Denton school board candidates talk book bans, anger management, civility at forum

Attendees asked candidates about school board members’ roles in school safety, academic performance and parental involvement. But they also wanted to know where candidates stood on policies about using restraints on elementary students with disabilities, school vouchers, book bans and the legislation they’re tracking right now in the Texas Capitol.

On book challenges at Denton ISD

Candidates were questioned about the continuing challenges to library books.

“My position is that the book meets the Texas Penal Code that explains what’s harmful material to children, or obscene material to children, then those books need to be taken out of circulation. You don’t have to do book burning, but that information is not acceptable,” said Terry Senne, candidate for Place 6. “Right now, there’s no teeth [to the revised policy], and because Denton ISD is not responding in a manner that addresses the text. I just see this happen week after week because I sit in board meetings. And so I just asked them to reconsider. Look at the books, and think about having Sheriff Tracee Murphree put on [the review committee] as an outsider who knows the penal code.”

Place 6 candidate Charlie Stinson questioned how much muscle school boards should have on books, and how coherent the policies are for all of the avenues books come into schools.

“If it’s that bad, it needs to be out of the school,” Stinson said. “Get the sheriff’s department in there. I mean, if it is literally that bad, and we’re going to be the arbiters of truth on a book that’s been in the library for 40 years, then get them in there, if that’s what you think. So who’s going to go into a class-action lawsuit against these publishers that are sneaking them in with the scholastic boards? They have a Scholastic school book group that comes in, and they sell books to our kids. They give us free books if we hit a threshold. ... So it’s not a school board issue. You can come up here, you say whatever you want to the school board, you read whatever you want to. This is a much larger issue and will probably end up in the Supreme Court one day.”

Place 6 candidate Lori Tays said she’s confident in the book policies and procedures, and that parents can determine what books their students can read.

“I feel it’s important to allow the parents the opportunity to choose for themselves if something isn’t appropriate for their child or not,” she said. “However, they cannot make that decision for the entire student population. It is concerning to me that we’ve had repeated complaints about books in our district that we might not even have on our shelves. I feel that these actions are intentional to spread misinformation and cause mistrust in our district. We also have to recognize as parents that when our children are questioning sexuality or anything that sexual in nature, the first place that they go to is not the library.”

Place 7 candidate Carolyn Rachaner disagreed that residents and parents are trying to ban books, and said she feels many parents object to erotica and sexually explicit content in books.

“No one is talking about banning books,” she said. “We’re talking about creating a school environment that is safe and appropriate for children. And as a board member, I’m going to want to pose at least a policy that will put a stop to the sexually explicit books. There is a process right now, but the process is not working. I can assure you of that because I’ve been heavily involved in that process for the past year. And the committee review process is not working.”

Place 7 incumbent Patsy Sosa-Sanchez said the board has followed its policy on books.

“While I do agree that we do need to pull books that do violate the penal code, I don’t believe that all the books that have come forward violate the penal code,” she said. “Because some of those books have actually been taken out of context. We cannot choose to ban a book because we don’t like the characters in book. We cannot choose to pull a book because it’s not a story that we like. We need to be considerate. We need to trust the governance process and we need to trust the people on the committee. They are experts, and they are trained.”

On teaching anger management in the classroom

An attendee asked candidates if anger management should be used in classrooms. The question touches on a nation and statewide discussion about retaining teachers, who have left the profession at record rates following the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the reasons given for teachers leaving the profession, student behavior is often cited as a double bind for teachers. They have to keep disruptions at a minimum, but many teachers feel their hands are tied when it comes to discipline.

“I don’t think anger management is taught in the schools, but I think if a teacher sees a problem with a student and it’s a consistent problem, it’s the parents that need to be contacted,” said Senne, who said teachers should be able to apply consequences to poor behavior. “I think there have to be rules and consequences for behaviors.”

Stinson said teachers already have a lot to manage in their classrooms.

“If my son or daughter gets in trouble in school, I’d want for him to go to the principal’s office, sit down with the counselor and sit down with myself in understanding what the issue was,” he said. “I want to be engaged. I want to be involved. I want to take that and make it a learning opportunity for myself. Parental involvement is key.”

Sosa-Sanchez said experienced educators are not only tuned in to their students’ moods, they are prepared to help students find appropriate ways to manage their emotions.

“When a student walks through your classroom door, you don’t know what’s happened to them before that. You don’t know if Mom went to work angry or Dad went to work angry,” she said. “You don’t know what they are walking through that door with. But teachers are trained to notice when children are having trouble, whether it’s anger or anxiety, and they’re trained to help children reduce those things so that they can learn.”

Rachaner said campuses have ways to help students who are struggling with anger or behavioral problems.

“A child that needs that kind of help can get it through an [individualized education program],” she said. “As a parent with a child with some special needs, I’ve found that the staff is generally about helping students with those things. If there is a bigger problem that needs to be addressed, that has to involve parents.”

Tays said the district already has procedures to attend to students who might be having outbursts.

“Our district already has plans in place that are helping our students, and it’s not taking away from math and science,” she said. “Teachers can make these observations. They can say, ‘Hey, little child, you seem like you’re angry. You brow is furrowed, you’re grinding your teeth and hitting your friend.’ Teachers can address that. They can help a child understand that we don’t hit our friends, and it doesn’t take away from the teaching.”

On teaching civil discourse through a required debate course

This question got candidates thinking out loud — and agreeing that students need to see models of civil conversation.

“If it is offered as an elective,” Tays said, “or if it doesn’t take away from our actual curriculum of learning our basics of reading and writing and our math — which everybody keeps repeating that we’re lowering our standards on, or we’re not meeting those academic standards, I would be for it. I think it’s important for our children to be able to have communication with each other.”

Rachaner agreed.

“I think that’s a fabulous idea. I agree we need more civil discourse. We need to teach kids how to have a healthy debate,” she said. “All it takes is going onto social media for about five minutes and you can see that most adults don’t even know how to have a civil debate any more.”

Sosa-Sanchez said some students might not adapt easily to a debate curriculum, but agreed there is room for education on civil discourse.

“I think any class on oral communication, speech or debate is great if you’re trying to get students to appreciate perspectives, to appreciate differences, and to understand the difference between a fact versus an opinion,” she said. “Because sometimes, yes, those opinions could get you in trouble. But when you have your facts to back it up, they know that you’ve done what you need to do in building up that confidence in being a debate speaker.”

Senne was more cautious about requiring all students to study debate, but agreed that it could teach healthy communication.

“I think doing a pilot with students might be a good idea,” she said. “So do small scale, and then see how that goes. Do some assessments and see how that goes. But civil discourse, yes, students need to be able to communicate with one another without screaming and hollering that the other person is wrong.”

Stinson agreed that students should study debate in some form.

“Our kids need to understand that they need to be able to argue sides,” he said. “And right now, people can’t take criticism. Crucial conversations in the business world do not exist. And the only way to get better, and go from good to great, is to have those fuss, cuss and fight things behind closed doors. You come out, you’re on the same page and you get things done.”