Parents do not want the schools to indoctrinate their children with one-sided perspectives about race, religion, sexuality, or politics. This is 100 percent clear according to the results of the Parent Perception Surveys and it is against board policy. The GHAPS school board has a clear policy for dealing with controversial issues. Parents have voiced their concerns directly to teachers, principals, administrators and board members yet this policy seems to be continuously violated with no accountability. According to policy, controversial issues are permitted to be considered in the classroom when all sides of an issue are discussed, the issue is related to the instructional goals of the course, and it encourages open-mindedness and scholarly inquiry. For your convenience, I have included the entire policy below.
Board Policy 2240 - CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES
The Board of Education believes that the consideration of controversial issues has a legitimate place in the instructional program of the schools.
Properly introduced and conducted, the consideration of such issues can help students learn to identify important issues, explore fully and fairly all sides of an issue, weigh carefully the values and factors involved, and develop techniques for formulating and evaluating positions.
For purposes of this policy, a controversial issue is a topic on which opposing points of view have been promulgated by responsible opinion and/or likely to arouse both support and opposition in the community.
The Board will permit the introduction and proper educational use of controversial issues provided that their use in the instructional program:
A. is related to the instructional goals of the course of study and level of maturity of the students;
B. does not tend to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view;
C. encourages open-mindedness and is conducted in a spirit of scholarly inquiry.
Controversial issues related to the program may be initiated by the students themselves provided they are presented in the ordinary course of classroom instruction and it is not substantially disruptive to the educational setting.
Controversial issues may not be initiated by a source outside the schools unless prior approval has been given by the principal.
When controversial issues have not been specified in the course of study, the Board will permit the instructional use of only those issues which have been approved by the principal.
In the discussion of any issue, a teacher may express a personal opinion, but shall identify it as such, and must not express such an opinion for the purpose of persuading students to his/her point of view.
The Board recognizes that a course of study or certain instructional materials may contain content and/or activities that some parents find objectionable. If after careful, personal review of the program lessons and/or materials, a parent indicates to the school that either content or activities conflicts with his/her religious beliefs or value system, the school will honor a written request for his/her child to be excused from particular classes for specified reasons. The student, however, will not be excused from participating in the course or activities mandated by the State and will be provided alternative learning activities during times of parent requested absences.
The Superintendent shall develop administrative guidelines for dealing with controversial issues.
Here are several parent comments from the perception surveys regarding controversial issues. Please note that the responses included many more comments…Too many to mention.
“I am not ok with the fact that teachers handed out letters to our children about which pronoun they wanted to be, and what name they wanted to be called by in front of their parents.”
“Teach academics, grace, and that hard work is how you earn what you have. The religion, sexuality, and politics is up to the parents/care givers. Teach the facts and leave the opinions up to the individual. Under no circumstance is it appropriate for a student to know where a teacher stands on a political issue, religious view, or anything to do with a person’s gender or sexuality.”
“I believe the staff needs to realize that the students have parents. And it is NOT their job to teach our children their political stand points or where they stand on homosexuality.”
“Stop indoctrinating ideologic and leftist opinions about race, gender, religion, and sex to kids. You are paid to teach academics, not opinions.”
“Take away the artificial narrative that white people are bad, west Michigan is racist and let people return to liking other people for them instead of actively polarizing people.”
“Christmas was a rough time. My kids felt inappropriately and intentionally left out of a holiday because the word Christmas was forbidden. In a world where “everyone’s voice matters”, they felt like everyone else’s voice was more important and by excluding every single instance of Christmas, they were being swept under a rug. We are a white Christian family. We love Jesus Christ. We also welcome discussions about different beliefs. We can listen to a song about Hanukkah without becoming offended. I acknowledge that many other holidays occur the same time as Christmas, and in a world where everyone is TRULY celebrated and “seen” and “acknowledged”, EVERY belief would be talked about without being taboo. So talk about Santa songs. Play the songs about a baby being born in a manger. Play songs from other cultures too. Especially include the holidays that originate in Africa. They’re so beautiful and are such rich cultures full of tradition. You’re just so full of accepting everyone that you’re muting and hiding others in the process. You can’t preach acceptance while banning core traditions and values! I felt sorry for all students who felt muted or unimportant because something important to them was branded as taboo.”
Teaching our children one-sided views of topics such as race, sexuality, and politics is harming our children and our society. Children get confused by controversial topics, and when faced with a controversial situation, they parrot back lessons learned during class. Many students have learned that political activism is a continuous duty. We saw several Grand Haven High School students speak at a board meeting when they were told people in the community wanted to ban books.
It is best left to parents to discuss controversial topics with their children so our teachers can focus on the academic needs of their students. The community elects the school board and the school board’s employee, Superintendent Scott Grimes is responsible for ensuring district policy is being followed. When any policy, including the Controversial Issues policy, is violated there needs to be accountability.