Two NHC school board members call for Barnhart’s censure

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Earlier this month, the New Hanover County Board of Education voted along party lines to censure Democratic Board Member Tim Merrick after Republican Board Chair Melissa Mason said he violated district communications policies. 

As first reported in WHQR, that censure has sparked discussion about a different motion to censure Vice Chair Josie Barnhart that was drafted six weeks ago—also over email communications. 

The motion was brought by Board Member Judy Justice over the way Barnhart responded to a parent’s email. The motion was also supported by Merrick.

In the email chain obtained by WWAY, parent Shannon Playl expressed concern after the district removed one of two sex education offerings–known as Stepping Stones. 

The only remaining option—known as Family Life, which is similar to the previously available My Life curriculum—focuses on abstinence. 

In the email, Playl noted in her own experience—sex ed programs that only focus on abstinence “don’t work.”

“I was part of that in high school, and the friends of mine who were also in the abstinence program were the ones who ended up with teenage pregnancies, or with STDs, or with sexual assault that they didn’t know how to respond because they’d never been educated that that was a possibility,” Playl told WWAY. 

Barnhart responded to Playl’s email the same day, writing that there is little difference between the two programs. She added, “You are welcome to encourage your child to have sexual activity as a school we will not be doing that.” 

“My jaw dropped open and I almost kind of laughed because it was so absurd that anyone would even say that,” Playl recalled. 

In response, Playl called Barnhart’s words “sick” and “inappropriate.” 

Barnhart wrote back, saying in part, “I want to apologize for the email dialog being misconstrued to what I (poorly) attempted to discuss.” 

Playl says she’s not satisfied with the apology and expects better from school board members. 

“I’m just a parent who’s taking up for my kid. I’m not an elected official,” she said. 

Justice says she discussed with Board Chair Melissa Mason about holding a meeting to censure Barnhart—but that meeting never came. 

“Then lo and behold, within a week or two, suddenly she is censuring Dr. Merrick and I never had a conversation about what was going on with Ms. Barnhart because so much of the energy then went into what was going on with Dr. Merrick,” Justice explained. 

Justice noted her motion to censure Barnhart came weeks before Mason’s calls to censure Merrick. 

“I don’t know if that’s where Ms. Mason got the idea to do what she did with Dr. Merrick, but this needs to be addressed with Ms. Barnhart,” she said. “She needs to be held accountable so she won’t do stuff like this in the future.” 

We reached out to all of the school board’s members, including Chair Melissa Mason for comment. 

Barnhart told us she would “encourage everybody to hear the whole story before making an opinion on anything.” 

The rest of the board did not wish to comment at this time. 

*Note: to protect the privacy of Playl’s child, we have removed some parts of the email chain shown in our video that contain identifiable information.