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LETTERS / Educational Issues to be Addressed at the September 12th Meeting of the Watauga Board of Education

Dear Editor,

In my prior Letters to the Editor of the High Country Press (on August 10, 22, and 30th) I raised very serious and specific concerns, and supporting factual information, about the “woke political indoctrination” and associated “woke” teaching methods that have occurred and are still occurring in the Watauga Public Schools.  In my August 30 letter, I stated my intent to formally submit a request to the Watauga Board of Education for an Agenda item for their September 12, 2022 meeting.  I did formally submit a request for a 10-minute Agenda item at that meeting, to discuss the factual evidence I have collected that supports my concerns.  Dr. Scott Elliot, on behalf of the Watauga Board of Education, has denied my request for an Agenda item, but observed I can still utilize one of the standard three-minute speaking slots that are routinely available to any citizen wishing to voice public issues at any meeting of the BOE.

Three minutes is totally inadequate to substantively describe and address the specific concerns I have been raising and the supporting factual evidence that I submitted to the Board of Education (and also already submitted to the High Country Press and Watauga Democrat).  I will in fact read from a three-minute written statement at the September 12 BOE meeting, but I will use my statement to raise new and issues and facts to the Board of Education, rather than futilely and inadequately attempt to address my highly relevant factual evidence I have already collected.  

But I will also refuse to allow the factual evidence I have collected to be swept under a rug by the BOE.  I am therefore also beginning a concerted effort to more broadly disseminate the factual supporting evidence I have already collected, so that the parents of students in the Watauga County Schools and the broader Watauga Community can consider them.  I will disseminate physical and/or electronic copies of my factual information at the September 12 BOE meeting.  

Parents have a legal and moral right to know such factual information, and to control the education of their children.   I urge the parents of Watauga County students to peaceably attend the September 12 BOE meeting and judge the issues and evidence I will raise there for themselves.  I also urge those parents to carefully monitor the educational materials and inappropriate questionnaires being disseminated to their children, and discuss those materials with their children’s teachers if necessary, and if further necessary, with school administrators and the Watauga Board of Education.

Mark A Murphy PhD, JD

Blowing Rock North Carolina