Our Opinion: Barton graduates persevered through pandemic to learn

THUMBS UP to Barton College’s newest alumni, the 258 undergraduate and graduate students who earned degrees during the school’s 122nd commencement exercises on Saturday.

Like Barton’s Bulldog mascot, the Class of 2024 exudes tenacity. Many grads who completed bachelor’s degrees endured COVID-19 disruptions during their freshman and sophomore years in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

“From navigating the complexities of remote learning to adapting to ever-changing circumstances, we have exemplified the true spirit of determination and resilience,” said senior class President Karla Trejo Lopez, who addressed fellow graduates in English and Spanish. “This is a very important milestone, as many of us will walk across the stage together for the first time after the pandemic.”

Barton President Doug Searcy presided over his ninth graduation since taking the helm. In his commencement address, Milwaukee Brewers President of Business Operations Rick Schlesinger encouraged grads to follow four paths in their adult lives: Swing big, cherish relationships, treat obstacles as opportunities and openly celebrate the good times.

The Carolina Mudcats, the Brew Crew’s Single-A affiliate, will relocate from Five County Stadium in Zebulon to a new downtown Wilson ballpark in 2026. The city of Wilson hit an economic development grand slam in bringing the Mudcats to town, lining up hundreds of millions in private development from New South Ventures subsidiary NSV Wilson to help defray stadium construction costs.

Like Wilson’s mutually beneficial partnership with the Brewers organization and NSV, we hope Barton graduates lean on each other and leverage the power of teamwork.

“As we step out into the world, backed with knowledge and equipped with the skills necessary to face whatever lies ahead, remember that the journey does not end here,” Trejo Lopez told her classmates. “It is merely the beginning of a new chapter filled with endless possibilities and opportunities for growth.”

THUMBS DOWN to a child care crisis straining North Carolina families. The Tar Heel State has lost nearly 5% of its licensed child care programs since February 2020, EducationNC reported last week, citing figures from the N.C. Child Care Resource and Referral Council and state Division of Child Development and Early Education.

“Closures of licensed child care programs have been outpacing the opening of new programs since at least June 2023 — and now the rate of that trend appears to be increasing,” EdNC policy adviser Katie Dukes wrote, noting a net loss of 41 programs in the first three months of 2024 alone.

Stabilization funding provided to help child care centers weather the pandemic is on the verge of expiring, which would only hasten day care closures if the money isn’t replaced.

“This pattern reflects what many experts — including providers themselves — have been anticipating since last year, when state lawmakers declined to provide additional funding that would continue stabilizing the precarious child care system beyond June 2024,” Dukes wrote.

In workforce readiness surveys, child care availability and affordability consistently emerge as obstacles that keep Wilson County residents out of the job market. Lack of access to reliable transportation is another recurring factor, but Wilson’s Ride microtransit service and Wilson County’s on-demand transit system, Arrive, are quickly solving that problem.

THUMBS UP to the Liberty Justice Center, a public-interest nonprofit suing the Davidson County Board of Education over a high school student’s wrongful suspension.

Christian McGhee, 16, was thrown out of school for three days after asking his English teacher if the vocabulary word “aliens” referred to “space aliens or illegal aliens who need green cards.” An assistant principal at Central Davidson High called the question racist and said it could offend Hispanic and Latino classmates, though Christian never specified the hypothetical aliens’ race.

“I have raised our son to reject racism in all its forms, but it is the school, not Christian, that injected race into this incident,” mother Leah McGhee said in a news release. “It appears that this administration would rather destroy its own reputation and the reputation of my son rather than admit they made a mistake.”

Central Davidson violated Christian’s constitutional rights when it suspended him for speech that falls firmly within the bounds of First Amendment protection. The Chicago-based Liberty Justice Center, best known for winning a 2018 Supreme Court case that prevents labor unions from collecting involuntary dues from nonmembers, filed a complaint last week in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.

“School officials have effectively fabricated a racial incident out of thin air and branded our client as a racist without even giving him an opportunity to appeal,” said Dean McGee, the LJC’s educational freedom attorney. “Fortunately, young people do not shed their First Amendment rights at school, and we look forward to vindicating Christian’s rights here.”

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