A Utah charter school that incorporates Black History Month into its lesson plans is now facing reaction from some after the school announced it was allowing parents to exclude students from the curriculum.
Academy Director Maria Montessori, Micah Hirokawa, announced the decision in a post on Friday on the school’s private Facebook page, according to the local news agency Standard examiner.
Hirokawa wrote that he “reluctantly” sent a letter to the families stating that the administrators were allowing them to “exercise their civil rights not to participate in Black History Month at school”.
Hirokawa said in the post that “Some families” asked not to participate in the curriculum, although he refused to tell the Standard Examiner the exact number of parents who contacted the school or the reasons they gave for applying.
The director of the licensed public school added that parent demand “I am deeply saddened and disappointed”.
“We must not protect our children from the history of our nation, from the mistreatment of its African American citizens and the bravery of civil rights leaders, but we must educate them about it.” Hirokawa said.
Hirokawa told Utah news that the school, which serves elementary and high school students, incorporates Black History Month into social studies and history classes, with a special effort this year to highlight the achievements of African-American figures in the history of the United States.
Hirokawa, who is of Asian descent and noted that his great-grandparents were sent to a Japanese internment camp, told the channel that he believes there is “a lot of value in teaching our children about the mistreatment, challenges and obstacles that people of color in our nation have had to face and what we can do today to ensure that such mistakes do not continue ”.
A father at school, Rebecca Bennett, allegedly wrote in a comment about Hirokawa’s Facebook post that she was “I was shocked to see the form sent that allows parents to choose their children out of it and to hear that all of this is because some parents requested it. ”
“I agree with other people who are disappointed to learn that this was considered a problem in the first place by some families in our school’s community,” she added.
The school’s board of directors refused to provide the Standard-Examiner with additional information about the decision.
The Hill contacted the charter school for comment.
According to the Utah State Board of Education, only three of the academy’s 322 students are black, with white students representing about 70% of the school’s population.