[Vision2020] Grievance Targets Teachings on Slavery

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (April 2, 2005) Spokesman review.

These teachings sound too, too familiar.

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Grievance targets teachings on slavery 

Taryn Brodwater
Staff writer

April 2, 2005

An African American father has filed a civil rights grievance against the
Coeur d'Alene School District, saying the district's teachings on slavery,
lynching and the Civil War "encourage ignorance, mistrust, bias and
intolerance."

In the complaint filed March 18, Gary Lewis said his son's eighth-grade
history teacher made statements in class that "slavery was not as bad as it
is often portrayed in some books and in Hollywood" and "as long as they
didn't break the rules, the slaves had it pretty good."
 
Canfield Middle School teacher Ken Chariton is named in the grievance, along
with Principal Jeff Bengtson and a substitute teacher, Dustin Shafer.

Chariton, Bengtson and Shafer could not be reached for comment.
Superintendent Harry Amend said the district is working with Lewis to
address his concerns, but Amend was hesitant to discuss specifics.

"I don't believe it would be appropriate for me to comment on Gary's
concerns without his permission," Amend said Friday, adding that "it's very
common the district can learn and often improves itself as a district by
working with citizens and their concerns."

Lewis could not be reached for comment.

Lewis expressed concern in the grievance about statements Chariton and the
substitute had made about slavery and lynching and about the textbooks being
used to teach about the subjects.

He said the statement, "More whites were lynched in our history than
blacks," was made by both teachers and taken directly from the textbook.

Lewis said teachings on the Civil War didn't focus enough attention on the
Emancipation Proclamation and that his son said "the contributions of black
soldiers, runaways and ex-slaves to the outcome of the war was marginalized
or dismissed as insignificant."

In the grievance, Lewis criticizes Chariton for not mentioning Black History
Month while covering material on slavery during February and for not telling
students about a PBS documentary on slavery.

Lewis writes in the grievance that Bengtson told him that his children may
have "heard Ken Chariton wrong and misinterpreted what he was saying." He
wrote that the principal also told him Chariton was trying to get kids to
see slavery from the Southerners' perspective.

In the grievance, Lewis listed a dozen suggestions for the district,
including providing teachers and students with cultural awareness
opportunities; educating students, parents and staff on harassment and the
district's grievance policy; replacing the current textbook; recognizing
Black History Month; and arranging for a presentation on black history from
"an Afrocentric perspective."

Lewis calls for the district to investigate his allegations and provide him
the findings in writing. If he doesn't agree with the findings, Lewis said,
he will file complaints with the Idaho Human Rights Commission, the U.S.
Department of Justice and the Office for Civil Rights.

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Take care, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Just Another Pagan Intolerista Liberal Elitista Wacko Nutjob Loose in the
Palouse Saving His Nickles and Dimes for Trinity Fest 2005

Seeya there, Fatboy.

"What is objectionable, what is dangerous, about extremists is not that they
are extreme, but that they are intolerant. The evil is not what they say
about their cause, but what they say about their opponents."

-- Robert F. Kennedy