Updated at 5:21 p.m. Aug. 30.
An Irasburg Village School teacher last week asked Grade 8 students to introduce themselves using their pronouns, preferred names and interests in a humanities class discussing identity.
A parent of a student in that class allegedly took exception and posted on social media that his son “was pressured to share his pronouns and so were all other individuals” in the class.
State Sen. Russell Ingalls, R-Essex/Orleans, shared that post on Facebook Thursday, and published teacher Sam Carbonetti’s email address for people to contact about their concerns.
“It is personal, privileged information that someone shouldn’t be forced to be part of in a classroom setting,” Ingalls told VTDigger on Sunday.
Carbonetti then tweeted on Sunday: “I got doxxed by a VT State Senator for giving my students the OPTION to introduce themselves to me and the class w/ their preferred name, pronouns, favorite subject, and hobbies,” and claimed anti-equity people are calling for his job on his first week back in school.
Doxxing refers to the act of publishing private or identifying information about a person online without the person’s permission.
He deferred comments to the district superintendent.
Penny Chamberlin, who for the past two months has served as superintendent of the Orleans Central Supervisory Union, which includes Irasburg, said school officials have not received any complaints about the class or the teacher this week.
“I just wish that if someone had a concern about what was being taught in a classroom, they would reach out directly to the teacher and have that more organic and holistic conversation, versus trying to, you know, bash people and put people down through social media,” she said on Sunday. “It’s really unfortunate. To think that [critical race theory] is outrunning Covid concerns right now is very concerning for me.”
Ben Morley, the parent whose post Ingalls said he shared, did not respond to a request for comment.
As Carbonetti’s Twitter post went viral on Sunday, Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, D-Windham, weighed in, calling Ingalls’ behavior “abhorrent.”
As a parent and a former teacher, Balint later told VTDigger, she is always uncomfortable when a parent is speaking for a student or when a parent posts online “without talking to either the teacher, the school or the district.”
Having read the Facebook post shared by Ingalls and without yet knowing all sides of the story, Balint said it all seems “highly improper” but she plans to look into it to “determine whether any Senate rules or decorum have been breached.”
She said she intends to find out “to what extent has someone in my chamber been encouraging people to basically reach out in a threatening way to a constituent — he may be a teacher in school, but also a constituent.”
Ingalls, who has helped organize forums to discuss “critical race theory” and oppose discussion of structural racism in public schools, told VTDigger that’s just what happened in this class, without the permission of parents.
“Why does that need to be a part of a teaching curriculum? That is our concern, my concern. That has no business being in school, none whatsoever,” Ingalls said. “That shouldn’t be a decision made by one teacher.”
He said he had not reached out to the teacher or the school district as of Sunday. He plans to organize another community forum in mid-September, this time in Derby.
Educators in Vermont — including those who encourage conversations about politics, equity and identity in the classroom — say they are not explicitly or intentionally teaching critical race theory.
What’s debated as “critical race theory” in the context of K-12 schools is often mislabeled, or misused, as a catch-all term in the cultural conflict over school materials.
The American Bar Association describes critical race theory as “a practice of interrogating the role of race and racism in society that emerged in the legal academy.” It analyzes how racism is embedded in large social institutions, regardless of acts by any singular person.
Ingalls disagrees.
“They all say they are not teaching critical race theory but they are teaching everything that is in critical race theory, so they don’t call it critical race theory,” Ingalls said. “So, yeah, I do believe it’s just a part of what teachers should not be teaching. It’s really none of their business as far as what that student identifies with.”
If students’ identities become an issue in school, teachers need to discuss it with parents one-on-one, he said, and ask them what pronouns the students want them to use. “But you don’t embarrass these kids by making them be part of something” in class, he said.
Eight weeks on the job, Chamberlin said she heard about this incident from a member of the school community who saw the Facebook post online. Carbonetti reached out to her soon after.
She said she understands that students were given the option not to share the information if they chose not to, and that it was part of a relationship-building exercise in school. “No one was pressured,” she said, and it is not CRT.
As for rumors circulating online about Carbonetti being reprimanded or fired, “none of them are true,” she said.
“I know he has a very positive track record in school and a very strong, positive rapport with both his colleagues and his students and that’s all I’ve heard,” she said. “He’s an excellent teacher and deserves all the support that we can provide him.”
Having an eighth-grader in school and having taught middle school herself, Balint said, “when structured correctly, these kinds of activities can be incredible learning experiences for kids.”
While she has not heard from him on this latest incident in the Irasburg Village School classroom, Chamberlin said she has in the past asked Morley to attend the school equity hearings and to open up his Facebook page so the community can engage with him.
On his semiprivate Facebook page, Morley has shared multiple times an online petition to “get control of our public schools by dismantling the Equity Committee.”
The social media posts continue to be populated with comments that run the gamut from people upset that a teacher asked eighth-graders about their gender identity and calling for him to be fired to those who see nothing wrong with what happened, including a parent who said her daughter “appreciated her teachers asking her which pronouns she prefers. She felt it was respectful and allowed her to feel more comfortable with her teachers.”
Many asked Carbonetti on Twitter how they can support him and the school too.
Chamberlin said she is stunned this is what people are preoccupied with as school reopens in the middle of a continuing pandemic. She urges people to engage directly with the schools.
“Instead of bashing people constantly, I wish they would step up and step in the door and look at what’s actually being done and not have these assumptions run wild,” she said, “because opening school right now is extremely difficult and very challenging with Covid and not knowing where the cases are going to go and how it’s going to impact the schools.”
Reopening school as Delta variant cases spike has the stress level of teachers in school running “quite high.” That’s why she decided to shield teachers from responding to this incident and to take the brunt of it herself, she added.
“You know that’s where we are focusing our energy — to keep kids safe.”
Clarification: The description of VTDigger’s attempt to reach Ben Morley has been clarified.
