‘Matters of life and death’
The debate at Tuesday’s school board meeting highlights the ongoing cultural wars going on across North Carolina and the nation.
It led to state lawmakers adopting the “Parents’ Bill of Rights.” The law’s provisions include barring instruction on gender identity, sexuality or sexual activity in kindergarten through fourth-grade classrooms.
Speakers regularly debate at school board meetings about what books should be allowed in school libraries.
“The school board is debating a grant from the organization We Need Diverse Books, which includes ‘Boy Meets Boy,’ etc,” speaker John Balog said at this week’s board meeting. “You can go on their website and check it out.
“Yes we need diversity. We need subject and curriculum diversity. We need passing grades in math, English, science, social studies, music.”
He said anything else needs parental consent.
But speaker Renee Sekel said students need to read about the lives of marginalized students. As an example she pointed to the case of Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old nonbinary student in Oklahoma who died this month a day after a fight in school.
“If such books weren’t under such deep attack then maybe a precious 16-year-old non-binary child who was beaten brutally to death in a bathroom in Oklahoma … at their school, good gravy, would be alive today. These are matters of life and death.” Sekel said.
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