This article was originally published by Port City Daily here, and is being shared with permission.
The committee took up the issue of “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You,” a book outlining the “history of racist ideas” in America since 1415. The school board removed the book from an AP English class in August 2023, placing a temporary ban on it from curricula, though not school libraries.
The ban was supposed to last until the district could review its policies, which it did in September 2023, and select an alternative “balanced” book to teach alongside “Stamped,” which it has yet to do.
After the book came up among board members in March, Chair Melissa Mason, chair of the school board, mandated the curriculum committee review the book and make a recommendation before the decision heads to the full board. The curriculum committee is made up of teachers and district-level staff, along with three board members who do not vote.
Committee chair and NHCS Chief Academic Officer Robin Hamilton, who wasn’t with the district when “Stamped” was banned, discussed the book’s history at NHCS and explained AP principles as a precursor to Monday’s conversation. Hamilton also presented survey results from five of the district’s AP teachers, the majority of which advocated for the ban on “Stamped” to be lifted.
The survey also asked for additional books to balance the perspective in “Stamped”; though some of the teachers said the teacher should decide, recommendations included:
- “The New Jim Crow,” Michelle Alexander
- “Four Hundred Souls,” Ibram X. Kendi and Ashley Ford
- “The Half Has Never Been Told,” Edward E. Baptist
- “Blue Highways,” William Least-Heat Moon
- “A People’s History of the United States,” Howard Zinn
- “Strangers in Their Own Land,” Alexis Coe
The survey itself also made suggestions and asked the teachers to evaluate them, including:
- “Meditations,” Marcus Aurelius
- “Educated,” Tara Westover
- “Democracy in America,” Alexis de Tocqueville
- “Long Walk to Freedom,” Nelson Mandela
- “Hillbilly Elegy,” J.D. Vance
However, the survey’s answers on implementing the recommendations were mixed, one person saying they would teach “Stamped” alongside the suggestions, another with the opposite view, and two saying maybe.
The committee was then given three options to vote on: Keep the book out of curriculum, reinstate it with a “balanced” book, or reinstate it without an alternative. Seven committee members chose to reinstate without another book, two voted for the two-book option, and no one chose to keep it banned.
“We want to make sure you’ve heard the voices of the staff in this but also remember what our lane is, what your lane is — you don’t envy mine, I don’t envy yours,” Superintendent Chris Barnes told the board before the committee vote. “But I know that this is an issue that’s caused a lot of concern for a lot of people. We just have to remember that disruption doesn’t always help kids either.”
Though many committee members suggested teachers alone should be responsible for choosing the class reading material.
“They are experts in their field and I think there should be a good amount of trust placed into these teachers,” Myrtle Grove Middle social studies teacher Benjamin Lord said. Lord also is also 2025-2026 NHCS Educator of the Year.
He added if one of the district’s goals is to develop well-rounded citizens, exposing them to perspectives different from their own was critical.
Some committee members worried about losing AP certification should the district continue with its ban on “Stamped” and run afoul of AP’s stance on censorship. As read aloud by Hamilton at the meeting, the College Board’s principles state AP “opposes” both censorship and indoctrination.
On indoctrination, it states: “AP students are expected to analyze different perspectives from their own and no points on an AP exam were awarded for agreement with any specific viewpoint … AP students are expected to have the maturity to analyze perspectives different from their own, and to question the meaning, purpose or effect of such content within the literary work as a goal.”
On censorship, it states: “AP is animated by a deep respect for the intellectual freedom of teachers and students alike. If a school bans required topics from their AP courses, the AP program removes the AP designation from that course and its inclusion in the AP course.”
Board member Pat Bradford suggested censorship was inflammatory and an incorrect interpretation of what NHCS did.
“We can rally around that, and the media can run with that ball as hard as they possibly want,” Bradford said. “But if somehow a book gets into the school curriculum, course content, that is heinous in the eyes of a majority of people, how does that become censorship when the majority say this doesn’t belong in course content?”
It is unclear what majority Bradford was referring to, considering both the majority of surveyed AP teachers and the majority of the curriculum committee advocated for the reinstatement of “Stamped.” Bradford, along with fellow Republicans Pete Wildeboer, Josie Barnhart, and Melissa Mason, did vote to ban “Stamped,” though this was based on a complaint from one parent, Katie Gates.
Bradford agreed with Gates’ prior criticism of the book, particularly that its content was presented as historical fact without providing enough context for readers to gain an understanding of the whole story. On Monday, Bradford said teaching a history book in rhetoric class was problematic for her, even though the book isn’t an accurate portrayal of history.
Ibram X. Kendi, the author of the book, advertises “Stamped” as “not a history book” but rather an exploration of racism and antiracism in America in a way youth can relate to.
The board member also took issue with alternative assignments. Many in the community who protested the removal of “Stamped” argued parents have the ability to prevent their child from reading an objectionable book through a different reading assignment, thus negating the need to push for a ban at the school and district levels.
Bradford claimed Gate’s child was given the alternative assignment but was “stuck off by herself and basically didn’t learn anything during that time other than what she taught herself.” It was Gates’ choice to remove her child from the classroom.
Though she said she agreed with her committee colleagues’ opinions, Barnhart said she believed the book entered the school district through improper channels and suggested “Stamped” would not have passed a supplementary material checklist that was used at the time.
During the “Stamped” hearing, Assistant Superintendent of Technology and Digital Learning Dawn Brinson — also a curriculum committee member — explained the school’s media review committee assessed “Stamped” before ordering it for the collection. Because of that, the AP course teacher did not need to complete a quality review checklist to include “Stamped” in instruction.
Part of the policy review following the “Stamped” hearing was evaluating the checklist, which included questions on whether a supplementary item was controversial or emotionally charged, though it didn’t offer further evaluation tools if the answers to those questions were yes. The curriculum committee recommended doing away with the checklist, calling it overbearing and unrealistic, and the board voted to remove it.
At Monday’s meeting, Director of Curriculum and Instruction Lo DeWalt added AP teachers have to upload their syllabus for approval through the College Board.
Mason explained her position on the rigor of “Stamped” had not changed from 2023; she then criticized the book for having a Lexile score of 1,000. The Lexile system is a scientific way of measuring text complexity, ranking them from 0 to 1,600. “Stamped,” as a book adapted for a middle school audience, has a score around 1,000.
In 2023, Mason claimed AP students should be reading material with a Lexile of 1,300, though “Stamped” ranks higher than several other AP-approved nonfiction materials, including the Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. To use NHCS’s example texts in the survey, only Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America” scores above 1,300.
However, these texts, though technically less complex, still add value to the AP Language and Composition class because it is designed for students to analyze texts on their rhetorical qualities — how the author uses different techniques to persuade an audience to see their perspective.
Port City Daily asked the chair after the meeting if she thought her point about the rigor was an observation the AP high school students could have made in class.
“I think it’s possible, but I also understand that they’re high school students; they may not have participated in any other AP classes so they may not recognize that level,” she said. “Having been an educator, having gone through college, graduate school, and knowing the difference between those things, I think is something that requires a little more experience.”
Mason has come under fire in the last few months for her handling of the “Stamped” reintroduction.
By unilaterally remanding the “Stamped” discussion to the curriculum committee, Mason technically broke NHCS policy 2330, which mandates items supported by two board members must be added to the agenda within two meetings. Both Democratic board members Tim Merrick and Judy Justice asked for a status update on March 5, though adding discussion on the status of the book to a meeting agenda was voted down twice by the board in the following months.
One was at the May board meeting, conducted after an 80-person protest occurred advocating that the board speak publicly about the status of “Stamped” and condemning book bans overall.
The policy committee has since reviewed an amendment to 2330 that would give Mason more leeway in adding items to the board agenda. The policy change has yet to come to the full board.
After Monday’s meeting, Mason said the board could vote on reinstating “Stamped” at Tuesday’s agenda review or the board’s regular meeting on July 8. She said she would advocate for the board to wait until the regular meeting.
