UPDATE: This story has been updated with a statement by Mason Public Schools administrators.
MASON Parents and residents on Monday spoke in favor of repealing a school board policy that led an educator to resign last week from Mason Public Schools.
Following Katelyne Thomas official Feb. 26 resignation, parents spoke during a Mason school board meeting in support of Thomas, calling for repeal of board policy 2240, which they said is applied loosely and has been used to reprimand teachers.
Thomas taught at North Aurelius Elementary School.
Advocacy consultant and Mason resident Rhiannon Klein sent an open letter to the school board signed by over 20 parents who are fighting for the board policy to be repealed immediately. The policy, the letter states in part, prevents teachers from teaching or discussing diversity in their classrooms.
Mason Public Schools, located in south-central Michigan
, denied muzzling Thomas, and said the material she suggested using in class had not been vetted and she was provided alternate material.
In January, Thomas suggested for Black History Month, the district could incorporate material provided by Black Lives Matter at School, a nationwide coalition advocating racial justice in education.
The group urged educators across the country to use the first week of February to stress different topics each day, including restorative justice, diversity and globalism, trans and queer affirming, intergenerational Black families and Black villages and being unapologetically Black.
Thomas made the suggestion in an email to the Mason Board of Education, the superintendent, as well as her bosses: the special education director and the school principal.
after district officials balked at her plans to discuss diversity and race topics in the classroom.
Katelyne Thomas has taught first through fifth grade students for three years, but her last day is Friday.
The district denies muzzling Thomas, saying the material she suggested using in class had not yet been vetted and she was provided alternate material.
In January, Thomas suggested that for Black History Month the district could incorporate material provided by Black Lives Matter at School, a nationwide coalition advocating racial justice in education.
The group urged educators across the country to use the first week of February to stress different topics each day, including restorative justice, diversity and globalism, trans and queer affirming, intergenerational Black families and Black villages and being unapologetically Black.
Michigan Parents Demand Return to In-Person Learning as Failing Grades Rise
9 Feb 2021
Parents in Mason, Michigan, are organizing to demand students return to classrooms full time as coronavirus-related school closures drag on.
Students in the Mason School District currently go in-person two days a week and virtually the other three.
“I feel the options don’t work for everyone,” parent Amber Rodriguez, who was one of 514 parents to sign the petition, told WILX.
“These kids’ mental health is struggling a lot. Especially a lot of the older kids. They need to be in school. They need to have their sports,” she said, referring Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) ban on winter contact sports that was recently lifted after parents put pressure on the governor.