Candidates for the Anne Arundel Board of Education discussed their views on book banning, student arrest rates and critical race theory among other topics at a forum Tuesday in Annapolis.
The Caucus of African American Leaders’ Education Committeehosted 11 of the 19 candidateswho filed for the Nov. 5 election to articulate their visions and commitments to addressing the pressing issues facing the county’s increasingly diverse student body.
“I’m watching something happening in America that is frightening,” said Carl Snowden, convener of the Caucus of African American Leaders, to the hundred or so attendees at Wiley H. Bates Center. “I want to make sure the voters in this room understand what’s at stake.”
In regard to book banning all but one candidate was in agreement that removing books from libraries and media centers would do more harm than good. The topic has rocked several Maryland jurisdictions in recent months, including Howard and Carroll counties, the latter of which has banned nine books as of last month amid challenges from the Carroll County chapter of Moms for Liberty.
District 6 board member Joanna Bache Tobin, one of four incumbents in the election, said removing books just because it makes people uncomfortable is a slippery slope.
“Facts aren’t divisive just because we don’t like them,” said Bache Tobin. “Most of all let our children grow, let education expand their minds not shrink it.”
Another incumbent, Dana Schallheim, who represents District 5, echoed Bache Tobin and others, highlighting the trust she has for teachers to provide appropriate materials for students.
“I trust the specialist, I trust our teachers, I trust our educators who are experts in their field,” she said. “I will stand in the way of any effort to ban books or whitewash curriculum. Not on my watch.”
The loan objector was District 5 candidate LaToya Nkongolo, who said the role of adults and teachers is to keep children innocent for as long as possible and if certain topics are not deemed suitable they should be restricted until the children are better suited for the material.
In addition to Nkongolo, a mental health professional and former Republican House of Delegates candidate, other newcomers in attendance were former County Council member Sarah Lacey, running in District 1, Baltimore City school teacher Ciera Harlee, running in District 1; Air Force veteran Sarah J. McDermont, who is running District 4, Jeremy York, a former Marine running in District 7 and Stephanie Mutchler, an Odenton resident running in District 4.
The two other incumbents are District 1 board member Gloria Dent and District 2 board member Robert Silkworth.
Those candidates not in attendance were Hunter Voss from District 1, Jamie Hurman-Cougnet, Julia Laws, Erica McFarland and Chuck Yocum from District 3; Juan Carlos Villao from District 4; Tareque Farruk from District 5 and Dawn Pulliam from District 7.
Edilene Barros, a District 6 candidate, arrived late but did not take the stage. And someone who said they were representing Pulliam as a proxy briefly joined the candidates but left soon after the forum began.
On the subject of student arrests, caucus members reported data from the Maryland Department of Education’s Division of Student Support, Academic Enrichment and Educational Policy that showed 2,200 students were arrested in Maryland schools in the 2021-22 school year; 1,335 of them were Black.
Dent said she didn’t have a solution for how to reduce student arrests but said she hoped to work with parents and the community to find one.
“We have to have children see people that look like them,[student resource officers] that look like them,” she said.
Hurlee agreed with her District 1 competitor and added how it was the district’s job to figure out how to better serve the students.
“Whether it be training around bias or changing SRO’s responsibility so that they are not being weaponized against students we need to make sure arrests are not our solution to dealing with troubled students,” she said.
Perhaps the most interesting question was whether or not critical race theory should be implemented into the district’s curriculum. Critical race theory is a framework that examines how racism is ingrained in society’s structures and institutions, emphasizing the intersection of race, power and law. It posits that racism is not just individual prejudice, but also systemic and embedded in the fabric of society.
While all candidates in attendance agreed that history should be taught accurately to give students a full understanding, they differed onwhether it is needed to ensure that history is taught accurately.
“CRT is really the conversation of about how racism is wrapped up into current government institutions,” McDermott said. “I absolutely think we should be talking about this and to not discuss this topic threatens taking us back to a worse time.”
Both Schallheim and Bach Tobin believe the term CRT has been co-opted and used as a “boogie man” to sew division.
“I don’t think we are ready for the truth,” said Dent who is against the implementation of CRT into the curriculum. “It’s not just about Black history but it’s also about evaluating white history which has made the victors victorious instead of honestly depicting them.”
That point was driven home when both Lacey and Bach Tobin admitted that they were decedents of slaveholders.
“It was a family secret,” Lacey said. “Nobody talked about it until people just forgot.”