Wake PTA Council Pushes Back Against Far Right Attacks on Public Education

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Good morning, readers. 

With five seats up for election this month, and all five incumbents running in competitive races for reelection, it’s been an eventful past couple of weeks at Wake County school board meetings. 

On September 17, an Athens Drive High School student told the nine board members that her English teacher had assigned a short story that she said contained “graphic, incestual sexual language” that made her uncomfortable. 

The Wake County chapter of Moms for Liberty—a far right group that advocates book bans and anti-LGBTQ school policies—posted a video of the student speaking. At the next meeting, a conservative Wake Forest pastor staged a protest during the public comment period and refused to leave the podium after his speaking time elapsed. A large group of Michele Morrow supporters, wearing T-shirts emblazoned with GOP candidate for NC superintendent’s name, cheered the pastor on as a guard handcuffed and removed him from the meeting.  

Two weeks later, Moms for Liberty posted a photo of a male teacher wearing a tutu during school spirit week, calling the teacher “perverse” and rallying its members to speak out about it at the next school board meeting. 

Moms for Liberty members did show up to speak out at the October 15 meeting, but, for the first time in weeks, a different group outnumbered them. 

Dozens of parents, organized by the Wake PTA Council, a nonpartisan volunteer organization that oversees nearly 200 parent-teacher associations in the county, were on hand to speak in support of public education, school teachers, and faculty and “counteract the negativity that’s been happening recently,” according to the council president Marie Dexter. 

It’s the most effective way Dexter sees to push back against groups like Moms for Liberty which latch on to specific incidents to stir up anger toward educators and the school board. In contrast, the council focuses on supportive messaging, legislative issues, and elections that affect public education in an effort to shift the narrative around Wake County Public Schools.

“The more we can say it, hopefully, the more people will hear our message, and not just the other side,” Dexter says. “And of course, we want people to understand the importance of researching their candidates.”

Read the story here. Have a good Monday. 

—Jane

Join us on our website Tuesday morning when the polls open as our Election Day live blog launches! We’ll provide Election Day updates in real time and bring you results, dispatches from local watch parties, interviews, and more going into Election Night. Find all of our election coverage here. 

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Durham

ICYMI: The Biden administration’s Small Business Association administrator joined local officials and business leaders in Durham last week for a roundtable discussion. 

We spoke with Hope Tyson, a Bull City Votes volunteer who’s helping voters get to the polls and navigate new voting laws. 

The 9th Street Journal spoke with Nancy Mayer, a longtime poll observer in Durham, about her role.

Wake

We spent a morning at the polls with Reeves Peeler, a Raleigh planning commissioner and first-time candidate for an at-large seat on the Raleigh City Council.

Orange

Two UNC-Chapel Hill trustees are running for higher office this election cycle, a sign that the politics of public higher education are growing more partisan

North Carolina

Democrats hope new voters and shifting demographics will deliver the state to Vice President Kamala Harris. 

With 4.2 million votes cast during the early voting period, North Carolina sees record voter turnout.

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