North Carolina School District Removes Controversial Book for Grade-Schoolers
A North Carolina school system is scrapping plans to use the children's book "Jacob's New Dress" in a first-grade lesson plan after complaints about its content regarding a little boy who liked to wear dresses. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) was about to use the book for its anti-bullying curriculum for Child Abuse Prevention Month.
The book was pulled on the morning of March 21 after several teachers complained to the CMS Board of Education. Looking back, board member Rhonda Lennon said there could have been other ways they could have incorporated the curriculum without going that far.
"It just feels like we went too far," she added.
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Written by Sarah and Ian Hoffman, and published in 2014, "Jacob's New Dress" tells the story of a little boy who wanted to dress like a girl and fought with his friend Emily over who gets to be the princess. He is also teased by his peers in his class for wearing girl clothes.
Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of N.C. Values Coalition, issued a statement deploring CMS' attempt at indoctrinating students in the school district by normalizing transgender behavior. She argued that the purpose of elementary schools is to teach writing, reading and arithmetic, not to encourage boys to wear dresses.
"CMS is failing our children," she said. "In the recent 2016 academic ratings, 43 of 165 CMS schools achieved overall pass rates below 50 percent and majority (59 percent) earned a grade of C or below when measuring student proficiency and growth."
She went on to urge CMS to refocus on its mission to maximize academic achievement instead of advancing the controversial curriculum.
Instead of "Jacob's New Dress," the six- and seven-year-old first graders will read "Red: A Crayon's Story" about a red crayon that sees itself as blue. But this is also expected to draw controversy.
"I'm not sure they're real thrilled with that book, either," said Charles Jeter, the district's government liaison. "That book is now going to be getting more scrutiny in the General Assembly because of this issue."
