This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

Abundantly Clear

In Zip06 profiles posted Oct. 21, 2021, then-Board of Education (BOE) candidate Noel Petra wrote the following: “Our priority should be [to] continue to support our outstanding superintendent...” and “The extremists are, and will continue to be, unwelcome in our community as long as their message of intolerance and hate is maintained.” BOE candidate Moira Rader wrote: “The possible demise of our award-winning school system is a real and present threat if ill-intentioned extremists succeed in their efforts to be elected to the BOE,” and “It feels more critical than ever that our Board of Education sustain and expand the great work of this district, leaving no opportunity for extremist tactics to dismantle or disrupt our amazing programs, diverse curriculum, and resources provided to students and their families.”

Fast-forward to the Dec. 16 article “BOE Candidates Look Back on Contest, Forward on Issues,” in which newly elected BOE member Petra said, “We are not going to listen to one parent or even five parents if they are pushing things the rest of the parents don’t want”; that the majority of parents “say they don’t want anything to do with that group of five. They say they don’t want them near their kids, they don’t want them near their schools”; and, “We don’t teach CRT in Guilford.”

It’s abundantly clear these BOE members have no interest in diversity of thought or critical thinking. It’s clear they want to cancel any dissenting or questioning voices and are in lockstep with our anti-racist Superintendent of Schools Dr. Paul Freeman, who I believe is indoctrinating our entire school community with his anti-American Critical Race Theory (CRT) equity and social justice agenda. It is clear they believe the big lies of systemic racism, institutional racism, and that we are not teaching CRT in Guilford.

David Holman

Guilford