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Saturday, December 03, 2022

Southlake school leader tells teachers to balance Holocaust books with 'opposing' views

Friends:

Just came across this earlier piece from Oct. 14, 2021 as I was trying to get updated on the latest news out of the Carroll Independent School District (CISD) located in Southlake, Texas. Know that this is an affluent district undergoing a lot of demographic change.

Book banning. Closing class libraries. Vetting books. "Both-sidism" about the Holocaust and slavery. This all sounds so Medieval and backwards.

There are so many layers here. For one, if you listen to the Southlake podcast, you can hear for yourselves the expressed racial animus that is raw and unhinged. Geez, anti-blackness manifests recklessly with students using the "N-word" gratuitously—like this is exactly how many of their families talk at home. This kind of language is diametrically opposite that of what should be happening in a multiracial democracy. 

Another layer is a real misinterpretation of the law. Folks in CISD are interpreting and trying to implement SB 3979 when it's SB 3 that's the actual law they need to be following as expressed in the article below. Plus, "Critical Race Theory" doesn't even appear in the actual bill. Nor is it taught in K-12 education, period. And not even that much in higher education. I should know about this. I've taught CRT for many years now.

The irony of all of this is that it is these very families and this very community could really benefit from considering alternative perspectives and viewpoints in history. 

I read somewhere that districts like CISD, Eanes, and other places that are having these difficulties are the same ones that are undergoing the most demographic change which means a de-centering of whiteness. N.B. Will have to track down the exact source. Another irony is that SB 3, if you actually read the law, could be far worse. It does accord teachers a great deal of latitude in their teaching. How this all gets interpreted at the local level is what Southlake and Eanes are about, demonstrating how "policy implementation," isn't as straightforward a matter as one might expect from the passage of policy.

A deeper concern is a normalizing of extremism through the marshaling of cliches like "fairness" and "balance" as a defense.

The impression I have is that both bills—HB 3979 and SB 3—are succeeding in creating the polarization and confusion they inspire. Hence, it is more the (toxic) spirit, than the actual letter of the law that is at play in Texas, including on the State Board of Education that has decided to wait for a more conservative board to enter before it makes any revisions to our history standards in K-12 schools.  

I'm glad to see that the NAACP has filed a lawsuit there. Wishing civil rights attorney, Gary Bledsoe, and the NAACP Defense team great success in challenging the discrimination, and ultimately, the gratuitous prejudice, that is sadly, in full display.

-Angela Valenzuela

Southlake school leader tells teachers to balance Holocaust books with 'opposing' views:




SOUTHLAKE, Texas — A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.

Gina Peddy, the Carroll school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, made the comment Friday afternoon during a training session on which books teachers can have in classroom libraries. The training came four days after the Carroll school board, responding to a parent’s complaint, voted to reprimand a fourth grade teacher who had kept an anti-racism book in her classroom.

A Carroll staff member secretly recorded the Friday training and shared the audio with NBC News.

“Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979,” Peddy said in the recording, referring to a new Texas law that requires teachers to present multiple perspectives when discussing “widely debated and currently controversial” issues. “And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust,” Peddy continued, “that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”

“How do you oppose the Holocaust?” one teacher said in response. 

“Believe me,” Peddy said. “That’s come up.”


Another teacher wondered aloud if she would have to pull down “Number the Stars” by Lois Lowry, or other historical novels that tell the story of the Holocaust from the perspective of victims. It’s not clear if Peddy heard the question in the commotion or if she answered.

Peddy did not respond to messages requesting comment. In a written response to a question about Peddy’s remarks, Carroll spokeswoman Karen Fitzgerald said the district is trying to help teachers comply with the new state law and an updated version that will go into effect in December, Texas Senate Bill 3.

“Our district recognizes that all Texas teachers are in a precarious position with the latest legal requirements,” Fitzgerald wrote, noting that the district’s interpretation of the new Texas law requires teachers to provide balanced perspectives not just during classroom instruction, but in the books that are available to students in class during free time. “Our purpose is to support our teachers in ensuring they have all of the professional development, resources and materials needed. Our district has not and will not mandate books be removed nor will we mandate that classroom libraries be unavailable.”

Fitzgerald said that teachers who are unsure about a specific book “should visit with their campus principal, campus team and curriculum coordinators about appropriate next steps.”

Clay Robison, a spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association, a union representing educators, said there’s nothing in the new Texas law explicitly dealing with classroom libraries. Robison said the book guidelines at Carroll, a suburban school district near Fort Worth, are an “overreaction” and a “misinterpretation” of the law. Three other Texas education policy experts agreed.

“We find it reprehensible for an educator to require a Holocaust denier to get equal treatment with the facts of history,” Robison said. “That’s absurd. It’s worse than absurd. And this law does not require it.”











State Sen. Bryan Hughes, an East Texas Republican who wrote Senate Bill 3, denied that the law requires teachers to provide opposing views on what he called matters of “good and evil” or to get rid of books that offer only one perspective on the Holocaust.

“That’s not what the bill says,” Hughes said in an interview Wednesday when asked about the Carroll book guidelines. “I’m glad we can have this discussion to help elucidate what the bill says, because that’s not what the bill says.”

Six Carroll teachers — including four who were in the room to hear Peddy’s remarks — spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity, worried that they would be punished for discussing their concerns publicly. They said district leaders have sent mixed messages about which books are appropriate in classrooms and what actions they should be taking.

“Teachers are literally afraid that we’re going to be punished for having books in our classes,” an elementary school teacher said. “There are no children’s books that show the ‘opposing perspective’ of the Holocaust or the ‘opposing perspective’ of slavery. Are we supposed to get rid of all of the books on those subjects?”

Image: A Carroll ISD teacher hung caution tape in front of the books in a classroom after the new policy was circulated.
A Carroll ISD teacher hung caution tape in front of the books in a classroom after the new guidelines were circulated.Obtained by NBC News

After this article was published, Carroll ISD posted a statement on Facebook from Superintendent Lane Ledbetter saying that Peddy’s advice to teachers was “in no way to convey that the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history.”

“Additionally, we recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust,” he wrote in the post. “As we continue to work through implementation of HB [House Bill] 3979, we also understand this bill does not require an opposing viewpoint on historical facts,” he added, referring to the new Texas law.

Ledbetter said that the district would work to add clarity to its expectations for teachers.

The debate in Southlake over which books should be allowed in schools is part of a broader national movement led by parents opposed to lessons on racism, history and LGBTQ issues that some conservatives have falsely branded as critical race theory. A group of Southlake parents has been fighting for more than a year to block new diversity and inclusion programs at Carroll, one of the top-ranked school districts in Texas.

Late last year, one of those parents complained when her daughter brought home a copy of “This Book Is Anti-Racist” by Tiffany Jewell from her fourth grade teacher’s class library. The mother also complained about how the teacher responded to her concerns. 

Carroll administrators investigated and decided against disciplining the teacher. But last week, on Oct. 4, the Carroll school board voted 3-2 to overturn the district’s decision and formally reprimanded the teacher, setting off unease among Carroll teachers who said they fear the board won’t protect them if a parent complains about a book in their class.

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