Amy Love

Opinion Editor

aml7458@psu.edu

A school district in Southlake, Texas has recently been the star of the latest controversy. At the beginning of October, school district Carroll Independent School District, ISD, had a training session with teachers that had Gina Peddy, the executive director of curriculum and instruction for the district, who ushered the words: “Just try to remember the concepts of Housebill 3979. And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”

The purpose of the training session was to advise elementary school teachers on how to follow the imposed guidelines from the district on how to carefully examine the books that teachers had in their classroom libraries. This training session was promptly followed from when a teacher was reprimanded by the district school’s board for having a book called “This Book is Anti-Racist” by Tiffany Jewell in their classroom library. It was a parent complaint.

The reaction to these guidelines were frustration and confusion, and so Peddy used the Holocaust as her example to further explain the guidelines. 

A staff member that was in the room secretly recorded and provided NBC with the information. It was also obtained by CNN, who said that a teacher could be asking “How do you oppose the Holocaust?” 

A source in the room also described the teachers to be very vocal. They said that “the teachers were so angry. They stood up and yelled and fought back in a way that was frightening but also empowering.”

These guidelines that were provided by the district were an attempt to apply to a controversial law in Texas, which is the House Bill 3979. HB3979 is a law that was signed by Governor Abott on September 1st and the bill essentially restricts potential discussions of race and history in a classroom setting. It states that a teacher may not be compelled to discuss “a particular current event of widely debated and currently controversial issue of public policy as social affairs.”

The bill also goes on to say that if they do engage, the teacher is required to “explore such issues from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective.”

This is not new for Carroll ISD, for which they also made headlines earlier in the year due to parent clashes over critical race theory. 

The Superintendent of Carroll ISD, Lane Ledbetter, posted an apology on the behalf of the district on Facebook. 

“As the Superintendent of Schools, I express my sincere apology regarding the online article and new story released today.” Ledbetter posted. “During the conversations with teachers during last week’s meeting, the comments made were in no way to convey that the Holocasut was anything less than a terrible event in history. Additionally, we recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust. As we continue to work through implementation of HB3979, we also understand this bill does not require an opposing viewpoint as historical facts. As a district we will to add clarity to our expectations for teachers and once again apologize for any hurt or confusion this has caused.” 

In a phone interview with CNN, Clay Robinson, who is the spokesperson for Texas State Teacher Association, said he “was angry. But also, I wasn’t terribly surprised.” He made a note during the interview  with CNNthat the law does not specifically deal with books in a teachers’ classroom or specifically give equal weight to perspectives that deny the Holocaust, but the law has enough ambiguity to “encourage that kind of reaction.”

The law has only been in effect since September 1st and it can be expected that there could potentially be similar situations to this. Carroll ISD has just provided a prime example of what educators in Texas could be facing as the years go on.