing based on the board’s current policies 2500(Hearings before the board) and 3210 (Parental Inspection of and Objection to Instructional materials).
Policy committee Chair Josie Barnhart has policy 3200, which governs how the district selects curriculum materials, up for discussion for their Tuesday 10 a.m. meeting. The purpose is to have an “open discussion about possible suggested revisions.”
Vogel said the board will determine whether the challenge to the book has “merit” and whether that book should be “retained, removed from the New Hanover County Schools entirely, whether it should be removed to another school level, or whether its availability should be restricted.”
Vogel said the legal standard comes from North Carolina state law, which comes from the U.S. Supreme Court case on Board of Education v. Pico(1982).
Vogel underlined the following from state law:
He added that G.S. § 115C-98 directs both Gates and Brinson to “focus their advocacy on whether the book is ‘educationally unsuitable, pervasively vulgar, or inappropriate to the age, maturity, or grade level of the students.’”
Both Gates and Brinson have the option to submit a written statement to the board. Vogel asked this be sent by August 25, so that it be included with the board’s materials for the hearing.
That deadline also extends to any documents Gates or Brinson would like to submit. Vogel said to the parties that, “legal rules of evidence do not apply to information considered by the Board.”
He reiterated that each side will have 20 minutes to present their arguments. He asked Gates specifically to inform him whether she will use some of her time to rebut some of the district’s points. She would need to notify him by August 25 how she plans to use her time.
Neither parties are allowed to call witnesses, and there will be no cross-examination — but board members will be able to ask questions of both sides.
Gates has until August 18 to decide whether she will have legal representation. Vogel said if she does, the board will have an attorney — but added that it wouldn’t be him.
- Location for public hearing: 1805 South 13th Street, Wilmington, NC 28401
Previous reporting
- The public weighs in on “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You”
- The rhetoric over “Stamped” is heating up
- NHC school board set to hold public hearing on "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You"
- New Hanover County school board will now decide “Stamped” book challenge (Second MTAC Committee report)
- 'Stamped' out? The battle to remove an AP-English book from a New Hanover County school (First MTAC Committee report)
- NHCSO investigated schools for ‘obscene and pornographic’ books, DA found no unlawful content
