‘The whole school system is crumbling,’ new NC law ruffling feathers as school year begins

By Hannah Mackenzie

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    ASHEVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — A new North Carolina law known as the Parents’ Bill of Rights is ruffling feathers for the new school year. The legislation outlines 10 rights parents have when it comes to their children in North Carolina schools.

Some of the more controversial points include notifying a parent if a child changes their name or pronouns, parents being able to review which books children have borrowed from the library and barring curriculum instruction on gender identity, sexual activity or sexuality for students in kindergarten through fourth grade.

Despite the Parents’ Bill of Rights not being on Thursday’s Buncombe County school board agenda, multiple parents and community members addressed the legislation during public comment.

“It’s mainly around ending the secrecy in schools, and the secrecy is a real tool that groomers and pedophiles use with young children,” Bill Robinson said. “It’s so important that we are in command and control of what our children learn. It’s not like we give up our children for eight hours a day and let them run roughshod on them.”

Robinson, a Buncombe County resident, said this legislation wasn’t needed when his daughters were school-aged, but now he believes it’s imperative.

“The whole school system is crumbling. These people in there, on the school board, they try to make it sound like everything’s great, it’s all hunky-dory – it’s not,” Robinson said.

Amber Meredith’s fourth grader takes virtual classes in Buncombe County. Meredith said the school system already can’t enforce its zero-tolerance bullying policy.

“Nobody is safe,” Meredith said. “All I can say is, when it comes to this bill, when educators are being silenced and they are trying to be forced to disregard the safety of their children, all I can say is those that refuse to teach and to learn history are bound to repeat it.”

Adrian Parra mentors trans and queer youths in the community. He said this legislation will lead to a dangerous domino effect.

“LGBTQ youth consist of 40% of the homeless youth population, and the majority of those young people are kicked out due to unsupportive families,” Parra said. “SB-49 makes it legal to out these young people to potentially abusive and unsupportive families who increase the homelessness rate, which then increases all the other negative outcomes that we see from that.”

Buncombe County Superintendent Dr. Rob Jackson stated during the meeting that some aspects of the law require further guidance from Raleigh prior to implementation.

“For now, I’ll simply reiterate our commitment to supporting each and every student in our school system and to following state law,” Jackson said.

ASHEVILLE SCHOOL LEADERS DISCUSS POLICY UPDATES IN LIGHT OF PARENTS’ BILL OF RIGHTS

In July, Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the legislation he then referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill.” The governor stated parents’ rights are well established in state law, therefore legislators shouldn’t “burden schools with their political culture wars.”

Cooper’s veto was later overridden in the Senate and most recently on Aug. 16 in the House.

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