Bridgeport Times

The reading list for a 10th-grade American Literature class at Wilton School District is being scrutinized after a parent raised alerts about racially based reading.

The parent reported on No Left Turn For Education that several of the class’ readings were race-related and that she asked a teacher to remove Black Boy, Passing and Between the World and Me from the list.

“All three of these books focus on the Black race with a viewpoint that America is systemically racist and Blacks are oppressed by the White man,” the parent wrote.

In response, she said the teacher and principal agreed to remove Passing and Between the World and Me.

“I was deeply troubled by some of books included on the reading list,” she said in the letter to the school. “Half of the books listed related to race in America, and 3 of the books related to Black race in America.”

She called out one book in particular.

“One especially troubling book, titled ‘Between the World and Me’, by Ta-Nehisi Coates describes his experiences with white people, whom he references as ‘they’. He talks about police brutality and generalizes it to all police officers,” she said.

The parent said the books were a way “deceptive way” to introduce Critical Race Theory into the curriculum.

“No one can dispute that police brutality exists but to demonize all police officers for the problems brought about by the few, would be like thinking all Muslim Americans are terrorists. This book is written by a man who hates America and finds America to be systemically racist. Recommending this book to children is irresponsible and dangerous. It promotes racism against white people and is extremely divisive. As a brown skinned immigrant to America with a multiracial family, I find this list with books focused on race insulting and offensive. Insulting because it reduces individuals to the basic, immutable characteristic of our skin color.”

The parent took to the site to report her findings on Nov. 3.

No Left Turn For Education opens its anonymized forum for parents to report their stories. Among the group’s objectives is to “expose the radical indoctrination in K-12 education.”

The same parent blasted the school for not giving a proper opt-out period for the school’s Social Emotion Learning for her ninth grader.

“The letter gives parents an opt-out option at the very end of the letter. I have several concerns regarding the timing and content of the screening,” she said. 

“First of all, I do not believe I was given enough notice about your plan for SEL to make an informed decision for opting out since there is barely a week between 1/28/2021 and first week in February 2021.

“Secondly, as the guardian of my child, I should have prior knowledge of all the questions that are to be asked, not just a sampling of two questions from the 30 questions.

“Third, your letter does not clearly inform me why this ‘universal’ screening is necessary. All children already have access to school counselors, and children who need special accommodations have a 504 and IEP available.”


The parent ended the letter by offering advice to the school.

“Lastly, at a time, when education is severely lacking with virtual learning, teachers hesitant to return to full in-person teaching, complaints of funding and teacher shortage in some areas, I would like the public school system to focus on improving the education of all children in the basics of the proverbial reading, writing, and arithmetic. After this, teach facts and instill knowledge. Facts in history, science, geography, the arts, etc. I hope you take my suggestion seriously,” she wrote.