Controversial topics policy sees pushback

LAURA MCFARLAND

Managing Editor

POWHATAN – “Leave the policy alone!”

That was the overwhelming and emphatic message Powhatan County School Board members received when they asked the public for input on proposed revisions to Policy INB, the division’s policy on teaching about controversial issues.

The school board decided in a 3-2 vote on Tuesday, Feb. 21 to pass the policy as it has stood for several years and reject changes proposed by James Taylor III, who represents District 4, and supported by Vicki Hurt, District 1.

The changes Taylor had proposed would have added language that required parents or legal guardians be notified and have their approval prior to controversial issues being discussed with students. The language said these issues included, but were not limited to, gender identity; sexual behavior; ideologies such as critical race theory that ascribe value and status based on skin color or gender; and religious convictions.

Division staff received information about the proposed changes during faculty meetings, and the public was able to provide feedback via the division’s website. As of Feb. 16, 69 responses to the community survey had been provided from 27 parents, 22 staff members, 42 residents and eight students. Of those, fewer than seven responses supported INB as proposed with the extra language.

Similarly, the school board saw pushback at last Tuesday’s meeting. Several people stood outside before the school board’s meeting displaying signs that had messages such as “Trust Our Teachers,” “No Censorship Teach Truth,” “Censorship is Discrimination” and “Teach Acceptance Not Exclusion.”

During the public comment period, 14 people spoke, including two former school board members and several current and former Powhatan County Public School (PCPS) teachers, all of them against the new language.

After the feedback, Taylor and Hurt proposed a workshop to work further on the policy and seek more public input. However, Valarie Ayers, District 3, argued the board had already heard from community members both through the survey and with the people who spoke at the meeting and now it was time to show they were listening to those people. She made the motion to approve the policy but eliminate the language Taylor had added to the draft and was supported by chair Susan Smith, District 2, and Kim Hymel, District 5, in that vote and in a subsequent decision voting down Hurt’s request to revisit the policy at the board’s next meeting or in a work session.

The public speaks

In a public comment period that lasted 50 minutes, the overwhelming messages from the 14 speakers were that the language in the proposed policy would target and stifle teachers and students, especially people of color or members of the LGBTQ+ community; prevent open discussion of real but uncomfortable historical people and events; promote ignorance and hate instead of love and acceptance; create uncertainty and fear among staff members with see

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