By Charlotte Matherly, contributor
A 14-year-old student posted threats on social media aimed at Broadway High School, J. Frank Hillyard Middle School and Plains Elementary School last week, and while it was determined to be a hoax with no intent to follow through, superintendent Larry Shifflett said the Rockingham County School Board will come down hard on threats of violence.
“We will enact the most severe consequences possible,” Shifflett said. “This is not a joke. Nobody was laughing Thursday evening. Nobody Friday morning thought it was a big heehaw. They were upset, and we’re not gonna play games with this stuff.”
Sandy Stump, a guardian of an elementary student and a veteran, said during public comment that she thinks criminal charges should be pressed against the person who made the threats.
“Whatever their intent was, to me it does not matter,” Stump said. “The fact is, is that it scared thousands of people.”
Shifflett said his conversations with the Rockingham County sheriff lead him to believe charges will be filed, but that’s not under the school board’s purview.
Board member Hollie Cave said such threats can disrupt an entire school day — and not just at the targeted schools.
“The whole county was just feeling the effects of it, and parents [and students] were scared,” Cave said.
Harrisonburg City Public Schools also canceled classes at both city high schools last Monday as a result of similar threats. Police arrested a 16-year-old Harrisonburg High School student on charges related to the hoax threat.
Fourth-grade reading won’t include world religions
The district also removed two chapters from its new reading curriculum that cover world religions, though this action didn’t take place at the meeting.
An email went out Monday morning to fourth-grade teachers telling them that at the school board’s direction, they were to omit two chapters, according to a copy of the email obtained by The Citizen via a Freedom of Information Act request.
Those two chapters discuss world religions and primarily the creation and history of Islam.
The news began to circulate around social media, and Shifflett said at the board meeting that that change was made because some teachers had expressed discomfort with teaching elementary students about religion.
The Virginia Literacy Act requires school districts to use a scientific reading curriculum like this one, but Shifflett said he received guidance from Lisa Coons, the state superintendent for public instruction, that allows school districts to make some adjustments.
To avoid teaching some religions and not others, RCPS will omit curriculum on all world religions – not just some, Shifflett said, and “we’re not going to put teachers in situations where they feel uncomfortable teaching some religions.”
That information is later taught in ninth-grade geography classes, but Shifflett said teachers felt it wasn’t appropriate for younger kids. The district is OK with mentions of religion more generally but wanted to avoid discussions of how these religions formed.
“That’s a personal matter,” Shifflett said. “That’s for families to work with their students at home.”
Another book ban defies committee recommendation
The school board again voted to remove another book from RCPS libraries and classrooms against the recommendation of its Content Review Committee. This time it was “The Art of Racing in the Rain” by Garth Stein.
Board member Hollie Cave made the motion to remove the book but said this one has been the toughest decision for her so far. When someone posed the question whether she’d let her own children read it, Cave said yes – but her personal beliefs and willingness to let her kids read the book don’t matter, she said.
“Our policy is not based on my opinion of what I would let my kids do or what I would let your kids do,” Cave said. “The policy is, if it has sexually explicit content, it’s gone from RCPS.”
Cave has served as a driving force behind the banning of certain books, as well as the crafting of the content review policy the district now uses. She presented a list of 57 titles to the board for temporary removal in January. While “The Art of Racing in the Rain” contains sexually explicit content – there’s no question about it, Cave said – she wrestles with how to act in students’ best interests.
“I do deeply think about these things … It’s near and dear to my heart,” Cave said. “I’m not that person that’s always like, ‘Oh, it’s got sex in it. It’s bad. It’s bad, bad, bad. Take it out.’ … I would let my children read this book, but it doesn’t comply with RCPS policy. That’s why it has to go.”
This is the ninth book the board has permanently banned from being in school district libraries or classrooms and the sixth book the board has banned despite the Content Review Committee’s recommendation not to ban them. Board member Jackie Lohr, who was the only board member to vote against removing the book, pointed out the discrepancy between committee findings and the school board’s votes.
Sandra Parks, a retired school librarian, also took issue with the book bans and specifically with the decision method the board is using to do it.
“After that review committee spent countless hours reading and discussing these books, those recommendations were summarily dismissed for six books with just recitations of page numbers,” Parks said, referring to the list of page numbers containing sexually explicit content that Cave reads in regard to each book she votes to remove. She said the committee’s work has been “ignored.”
“Members of the board have discouraged other comment by not answering emails, by refusing meetings, by moving public comment to after any action items and by not posting documents ahead of the meetings in a timely fashion,” Parks said.
Charter school policy update is routine, officials say
The board also updated its charter school policy in a move to use the recent recommended blueprint in Virginia.
The policy is largely the same as the previous version, which was last revised in 2017, but includes updated language from the Virginia School Board Association. The RCPS board voted in June to leave the VSBA and join the School Board Member Alliance, a newer, more conservative group.
Prior to the meeting, buzz spread across Facebook about the policy change and a reversal in favor of charter schools, but school board members maintained that the update is routine.
“There is misinformation that’s out there on the internet saying that we’re partnering with charter schools and we’re trying to pull money away from public education. That’s just not the truth,” board chair Matt Cross said.
At the beginning, the new policy more explicitly states a willingness to receive and consider charter school applications.
This is to encourage more innovative programs, instruction and school structure; create more choices for students and parents; and encourage the use of more performance-based models, according to the policy. Other school boards, like those of Loudon County and Chesterfield County, have adopted the same policy language.
Virginia law requires school districts to have a policy regarding charter schools, and while the former one was crafted by RCPS, the Virginia School Board Association’s policies have the benefit of already being legally vetted, said Rebecca Tinnell, the attendance, compliance and Title IX supervisor.
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