New Hanover County Board of Education votes to temporally remove “Stamped” from curriculum

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — In front of a packed public hearing, the New Hanover County Board of Education made a decision on whether to ban the book “Stamped: Racism, Anti-racism, and You” by author Jason Reynolds.

The board voted 4-to-3 in favor of removing the book from the district’s AP curriculum, but they will keep the book in high school libraries for students to read.

The book has been at the center of controversy after an AP English class at Ashley high school read the book last year.

Katie Gates, a parent of one of the students in the class, requested its removal from classrooms.

Gates argues it’s un-American and does not support the a-p curriculum.

However, she doesn’t want American history to go untaught in schools.

“I want all of history, the good and the bad,” Gates said. “I am not here to ban a book and ban a perspective about how minority communities, black communities, Asian communities have been oppressed. That needs to be in the forefront. I want that. It’s the appropriateness of the book in this classroom and my question would be why is it so important that this book stay in there?”

Despite fierce opposition against the book’s removal, its an outcome many people expected.

Board member Stephanie Kraybill said this vote was politically, not educationally, motivated.

“It shows that the local GOP is running our school board and not the school board running our school board,” Kraybill said. “I am an elected Republican. I have been a Republican since I was 18 years old and the Republican Party has significantly changed. But they don’t even include me in when they talk about Republican votes. They don’t even include me in. Which is fine with me because I don’t align with our local GOP values.”

Board member Melissa Mason said she thinks the book was not suitable to be taught academically.

The book is being temporarily removed from the curriculum until a more “balanced” book is found for the course.