ISLE OF WIGHT, Va -News 3 is bringing focus to the Isle of Wight school board's decision surrounding controversial topics in the classroom.
In Thursday's meeting, the school board voted to set strict guidelines on how those topics can be discussed in school.
News 3's Leondra Head spoke to the Isle of Wight school board chair and asked more questions about are considered controversial topics being discussed in the classroom and how the new policy will impact classes.
John Collick says that controversial topics can be taught in classrooms.
"When teachers are teaching any divisive topic, they cannot share their political views. The primary major purpose is parental rights. It is the parent's right to decide how they are going to guide their children’s views on these controversial topics. It’s not the responsibility of the school system," Collick said.
Collick said those are the main goals of the district’s new policy, entitled "INB."
Collick clarifies the policy doesn’t prohibit divisive topics from being taught but sets guidelines on how these topics can be taught.
"What exactly are divisive concepts?" Head asked Collick.
"It can be anything that is controversial," Collick said. "The thing that comes to most people’s mind are racial issues and that’s what most people were addressing last night."
"Racism and slavery, can those be taught in classrooms?" Head asked Collick.
"Absolutely, they have to be taught in the classroom. If we don’t teach our history, we’re doomed to repeat it," Collick said.
Head spoke to school board member Jason Maresh before Thursday’s school board meeting and here's what he said:
"The intent is to get controversial topics out of the classroom and get politics out of the classroom," Maresh said. "At the end of the day, it’s the parent’s decision to influence their children with those topics. That’s the intent of this policy."
There were mixed messages from school board members at Thursday's meeting, causing some teachers and parents to interpret the policy as prohibiting controversial topics from being taught. This also includes the president of the Isle of Wight Teachers Association, Matt Ployd.
"They are back peddling," Ployd said. "If that wasn’t the case, why put the entire county through this controversy? Why get everyone up in arms if we were going to allow these things to be taught to begin with?"
John Collick said the purpose of the policy is to make sure teachers aren’t pushing their political views on students.
