Last week, this site reported on a high school English teacher’s controversial lessons involving comparisons between Presidential candidate, Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler.
In the wake of these lessons, this site has obtained an email that went out to staff at the school. The email reminds staff of the district policies on politics in the classroom, stating, “There are some places that personal, political viewpoints do not belong.”
Parents tell this site that the principal of Cedar Ridge High has assured them that the teacher, Amanda Harder, has been spoken to and also had district policy number 7700 reiterated to her. The principal has indicated that the English II class should proceed with the approved curriculum and that there should be no more biased discussions on political candidates.
A parent tells this site that they are not a Trump supporter but that, “I can’t believe what this woman was saying to these kids” and that they wonder what the reaction would have been had the teacher, “replaced Trump with Clinton or Obama” in the lessons.
According to a timeline given to me by students at the school which spans from September 13 to the 20th, every single lesson Harder taught centered on Hitler and Donald Trump.
On September 12th, the timeline of events says that “Mrs. Harder was explaining Ethos, Paths and Logos and asked the class if she can think of anybody who shows a lot of Pathos. One of the kids says, ‘Trump’ and she agrees and says how much she hates him and thinks he’s an idiot.”
The next day, the 13th, was the date of the recording of another lesson on Ethos, Pathos and Logos.
On the 15th, “We watch a Hitler speech and several Nazi propaganda videos and she compares Trump to Hitler and says during one of Hitler’s speeches about Marxism to replace the word Marxist with “terrorist.”
The next day, Harder gives the same lesson but is aware now that at least one student was upset and recorded her. Phones are collected and kept at the front of the class.
On Monday, September 19th, Harder shows more Hitler videos to the class. Among them is a TED video entitled, ‘Rise of Hitler’. According to the students the teacher, ” has us take notes on how easily it could happen again and to compare Nazi rhetoric with that of the Trump campaign.”.
One student took a screenshot of the course materials for the 19th, which includes the reviewing and comparing of rhetoric used by the Nazis only to that of the Trump campaign.
The lesson on the 20th of September is similar, and the students reported that they, “Watched some video then she talked for a long time comparing Trump to Hitler over and over again.” Harder switches subjects at some point and one student tells me that Harder, “started talking about HB2 and said if she and her kid were in a bathroom and a transvestite walked in, then she wouldn’t be scared but [be] worried about the safety of the transvestite .”.
*This article has been updated to include a correction on language used with regard to HB2.
A former student of Wakefield High entered the school with a knife this week.
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – A former Wakefield High School student was arrested Monday morning after bringing a knife onto campus and into the media center, Principal Malik Bazzell said in a release posted on Twitter.
According to Bazzell, all students are safe and no one was injured in the incident, which occurred before school began.
The former student came onto campus, entered the media center and then displayed a knife, Bazzell said. School administrators and the Wakefield School Resource Officer responded and the former student then gave them the knife.
The former student was immediately taken out of the media center and transported to the hospital for medical evaluation, Raleigh police said.
Bazzell said the school “will continue to take every measure to ensure the safety of our students.”
Police said the former student has not been charged at this time.
The WNCN article states the former student was arrested but police did not press charges at the time. No corresponding arrest or charges are currently pending via Raleigh/Wake City-County Bureau of Identification (CCBI).
As the article states, parents and the community found out via Twitter. Here is the Tweet:
Attention Parents: Message from Principal Malik Bazzell regarding an incident this morning before school. pic.twitter.com/GfGdWGvl9E
The Department of Public Instruction’s report states that Wake county had 563 reportable acts for a crime rate of 12.77%. The report also states Wake county has 44, 095 students in grades 9-12.
In 2015, a school in Apex allowed a student back to the same school where they had threatened another student with a gun.
English lessons in one North Carolina high school included questionable characterizations of Presidential Candidate Donald Trump, as well as commentary about Republicans and FOX news.
Audio of the lesson in question was captured by a student or students unknown attending Cedar Ridge High School in the Orange county school district.
The English lesson given by Amanda Harder centered on various modes of persuasion called Ethos, Pathos and Logos. These modes of persuasion are also known as the ‘three artistic’ proofs of persuasion as termed by the Greek philosopher, Aristotle.
Ethos speaks to the character of the speaker, Pathos represents the emotional impact of the speaker on an audience and Logos represents the logic or content of an argument.
It is unknown why political parties and current political figures were used for the lesson instead of classical literary references or even Aristotle’s own works.
Harder’s personal website has a section on her ‘educational philosophy’. The section, in part, states that teaching is an “active process” and is “communal”. Harder’s philosophy also says that, “a classroom should be a safe environment for all.”.
The audio was obtained by this site after the students had allegedly endured multiple lessons of the same nature. Allegedly, the class had previously been comparing speeches made by Adolf Hitler to that of Presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Some of the comments made by the teacher, Amanda Harder, were sent along with the full transcript to both the Principal of Cedar Ridge High and to the Orange county school board.
Excerpt:
“So, Trump may not be master of many things. He is in fact the master of Pathos. O.K. … he… he is poking the fryers under particular niches of people in this country. People who are anti-Mexican, people who are anti-Muslim, people who are anti-woman.
Basically the only people who seem to be safe from this guy are white Christian males… am I missing anything? Oh, American — white Christian male Americans.”
This site reached out to the Principal of the school for comment, however none was forthcoming. The Communications Director for Orange county schools, Seth Stephens, issued the following statement:
“We certainly have a policy that acknowledges that political literature or items of a political nature can be used for instructional purposes, but in no way should a teacher use any sort of political materials that are ‘pro’ or demean an political party or political position — there’s no place for that in the classroom. There just isn’t.”
The Orange county school board did not respond for comment.
Since reaching out to the school for comment, sources tell this site that Ms. Harder has now begun collecting student cell phones at the beginning of class.
It’s worth noting Harder’s personal website mentions technology use. The section includes a statement on cell phones with an ironic misspelling.
“I do not want to confescate phones, but I will if they become a distraction to instruction.”
In this case, the cell phone has arguably gone from a distraction to an instrument of instruction.
Orange county schools are no stranger to controversial lessons. In 2015, a third grade teacher named Omar Currie read a book with a homosexual theme to his class. The book, King and King, features two Kings who fall in love and kiss at the end.
Currie did not seek parental permission and claimed it was an ‘anti-bullying’ lesson. That claim was swiftly debunked by outraged parents.
It was also discovered that Currie, and the Assistant Principal of the school he was employed, at attended an LGBT conference just months prior to Currie reading the book to the class. The pair led a session designed to infuse social justice and‘Disrupt Heteronormative School Cultures’ in elementary classrooms via books like King and King.
Curry allegedly resigned his position in North Carolina prior to the reading of the book and is now working as a teacher in Virginia.
The full audio of Amanda Harder’s lesson is available below along with a transcript.
Note that the mention of specific student names by the teacher had been electronically masked to protect their identities.
TRANSCRIPT:
H = Amanda Harder (Teacher) S = Students
H: …if you don’t buy this life insurance you’re letting your family down. So, that’s like playing on people’s secret fears.
H: Who is the master of Pathos? Sadly, it’s those two on a daily basis. Who… who in the news…
[Cross talk]
S: Trump!
H: Trump. Right.
[Cross talk]
S: Wait whaaaat?
H: So, Trump may not be master of many things. He is in fact the master of Pathos. O.K. … he… he is poking the fryers under particular niches of people in this country. People who are anti-Mexican, people who are anti-Muslim, people who are anti-woman.
Basically the only people who seem to be safe from this guy are white Christian males… am I missing anything? Oh, American — white Christian male Americans.
Alright? So, who knows what his actual motives are but he is a master at manipulating his audience, right? He knows where the fears lie and he is going right after them.
Now, is he any different than any other politicians? No. Not really. I mean, Hillary Clinton is guilty of the same thing. The only difference is she is a little bit more subtle about it. He just doesn’t seem to care who he offends. She seems to be more subtle about offending the general public. O.K.?
Uh…So.. can you give me an example of – one example of Pathos used by Trump? Or if you can think of one from another politician that’s fine, it’s just that Trump’s are easy to pick out.
[Pause]
H: What about…. [STUDENT NAME REDACTED].. did you come up with one? For Trump?
S: Yeah, um when he could criticize the mother and father of the fallen soldier and he said that she couldn’t comment because she was Muslim… and that was kind of.. it was like instantly me against Muslims and she was like I was trying not to break out in tears because her son died.
H: Right. So he was hoping one group of people would be behind him – the anti-Muslim group of people. But he totally disregarded the fact that these were AMERICANS.. first of all. [Laughs] And these were people who lost their son and their son had been lost fighting for this country. .So that kind of backfired on him a little bit.
Alright? Ummm.. Any other examples? I want you to try to pick up… pick out a non-Trump example, because, like I said, he’s sort of a ‘gimme’. He’s so easy. What about the others?
[Silence]
H: It’s so easy with the Republican party in general. I want you to start looking for these with the Democrats when you see them on TV. Because again, there’s much more subtlety in the Democratic party. It’s harder to pick out. [STUDENT NAME REDACTED]?
S: You see it a lot with the reactions like gun control, after they, like, when the people making speeches about that. You see that a lot.
H: Alright.. so there’s the [unintelligible]. O.K. Here’s a good.. well, it isn’t Obama saying it, but it’s a good reaction to something Obama said. There was a threat of Obama, like some kind of gun control law and then everyone ran out and bought all these guns. They like were just like.. get.. buying everything in the gun shops because they thought Obama was going to steal their guns. Like.. ‘we couldn’t have guns anymore’.
So, that kind of backfired on Obama a little bit because it inspired a whole group of people to run out and buy the guns. Right?
Um.. So, remember, it has to be orchestrated. It has to be designed when you’re dealing with rhetoric. These are things that are specifically designed for a specific purpose but often times they backfire.
S: That’s not what I meant. I meant like when they are actually talking about, when you know these people are shooting these people and stuff like that. That is a.. that can be a Pathos.
H: Pathos. Absolutely. Let me ask you this – because here’s a fine line: So when he did all those speeches about um… Newtown. The shooting in the kindergarten class? Is that Pathos or is that Truth?
[Silence]
S: Pathos [unintelligible] if you accept the [unintelligible].
H: Well I think… Here’ the.. Here’s the fine detail you have to be aware of – it’s Truth when you’re not trying to get anything. It’s Pathos when you’re trying to manipulate.
Now he may have in the back of his mind been trying to manipulate people into supporting the gun control law. But at that moment he was probably just memorializing the kids and the teachers, right?
So, be aware of that and there are some news channels that you’re probably watching at home or that your parents are watching at home that are masters at this kind of stuff. I mean, the thing that comes to my mind is FOX news.
[Student cross talk]
H: But.. there are… FOX news is on the Right… side of the spectrum. But there are ones equally as guilty on the Left side of the spectrum.
My father who is a cah-razy conservative, thinks NPR is guilty of that. I don’t think so. I think, like…
I think like CNN and NPR and Al Qaeda… [sigh]Uh, Al Qaeda….[class laughs] ..Al Jazeera are all sort of middle of the roaders.
But um, there are those sort of Lefist news shows as well. So bear that in mind.
And then there is the third rhetorical device we will be studying today – is Logos. That is the appeal to logic. Every argument has to have Logos. If you don’t have Logos, if you don’t have a logical argument that makes sense? You’re dead in the water. You don’t even need the other two. O.K.?
So, we are going to watch a couple of videos. My expectation is that you will lift up that paper and take notes on important things you see in these videos. O.K.?
And then we’re going to do a little activity that helps you reinforce what you’ve learned.
Governor McCrory and other officials had said recently that a repeal of HB2 might be possible, but the Charlotte Ordinance would have to be repealed first. Any chance of that happening was killed by both North Carolina State lawmaker Becky Carney (Mecklenburg) and Mayor Roberts.
Carney, a Democrat, killed the attempt to repeal the illegal Charlotte Ordinance as part of a compromise related to a possibly repeal House Bill 2 (HB2). What’s more, Carney’s maneuvering has exposed the use of HB2 as political leverage by Democrats.
A Democratic member of the legislature, who spoke on background to discuss the situation, confirmed Carney tied her opposition to the ordinance’s repeal directly to her desire to keep HB2 on the books so Democrats in close legislative races could use the bill as a wedge issue in November’s election.
The lawmaker said Republican leaders in the legislature had agreed to repeal HB2 if the city’s ordinance were also repealed and that there were enough votes to push the bill’s repeal through.
“This deal was done, and was going to be done, but for three people and they’re all sitting in Charlotte,’ the Democratic lawmaker said. “Three people in Charlotte are holding North Carolina hostage right now.”
Carney isn’t the only one using HB2 as a political campaign tool. The most visible candidate using HB2 to leverage his campaign is Attorney General Roy Cooper, who is challenging Governor Pat McCrory.
Campaign finance reports show Carney received only two donations in the second quarter, $500 each from the Bank of American PAC and the Wells Fargo Good Government Fund.
The CEO’s of Bank of America and Wells Fargo have both publicly opposed HB2.
This past May, Carney was one of the legislators who met with Equality NC and Human Rights Campaign activists during a lobbying visit to repeal HB2.
Mayor Roberts gave a statement yesterday from a podium bearing the logos of Equality NC and the Human Rights Campaign.
Roberts’ statement argues Charlotte is not to blame, despite the Charlotte Ordinance being the impetus for HB2:
“The City of Charlotte continues its commitment to be a welcoming community that honors and respects all people. We appreciate the state wanting to find a solution to the challenges we are facing and applaud the governor for recognizing the state should overturn HB2, which the state can do at any time without any action from the City of Charlotte.”
Both of organizations are alleged to have helped craft the Charlotte Ordinance and have engaged in attempts to economically blackmail the state into repealing HB2.
Standing just to the right of Mayor Roberts in the grey suit is Chris Sgro who was appointed to fill an empty North Carolina General Assembly seat back in April. Sgro is also the Executive Director of Equality NC.
It has been noted by this site that Sgro has engaged in fundraising activities for Equality NC despite resigning his lobbying position for Equality NC.
These fundraising efforts are to fund opposition of HB2 and represent a conflict of interest between the two positions Sgro currently holds. In August, an ethics complaint was filed against Sgro for these activities.
Former North Carolina player and Assistant Basketball Coach, Phil Ford, has come out supporting Roy Cooper for Governor.
In the email, Ford laments the ACC pulling out championship games because of HB2. Ford says he’s “proud to support Roy Cooper, who said from the very beginning that this law was a bad idea.”
Yet Ford fails to mention Cooper did not oppose the illegal Charlotte ordinance which prompted HB2. Cooper also has refused to do his job and defend the state from lawsuits stemming from HB2.
In the email blast, Ford also recalls that, “One of the highlights of my basketball career at North Carolina was the 1975 ACC Tournament in the Greensboro Coliseum. I’ll never forget cutting down those nets with my teammates after winning the championship.”
North Carolinians may recall some other history of Ford’s.
North Carolina assistant Phil Ford pleaded guilty today to driving while impaired and was placed on probation for one year and ordered to pay $586 in fines and court costs.
Ford, 42, North Carolina‘s career scoring leader, was stopped by Durham police Sept. 27 and charged with driving while impaired. A test showed his blood alcohol level was 0.24 percent three times North Carolina‘s legal limit. He also had a previous out-of-state drunken driving conviction.
At today’s hearing, Durham County District Judge Claude Allen sentenced Ford to eight days in jail, but then suspended it because Ford has completed a 28-day alcohol-abuse recovery program. Prosecutors also dropped a charge of failing to stop at a red light as part of the plea agreement.
Ford also is barred from driving and must check in with a probation officer for one year. The judge also indicated Ford could face further punishment if found guilty of DWI or alcohol possession in a vehicle during the next five years.
That wasn’t Ford’s first DWI. He scored a 0.26 percent when he was stopped in September of 1997 while on a recruiting trip in Michigan. Ford admitted at the time he had been an alcoholic for fourteen years.
Ford shortly after his conviction took a ‘medical leave‘ from his position at UNC.
The CBS report included a statement from Ford’s attorney, who said that, “He wanted to go ahead and take his punishment. From all accounts Phil is doing a remarkable job getting his life together.”
Once again, we see HB2 being used as a political tool by Roy Cooper. Maybe Cooper needs to ‘go ahead and take his punishment’ for not doing his job.
The North Carolina Channel on YouTube has posted the full debate video.
I listened to the debate online and was really kind of horrified at most of what Coleman said about Education in North Carolina. There is a big difference between her and Lt. Governor Forest on this subject. Education is a major role played by the Lt. Governor position.
Coleman repeated the falsehood that education funding dropped by a billion dollars under the Republicans. Coleman also said that Republicans’ education spending has not maintained its weight when adjusting for inflation. Both statements are incorrect.
The education budget has increased and yes, that’s still adjusting for inflation.
Bob Luebke at Civitasexplained:
For the period 2006 to 2011 – when Democrats were in control of the General Assembly and the budget process – funding for K-12 education actually declined by $540 million in inflation-adjusted dollars, or 13 percent. Yes, in the early years of the period, the budget increased about $1 billion, when Democrat lawmakers mistakenly thought a surge in tax receipts would last forever. However, after the Great Recession hit, Democrats cut $1.54 billion from the education budget to address funding shortfalls.
Since taking office in 2011-12, Republicans have actually increased the education budget by $1.1 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars. Under GOP leadership, K-12 appropriations have actually increased in five of the last six budgets.
There was real waffling on school choice. Almost in the same breath, Coleman said she supports school choice, then immediately turned around and put limitations on that choice, saying that the ‘taxpayer’s shouldn’t have to pay for it’.
Parents are taxpayers too, Ms. Coleman. If they want to send out kid to a different school option that suits that child’s educational needs, who are you (or anyone else) to tell them where they can and can’t send them?
Our public schools have been flat-lining for decades but no one wants to pull the plug.
Ms. Coleman made it clear last night that her answer is for more government interference and to throw more money at public education. In other words, maintain the status quo.
There was no real question on Common Core and Coleman’s website doesn’t have a page where voters can see where she stands on the issues. The NCAE is pro-Common Core and they are backing her, so it would be a likely bet she’s in favor of the standards.
Some other things Ms. Coleman got wrong:
1. Wasteful spending and administrative bloat are two huge factors why our schools are ‘running out of money’. They get plenty, but the local districts/boards are poor stewards of that money. Just look at the mess in Wake county.
2. Charters ARE public schools and their achievement levels and diversity levels leave their traditional counterparts in the dust. If anything, one should be complaining about the gap in funding of charter schools versus their traditional counterparts.
3. Opportunity Scholarships have their own pot of funds, they don’t ‘steal’ from traditional school funds. They are also really, really popular and they are designed to help low-income children .
4. Charter enrollment is up. Private school enrollment is up. Parents are fed up with the traditional system and are voting with their feet. Homeschooling is up 34% in the last 4 years for two big reasons — Common Core and the ever-increasing infusion of teaching political correctness/social justice over actual academics.
5. North Carolina’s testing is a mess, proof of concept or not. The EOG’s in math and English are Common Core aligned. Teachers across the state agree — we have too much testing. So what is DPI doing? Just revamping them and likely adding more due to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Also, those graduation rates are hollow when we have a grade level proficiency rate of 56.3% and career and college readiness rate of 46.7%.
6. Coleman is under the impression charter schools have no rules, accountability or regulations. Clearly, she had not visited the Charter school website.
The Lt. Governor responded on that one right on the mark saying, “You know what happens when a public charter school fails in North Carolina? We can shut it down. You know what happens with a traditional public school fails in North Carolina? We throw more money at it.”
On the topic of Virtual charter schools, Coleman is right, they are a bit of a mess. However, they are very new ventures which haven’t had a lot of time to work out issues. It’s also worth noting the Department of Public Instruction is in the driver’s seat on this one. If the Virtual online charters are running off the road, look at who is driving.
LL1885 
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