Parents say they’ve been told if they don’t like it, they can leave
Nearly a dozen parents who spoke during the latest meeting of Clover Garden School’s board of directors complained that their children are being taught grammatically incorrect English in an eighth-grade honors class and are being threatened with disciplinary action if they question it.
The administration at Clover Garden School in western Alamance County has threatened students with disciplinary action if they fail to use the “preferred pronouns” for their eighth-grade honors English Language Arts teacher and has advised parents that if they don’t like it, they can enroll their children elsewhere, based on comments by the nearly dozen parents who outlined their concerns for the school’s board of directors earlier this month.
All of the Clover Garden parents who spoke at the October 14 board meeting criticized a recent exercise for Jacqueline McDowell’s eighth-grade honors English Language Arts class; none spoke in support.
For the exercise, McDowell had asked her students to construct sentences using the prefix “tele-”, based according to the parents who spoke at the subsequent board meeting.
For an example, the teacher told her students, “McDowell wishes they could teleport across the room,” said Clover Garden parent Brandon Vincent.
Most of the parents who spoke during the board meeting focused on the teacher’s example – specifically, its improper syntax – which they worried could drive down their children’s scores on state end-of-grade tests in English (see related story this edition).
Other parents speculated that the use of “preferred pronouns” was a pretext to introduce divisive social and political concepts such as gender ideology – i.e., beliefs that some people are born the wrong gender; that there are dozens of genders; and that some people may be more than one gender, or none at all.
The meeting attendance and number of public comments (about a dozen) set a record for the charter school, according to a weekly newsletter sent to parents and families that was subsequently obtained by The Alamance News.
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During the lesson, one of McDowell’s students pointed out that the syntax of the teacher’s example sentence was grammatically incorrect, because “they” is a plural, not singular, pronoun, Vincent said. “The teacher continued to persist that since the example was about her, it should be ‘they,’” he said. “This teacher apparently goes by they/them pronouns.”
The connotation of the plural pronoun “they,” in recent years, has been used to signify LGBTQ individuals who identify as neither male nor female.
According to public comments at the board meeting, several parents later contacted Clover Garden School executive director Heather Vereyken to register their concerns about the English grammar exercise in McDowell’s eighth-grade honors class.
The majority of the parents who spoke during the board of directors’ latest meeting had been “hoping to get resolution” on the instruction of incorrect syntax, Vincent said in a recent interview with The Alamance News, while pointing out that he hadn’t complained to Vereyken.
School director says use of gender-neutral pronouns ‘required by law’ when requested
Vereyken reportedly informed those parents that students “must use they/them pronouns if the teacher requests it because it’s required by law,” Vincent explained (see related story, this edition).
See former Biden Administration requirements, since reversed by Trump Administration, to which school’s director apparently referred: https://alamancenews.com/clover-garden-following-bidens-2024-rewrite-of-title-ix/
Clover Garden parent Casey Crawford told the board, “Conversations began happening that are not appropriate for 13-year-old children.” She tried to contact Vereyken but received no response, Crawford said.
“Others may see this as harmless; it’s not. This is exactly how pushing agendas and political indoctrination begins in schools and classrooms. The teacher brought political ideology into the classroom where it doesn’t belong. The teacher could have chosen to use any correct gender-specific pronoun, yet she didn’t.”
– cLOVER gARDEN pARENT Casey Crawford
“I want to know why the teacher thought it was appropriate to bring preferred pronouns into her instruction,” Crawford explained. “Others may see this as harmless; it’s not. This is exactly how pushing agendas and political indoctrination begins in schools and classrooms. The teacher brought political ideology into the classroom where it doesn’t belong. The teacher could have chosen to use any correct gender-specific pronoun, yet she didn’t.”
Crawford’s husband, Kyle Crawford, registered similar concerns during Clover Garden’s latest board meeting.
“I’ll be using words provided to me by the director [Heather Vereyken] in written communication. First, she wrote on standards: we teach our students not just traditional English, but also the use of English in our society. “There is no such standard of English in our society, in North Carolina. The [state Standard Course of Study] requires command of conventions of the standard English grammar and usage. Our website says we adhere to the North Carolina standard.”
– cLOVER gARDEN PARENT Kyle Crawford
“Today I’ll be using words provided to me by the director [Vereyken] in written communication,” Kyle Crawford told the board. “First, she wrote on standards: ‘We teach our students not just traditional English, but also the use of English in our society.’
“There is no such standard of English in our society in North Carolina,” said Kyle Crawford. “The [state Standard Course of Study] requires command of conventions of the standard English grammar and usage. Our website says we adhere to the North Carolina standard. I looked through board records; I did not see a board vote that approved any such deviations. Has the [school] made changes without the board’s approval? Are we making changes to course work in [kindergarten through first grade] where pronouns are originally introduced?”
“I would say, it’s gender ideology, indoctrination,” Kyle Crawford added. “I have called [state senator Amy Galey, a Republican who represents Alamance County and part of Randolph County], who is in full support of our efforts. She has sponsored a bill, SB 227, that will be read off October 20 [was actually moved to the Senate calendar for Tuesday, October 21], eliminating all DEI from K-12 public education and removing divisive concepts from our educational system. The teaching of pronouns outside the N.C. standard is not educationally necessary.
“On punishment, the director wrote to me, ‘Employees are entitled to be referred to by the name and pronoun of their choice,’” Kyle Crawford said during the board meeting. “I understand respect is vital, but that doesn’t mean compelling speech.” He went on to cite two federal cases, including Meriweather v. Hartop, which Crawford said had established that “pronoun mandates can infringe on free speech by compelling ideological conformity.”
“The state of North Carolina drivers’ licenses only references binary male/female. There are no other pronouns that you can reference on your driver’s license. I proposed a solution, and I was told, ‘if you’re not happy, your kids can leave.’”
– cLOVER gARDEN pARENT Kyle Crawford
“In addition, the state of North Carolina drivers’ licenses only references binary male/female,” Kyle Crawford pointed out. “There are no other pronouns that you can reference on your driver’s license. I proposed a solution, and I was told, ‘if you’re not happy, your kids can leave.’”
Parent John McIntosh, who described himself as a lawyer who has taught constitutional law, said he was struck “by some of the verbiage” Vereyken had used in her email correspondence, which stated, “‘Any student who does not address the teacher by their preferred name will be disciplined.’”
“I’m familiar in my role with the compelled speech doctrine,” McIntosh told the board of directors. “The compelled speech doctrine is essentially a defining doctrine for the First Amendment. The case law I was able to find – Parents Defending Education v. LinnMar Community School District [in Iowa and several other jurisdictions] – all dealt with either a teacher being compelled to use a pronoun, or a student was compelled, all of which had been in the 6th, 2nd, 7th circuit courts at the federal level [and established that the government cannot force an individual to support a certain expression or belief]. That is the law of the land.”
The Alamance News emailed several Clover Garden officials – Vereyken, along with the board chairman, Chad Huffines, and vice chairman Amy Murrell – hoping to ask, among other things, what legal authority the charter school had relied on in insisting that the use of “preferred pronouns” is required by law.
After more than a week, none had responded to the newspaper’s inquiry by press time Wednesday night.
Other parents worry about impact on standardized test scores
Meanwhile, other parents told the board that teaching students improper sentence structure contravenes the state’s Standard Course of Study, which all K-12 traditional public schools and charter schools are required to follow.
Parent Christine Fenzel said she’s concerned that students won’t be adequately prepared for the state’s end-of-grade tests “if they’re taught to use ‘they’” instead of he or she as a singular pronoun.
“It’s fine if a teacher wants to do that outside of school, but inside of school, they need to teach proper English,” Fenzel said during the board’s public comment period. “You’re going to have a lot of parents pull their kids out if this persists…if my kids come out of this school thinking they can use ‘they’ for ‘she,’ I’m done.”
– cLOVER GARDEN PARENT Christine Fenzel
“It’s fine if a teacher wants to do that outside of school, but inside of school, they need to teach proper English,” Fenzel said during the board’s public comment period. “You’re going to have a lot of parents pull their kids out if this persists…if my kids come out of this school thinking they can use ‘they’ for ‘she,’ I’m done.”
Clover Garden parent Brad Bradford said that the board of directors has a duty to ensure students have access to a “comprehensive state-approved curriculum” in all areas. “This includes writing standards…which call for formal English, style, and deep understanding of task, purpose, and audience. Our students must be taught to write objectively, free of bias, with proper grammar and structure,” Bradford said.
Parent Justin Patterson asked Clover Garden’s board whether it had approved “the deviation from the state standard English curriculum to allow, and I quote, ‘the teaching of English as used in society’? Was there oversight in incorporating the use of ‘they’ as a singular pronoun?” He also asked that the board develop “consistent and developmentally-appropriate guidelines” for the charter school’s entire curriculum.
“Societal English is not recognized; nor should it be taught. Using ‘y’all’ or ‘ain’t’ on an essay should be counted incorrectly. Why is this any different?”
– Lindsey Gilley
Parent Lindsey Gilley told the board, “Societal English is not recognized; nor should it be taught. Using ‘y’all’ or ‘ain’t’ on an essay should be counted incorrectly. Why is this any different? Religious beliefs, personal beliefs, gender discussions and sexual preferences do not have a place in public school and should be checked at the door. I’m not bringing my child to Clover Garden for her to get a better knowledge of the Bible; that is my job. Just as the same, this is not their job; it should be education.”
Clover Garden board members didn’t address the concerns during their own customary comment period near the end of their meeting.
Instead, the board sent a letter to Clover Garden families last Thursday, October 23, which was subsequently obtained by The Alamance News (see separate story, this edition). See story here: https://alamancenews.com/clover-garden-board-responds-to-parent-complaints-about-preferred-pronouns/
