The General Assembly’s House Select Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing Wednesday to question the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School District (CHCCS) over its alleged noncompliance with the Parents’ Bill of Rights (SB49).
In a series of social media posts earlier this month, NC Rep. Brenden Jones flagged his concern over inappropriate books made available to students in the CHCCS system. Rep. Jones and fellow House Republicans subsequently called the legislative committee hearing, at which Board Chair George Griffin and Superintendent Rodney Trice testified.
Among the books in question was Santa’s Husband, displayed as a “top pick” for 2nd and 3rd graders. Four other books: These are my EYES, This is my NOSE, This is my VULVA, These are my TOES; Bodies are Cool; It Isn’t RUDE to be NUDE; and The Bare Naked Book, were apparently featured on a CHCCS elementary school resources page for children in grades K-4.
Griffin spoke in October about the school board’s decision to defy the Parents’ Bill of Rights law, stating “We’re the only school district in North Carolina, of 115 school districts, that stood up to the General Assembly and said, ‘We’re not doing this.’”
Before the hearing, Jones countered Griffin’s stance that SB49 is “ludicrous”: “The average American citizen does not want their children taught this filth in [kindergarten] to fourth grade,” he told the Carolina Journal.
He added, “When you have failing test scores, you should be worried about reading, writing, and arithmetic, not worried about these ideological, political motives that these school boards and teachers have.”
During the hearing, Rep. Jeffrey McNeely said that cutting state funding to districts who do not comply with SB49 may be necessary.
The Pavement Education Project, a Wake-County-based group that tracks inappropriate books in North Carolina public schools, has warned that the prevalence of explicit material is not limited to CHCCS.