QUESTIONS REMAIN AFTER NHC SCHOOL
SYSTEM PROBES “SLAVERY GAME
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
While the New Hanover County Public School System investigates the disturbing complaint about a “Monopoly-like role-playing slavery board game ” being used to “teach” children at Codington Elementary School in Wilmington earlier this year, growing questions remain about how school officials there even allowed a fourth-grade teacher to consider employing such a controversial, highly sensitive activity in her classroom.
The game in question is called, “Escaping Slavery,” and according to materials that come with the “game,” most notably a “Freedom Punch Card,” students indeed assume the role of runaway slaves during the Underground Railroad, and are told on the card, “ …If your group runs into trouble four times, you will be severely punished and sent back to the plantation to work as a slave. Write your name on the back of this card.”
Among the materials with the game, were illustrations of shackles, and black slave families.
Codington Elementary is a majority white school, the only one, thus far, determined to have employed usage of the slavery game in North Carolina.
There are reports of other slavery-type games that have been used in other schools systems, like in Loudoun County, Virginia in February, that caused a firestorm with parents and the local NAACP, resulting in an apology from the principal.
Thus far in Wilmington, the principal, who at first defended usage of the slavery game employed there, has not apologized personally, only saying that he agrees with the school board’s mea culpa.
It was an outraged African-American grandmother who went to a local Wilmington television station two weeks complaining that her granddaughter in her fourth-grade class at Codington Elementary was subjected to the “slavery game.”
She said having black children, in particular, to learn about what still is an extremely “painful” part of their heritage, is “…horrifying.”
“Slavery is not a game,” she added.
The grandmother said she did not complain to Codington Elementary’s Principal Graham Elmore, because she feared retaliation against her granddaughter.
Elmore, when contacted by the TV station by email, responded saying, “ ...that fourth grade social studies teachers used the “Monopoly-like game” in January, and it was obtained from the educational website Teachers Pay Teachers,” WECT-TV reported.
“’The purpose was to play a role to increase interest and enthusiasm for historical events,’ the principal wrote,” the station added. “The teachers wanted to share how the people communicated and worked for change and equality in their communities.”
Elmore, who noted that “Escaping Slavery” was purchased from a website called “Teachers Pay Teachers” and copyrighted by a company called “Wise Guys,” concluded that at that point, that the school had received “no complaints” from any parents.
Well that changed immediately after WECT-TV aired its story. Picked up by newspapers and TV stations across the country, New Hanover County Schools soon found itself in yet another embarrassing racial situation it had no real excuse for.
“[The board] shares the community’s concern over the Black History Month lesson at Codington Elementary School,” read a statement from school Board Chair Lisa Estep. “We understand the stated purpose of the lesson, but we do not believe the strategy of using this game to teach historical facts about a topic as sensitive and painful as slavery was appropriate.”
School Superintendent Tim Markley was assigned to investigate, and report back to the board. Estep’s statement also announced that system principals will undergo “cultural competency” training to deal with “implicit bias.”
The New Hanover NAACP, in a statement, said that the slavery game, “…is a reflection of how the New Hanover School system allows institutional racism to thrive in our children’s classrooms.”
“The New Hanover County NAACP calls for a timeline of when the implicit bias and cultural competency training will be implemented. The Chapter also requests that representatives of the African American community be involved in the selection of the entity that will do the training.”
There was no indication that there will be any disciplinary action against either the principal or the teachers involved in approving the usage of an activity that board chair admitted was not “appropriate.”
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CHIEF JUSTICE CHERI BEASLEY
CHIEF JUSTICE BEASLEY TO APPOINT
THREE-JUDGE PANEL FOR VOTER ID CASE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
NC Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley is expected to appoint a three-judge panel to hear arguments in a December 18, 2018 voter ID lawsuit, stemming from the third legislative Special Session last year where six plaintiffs alleged in a lawsuit against the Republican-led state legislature that its voter photo identification law “…purposefully discriminates against and disproportionally impacts minority voters in of the Equal Protection Clause,” according to the eight decision issued by the court.
That law was based on a constitutional amendment passed by North Carolina voters during the 2018 November midterm elections, requiring that a voter ID law be established.
That amendment has been subsequently struck down by a Wake County judge in recent weeks per a lawsuit by the NCNAACP, but that ruling is currently being appealed.
Meanwhile, the law which was spawned from that voter ID amendment is being challenged on a different legal track.
The lawsuit also alleges that the new voter ID law :
- unduly burdens the fundamental right to vote,
- creates separate classes of voters,
- imposes a cost on voting,
- imposes a property requirement for voting,
- imposes the ability of voters to engage in political expression and speech, in violation of their Right of Assembly and Petition and Freedom of Speech.
Not surprisingly, attorneys for the defendants - Republican legislative leaders House Speaker Tim Moore; Senate Pres. Pro tem Phillip Berger; Rep. David Lewis, chair of the House Select Committee on Elections; Sen. Ralph Hise, chair of the Senate Select Committee of Elections; the State Board of Elections and the State of North Carolina – filed a brief seeking to dismiss the lawsuit, but Wake County Superior Court Judge Vince Rozier Jr. ruled on March 13ththat case can proceed.
Attorney Allison Riggs, Senior Voting Rights Attorney for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, responded to Judge Rozier’s decision by saying, “We appreciate that the court recognized that the voters who brought their case deserve to have a full hearing in front of a three-judge panel,” said Allison Riggs, Senior Voting Rights Attorney for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. “We look forward to representing plaintiffs as they continue to challenge this discriminatory and unconstitutional law.”
The Republican response to Judge Rozier’s ruling? Last week, the legislature immediately fast tracked Senate Bill 214, which effectively delays implementation of the voter ID law until 2020, provided the current lawsuit doesn’t derail it first.
Gov. Roy Cooper immediately signed SB 214 into law, primarily to ensure that voter ID is not in force for either the Third Congressional District, or the controversial Ninth Congressional District races, that are scheduled for later this year.
In a related matter, students attending a dozen UNC System campuses will not be allowed to use their university-issued student IDs to vote during the 2020 elections because they were not approved by the State Board of Elections.
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STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 03-21-19
NHC – NBLC WANTS STRANGE PARK CHANGED TO JOSEPH MCNEIL PARK
[WILMINGTON] The New Hanover County Chapter of the National Black Leadership Caucus has asked City Councilman Clifford Barnett Sr. to lead an effort to have Robert Strange Park renamed as “Major General Joseph McNeil Park.”
“Joseph McNeil was not only a civil rights hero but a veteran who served this country well,” the letter from NHC-NBLC President Sonya Patrick stated. “We feel that it would be fitting to have a park named in honor of this historical icon who graduated from Williston Senior High School which was once located right across the street from the park.”
The letter continued, “It is imperative that the youth in our community know that there are African Americans leaders that demonstrated excellence in our community. Furthermore, we feel that this name change would inspire and empower our overall community as well as serve as an attraction for tourists. This park has been an important part of the African American Community even as far back as 1898 at which time the first black printing press in North Carolina owned by Alex Manly was only five blocks away.”
No word at press time as to what response, if any, Ms. Patrick has received per her letter.
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