No violation by WSFCS teacher who invited NOI speaker to class

A Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools teacher says she has
been cleared of wrongdoing following a district investigation into a visit by a
representative of the Nation of Islam representative to her special education English
class at North Forsyth High School.

Miranda Jones said she met with her principal, along with
Instructional Superintendent Lionel Kato and General Counsel Dionne Jenkins.

“They were very clear that I didn’t violate any policy,”
Jones told Triad City Beat, adding
that she will voluntarily leave her teaching position at the end of the school year.

The investigation came about after the conservative website First In Freedom Daily posted an anonymously-penned article about student minister Effrainguan Muhammad’s visit to Jones’ class. Jones has attracted public attention through media interviews in her role as an antiracist activist with Hate Out of Winston, a group supporting the city of Winston-Salem’s decision to remove the Confederate monument. Separately from the controversy created by the First In Freedom Daily article, Jones faces a subpoena by the United Daughters of the Confederacy to testify in the group’s civil case seeking the restoration of the monument.

“They said, ‘You have impeccable lesson plans, you’re a
skilled teacher, but sometimes your passion gets in the way. We don’t believe
you’re anti-Semitic. We don’t believe you’re racist,’” Jones said of her
meeting with her principal, instructional superintendent and the district’s
general counsel. “They said there was a flurry of activity around the article,
and it was disruptive to the school environment, although nobody has come to
the school to disrupt it that I’m aware of.”

Many of the comments on the First In Freedom Daily Facebook
post sharing the article promote violence, including two calling for Jones to
be shot.

Jones recalled that Kato told her that “some people feel
that the Nation of Islam is a racist and anti-Semitic organization,” adding
that “this is a conservative district.”

“I can only interpret that as a ‘white supremacist’
district,” Jones said.

Chief Marketing & Communications Officer Brent Campbell
said the district cannot comment on the matter because it involves personnel.

Jones said Jenkins told her that although she didn’t do
anything wrong, the district will create a policy going forward to cover classroom
visits by guest speakers. Jones said she’d already requested permission to
bring in Larry Little and Hazel Mack, two former leaders of the Winston-Salem
Black Panther Party, along with Rev. Paul Robeson Ford and the Rev. Alvin
Carlisle, president of the Winston-Salem NAACP, while expressing frustration
that the district has been slow to process the requests.

“It’s a way to shut out powerful black voices that speak on
behalf of black students,” Jones said.

Jones said the invited guest were selected because their
experiences are likely to be relevant to her students, who include 10
African-American males, two Latinx males and one Latinx female. Some of her
students are facing criminal charges and homelessness, or have parents who are
incarcerated.

Jones said the administration created a lesson plan and
curriculum guideline that she believes does not allow her to meet the
educational needs of her black students, and she’s determined that she will
finish out the school year, and then find another job.

“My heart is heavy because I truly love black children and I
know I have too much to offer, just not here,” Jones posted on her Facebook
page on Tuesday.

Jones told TCB that
she’s been challenging her principal for more than a year over exclusively
using black and brown children with disabilities to handle recycling duties,
and that the practice has remained unchanged.

“It is clear that Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools is
mired in white supremacy,” Jones said.