It all started a month ago.
Gay fable draws complaints at Orange County elementary school
By MARK SCHULTZ
A fable about a prince who marries another prince has brought a protester to school, parents to a public meeting and a third-grade teacher to the brink of resignation.
Teacher Omar Currie, 25, in his second year at the school in rural western Orange County, said he read the book about three weeks ago because a boy was being bullied in his classroom. The students were studying fairy tales, and the book has been recommended for elementary school-age children, he said.
Currie, a graduate of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education, where he first learned about the book, said he got the copy he read from his school’s assistant principal.
On Wednesday, ruling on a formal complaint from a parent, a school committee upheld the use of the book. A one-page report from Principal Kiley Brown and Assistant Principal Meg Goodhand said the fractured fairy tale form of the book and its diverse subject matter met third-grade curriculum goals.
He called the school’s media center, which did not have the book but referred him to Goodhand, who gave him a copy, Currie said. He read it during a read-aloud period.
The next day, Currie said Brown told him he should have notified parents beforehand.
A parent who does not have a child in Currie’s class came to the school to protest the book – and Currie – last Friday. Three sheriff’s deputies were present as a precaution, Sheriff Charles Blackwood said. The man exited the school but carried a protest sign along a nearby road.
Omar Currie was told he'd have to submit a list of books he planned on using in class for the district's approval.
200 fill Orange County school meeting on gay fable
By MARK SCHULTZ
On Friday night, speaking loud and fast in his allotted three minutes, Currie objected to the new rules.
“This egregious policy creates an undue burden on teachers, and it hurts students,” he said. “The district must understand silence is poison.”
Currie, who is gay, said his school and the district should have fully supported his decision to read the book, as he said happened in another system where a school district defended the book in court.
“In direct contrast ... here in Orange County I repeatedly heard from school officials that the book might have been appropriate to read in a more progressive area without parental consent, but in Efland we need time,” he said.
Book ruling at Orange County school vexes teacher, critics
By MARK SCHULTZ
In his second year at the school, Currie is proud of his work. Only two of his 24 students could read on grade level at the start of the school year. Now 18 are on grade level, and the two who started at third grade are at fifth grade. Currie serves on a school leadership committee.
Unfortunately this saga doesn't end well.
Teacher, vice principal resign over gay fable
By MARK SCHULTZ
JUNE 15, 2015
EFLAND
The teacher and assistant principal at the center of a controversy around a gay fairy tale read to third graders have resigned.
Omar Currie and Meg Goodhand of Efland-Cheeks Elementary School submitted resignation letters, Orange County Schools spokesman Seth Stephens said Monday.
Currie had said he would resign because he felt administrators did not support him after he read “King & King,” in which two princes fall in love and get married.
Everyone loses. Omar Currie sounds like a dedicated teacher who was devoted to giving his students his very best. The very kind of teacher parents should want for their children.
But a few local conservative busybodies began to howl and school administrators wouldn't stand up to the bullies for their teacher when he had done nothing improper. Cultural backwater or not Omar Currie deserved better from school officials.