WILMINGTON — The New Hanover County Board of Education made its curriculum ban on a book permanent Tuesday. The move defied recommendation from a district committee, whose members all agreed the book should be returned to the classroom, with some saying it should be accompanied by another work to balance its perspective.
READ MORE: NHCS committee recommends lifting ban on ‘Stamped,’ raises issue of censorship
The board voted 5-1 to maintain the ban on “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You,” Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds’ book exploring America’s history with racist ideas that was removed from the AP English curriculum in August 2023. The book will remain prohibited in district course content but will be available in high school libraries.
The day prior to the board’s vote, the district’s curriculum committee unanimously approved the book’s return to AP English classroom (scroll to the end of the piece to see the committee”s document).
It was a 7-2 vote for the committee — although all members agreed the book should be returned to the classorom. Seven members voted the book could return without another accompanying book. Two members voted for its return with a “balanced” book to represent an alternate perspective. The committee recommended it would signal that teachers are “educational experts in their classrooms.”
The school board vote was split along political lines with Republicans Melissa Mason, Pete Wildeboer, Josie Barnhart, David Perry, and Pat Bradford in favor of keeping “Stamped” out of classrooms; Democrat Tim Merrick dissented and Judy Justice was absent.
“Federal dollars for CRT [critical race theory] and books that go on and on about racism and anti-white, anti-capitalism and so on — we risk those federal dollars,” Bradford said.
The Republican board member also maintained the decision was not a ban.
“This school board has never banned anything,” Bradford said.
Merrick pushed back: “When a teacher’s not allowed to have a book, that’s a ban.”
He added he trusted the district’s educators to understand what students need and they have said “in no uncertain terms to let [them] teach.”
WHQR and Port City Daily have requested the curriculum committee’s membership. Bradford also said she’d like to have that information. The district’s website only lists Mason as a member of the advisory committee.
Both Perry and Wildeboer criticized the committee’s recommendation, claiming they were supposed to offer balanced material to be taught in conjunction with “Stamped.”
“I thought the whole purpose of sending it to the curriculum committee was for us to get a balanced approach and that seems to have gotten lost somewhere in the translation,” Perry said.
He added there was no good reason for the book, but said it could be taught in an AP history course for students to discuss divisive ideologies and current events.
The AP Language and Composition course calls on students to evaluate various points of view through current events. They assess whether the author makes a cogent argument through word choice, sentence structure, and overall claims.
Mason read aloud the committee’s suggested options for a companion book to “Stamped,” including: “The New Jim Crow,” “Four Hundred Souls,” “The Half Has Never Been Told,” “Blue Highways,” “A People’s History of the United States,” “Strangers in Their Own Land,” “Educated,” “Long Walk to Freedom,” and “Democracy in America.”
Wildeboer claimed the curriculum committee violated policy by denying a board member the opportunity to vote on the recommendation. However, in April the board voted unanimously, on Barnes’ recommendation to keep the committee as an advisory body with only two school board members present — apparently without a voting role — along with eight other staff and community members.
Barnes told the board that it was his “fault” about the “voting thing” and that he would work with Wildeboer in the policy committee “to definitely delineate this.” He said on the district’s website, it only acknowledges Mason, so they need to change this to reflect the “accurate number as well.”
The board did vote in April on the status of this committee, but Bradford and Barnhart had advocated for three board members to have voting powers, so it’s unclear how they will proceed. At Tuesday’s agenda review, the board members did not vote on which members would have representation.
Additionally, at the curriculum committee on Monday, Mason did not raise any questions about board voting powers. The board stated previously they would defer to the expertise of staff, although Tuesday’s vote to override the committee decision indicates otherwise.
Kelli Kidwell, the teacher who taught “Stamped” in her classroom, said she isn’t surprised by the outcome. She pointed out several committees unanimously voted for it to stay in her classroom.
Kidwell also was upset by the characterization that she did not help support Katie Gates’ daughter in her studies and the “Stamped” hearing showed it was Gates’ choice to remove her from the classroom environment. Kidwell said she stands by the book and responded to claims made by Bradford and Perry:
“It is important when making curricular decisions to understand that Black and brown students have a different American experience, and books that go ‘on and on about racism and anti-white and anti-capitalism,’ (a gross and inaccurate misrepresentation of the content of “Stamped”) allow for that experience,” she wrote. “And by definition, a rhetorical analysis is examining texts — word choice, language, strategies, techniques — to understand how the audience is impacted by the author’s message. Therefore, ‘divisive ideology and current events’ are perfect for this type of work. Finally, what does it mean to say you want a ‘balanced book’ or ‘balanced approach’? What book balances America’s history of and relationship with racism? There is no other ‘side of the picture’ for students to see concerning racism.”
Below: Committee materials
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
Want to read more from PCD? Subscribe now and then sign up for our morning newsletter, Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.
