CINCINNATI — A Forest Hills School District Board of Education meeting Wednesday will confirm the district’s new superintendent, Larry Hook. Current Superintendent Scott Prebles is leaving the district next month to take a job near Cleveland. Some parents, however, are concerned the new hire aligns too much with the board’s most recent decision to ban anti-racism teachings with this Culture of Kindness resolution, and said they’re concerned for their children’s education.
What You Need To Know
- The Forest Hills School District voted to ban anti-racism teaching with its new Culture of Kindness Resolution
- The resolution bans teachers or schools from nudging students to consider things like their race, religion, gender and ethnicity as a label to stereotype
- Some parents oppose the decision and have made a petition to revoke the new resolution
- The school board is expected to vote on a new superintendent as well that historically has similar views to the board
“My heart sunk," Wendy Strickler Biederman, a mom and former educator in the Forest Hills School District, said once the resolution passed.
Both Strickler Biederman and Natalie Hastings, another mom in the district, were upset with the outcome.
The resolution bans schools and teachers from nudging students to consider things such as their race, socioeconomic class, religion, gender, ethnicity or culture as a deficiency or a label to stereotype.
Strickler Biederman was an educator in the school district for eight years. She said the resolution is troubling for teachers.
“When you talk about not allowing kids to reflect on their identities based on race, socioeconomic class, religion, gender identity, sexual preference, ethnicity or culture, can we read the Diary of Anne Frank anymore?” Strickler Biederman said.
The decision prompted Hastings to create a petition against the decision.
“This resolution will harm the students in our community by censoring curriculum," the petition states.
The petition has more than 2,000 signatures from Forest Hills community members.
For board members, the resolution passed 3-2. Sara Jonas, a recent addition to the board in November along with three others, said they were voted onto the board for that very reason.
"Something like this is what we all ran on," Jonas said during the June 22 school board meeting. "And this will set the tone for the new super[intendent], and how we would like to move forward. And that's where I was going with this. I mean, I think it's like I said, it's obvious to say the four of us were elected based on the platform of no [Critical Race Theory]."
But as the board voted for the resolution, many in the crowd showed their disdain
For Strickler Biederman and Hastings, they said they are concerned for their kids and the future of the school district.
“Both of my kids have some neurodivergences and I’ve spent a lot of time working with the school to help them know how to make them feel safe," Hastings said. "And now I feel like that could be taken away.”
“I don’t want any kid to ever feel like they’re being dismissed into the shadows," Strickler Biederman said. "And that breaks my heart even more.”
The board members who voted in favor of the resolution would not provide additional comment beyond what was said in the initial meeting June 22.