![\"KingAndKing640\"](\"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/KingAndKing640.jpg\")
<\/a>In \u201cKing & King,\u201d a prince agrees to marry to ascend the throne. \u201cTheir search for a suitable bride extends far and wide, but none of the eligible princesses strikes the Prince\u2019s fancy, until Princess Madeleine shows up,\u201d according to School Library Journal. \u201cThe Prince is immediately smitten – with her brother, Prince Lee.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nA fable about a prince who marries another prince has brought a protester to school, parents to a public meeting and a third-grade teacher to the brink of resignation.<\/p>\n
Efland-Cheeks Elementary School will hold a second public meeting at 5:30 p.m. Friday to hear complaints about the book \u201cKing & King\u201d by Linda De Haan and Stern Nijland.<\/p>\n
Teacher Omar Currie, 25, in his second year at the school in rural western Orange County, said he read the book about three weeks ago because a boy was being bullied in his classroom. The students were studying fairy tales, and the book has been recommended for elementary school-age children, he said.<\/p>\n
Currie, a graduate of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education, where he first learned about the book, said he got the copy he read from his school\u2019s assistant principal.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, ruling on a formal complaint from a parent, a school committee upheld the use of the book. A one-page report from Principal Kiley Brown and Assistant Principal Meg Goodhand said the fractured fairy tale form of the book and its diverse subject matter met third-grade curriculum goals.<\/p>\n
Neither administrator returned phone calls. Brown declined to speak with a reporter at the school Thursday morning, saying an interview would have to be scheduled through the Orange County Schools spokesman.<\/p>\n
But Currie said the ruling from the school came with two new requirements:<\/p>\n
\u25aa\u00a0<\/span>Teachers must give parents a list of all the books they plan to read in class. Currie estimated that during a 180-day school year, he may read 500 books.<\/p>\n \u25aa\u00a0<\/span>Teachers must fill out a form for each bullying incident.<\/p>\n \u201cThose things do not show support,\u201d Currie said of the requirements. He serves on a school leadership committee and said his handling of students\u2019 behavior has never been questioned.<\/p>\n He said he now feels that he lacks support from the principal and school district and plans to resign at the end of the school year.<\/p>\n \u201cOur first and No. 1 job is to keep students safe,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure we can keep students safe when we are picking and choosing the families we represent in our school.\u201d<\/p>\n The incident began when some students started calling a boy who acts \u201ca little feminine\u201d a girl and \u201cthe term gay was used in a derogatory way,\u201d Currie said.<\/p>\n He called the school\u2019s media center, which did not have the book but referred him to Goodhand, who gave him a copy, Currie said. He read it during a read-aloud period.<\/p>\n The next day, Currie said Brown told him he should have notified parents beforehand.<\/p>\n A parent who does not have a child in Currie\u2019s class came to the school to protest the book \u2013 and Currie \u2013 last Friday. Three sheriff\u2019s deputies were present as a precaution, Sheriff Charles Blackwood said. The man exited the school but carried a protest sign along a nearby road.<\/p>\n Currie said administrators pulled him out of his classroom to tell him about the man. A short time later, he said, officials told him and another teacher who had taken their students outside for recess to come back indoors.<\/p>\n \u201cHere I am with my children and we\u2019re running back into the building,\u201d Currie said. \u201cThat moment was very scary for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Frederick McAdoo, 53, who attended the school in the late 1960s, has put three children through Efland-Cheeks. He saw the man with the sign on the road last week.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t fit in,\u201d McAdoo said of reading a tale featuring gay characters to third-graders.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople have been gay for years. People have been lesbian for years,\u201d the retired power company worker said Thursday. \u201cBut why (does) a third-grader needs to know about that?\u201d<\/p>\n Matthew Roberts, who has had two sons taught by Currie, said he supports the reading of the book.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t remember any sexual language in the book,\u201d said Roberts, 57. \u201cIt dealt openly and very sensitively with two men getting married. … We have to be accepting of different lifestyles,\u201d he said. \u201cAs America has evolved, what used to be inappropriate is not inappropriate anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n The school system has received three formal complaints about the book, Orange County Schools spokesman Seth Stephens said.<\/p>\n The first complaint led to a public meeting May 6, which about 30 people attended, Stephens said.<\/p>\n The second and third complaints triggered Friday\u2019s public meeting at the school, which Stephens said will likely draw a bigger crowd.<\/p>\n \u201cParents are very much involved in this issue,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s gotten the attention of a lot of folks.\u201d<\/p>\n Currie said several students at Efland-Cheeks have two moms or two dads.<\/p>\n The bullying in his classroom stopped after he read the book, he added, and the boy who had been called names told the school\u2019s literacy specialist how much he liked it.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he probably felt reassurred (sic) for the first time that he was okay just the way he was,\u201d the specialist wrote in an email to Currie.<\/p>\n Currie said the reaction to the book caught him off guard. \u201cI figured there might be one or two families that might object to the content,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I thought we would have a conversation about it.\u201d<\/p>\n As for his students, he said three or four of the 24 he teaches expressed some discomfort with the story of two men getting married.<\/p>\n \u201cI said it\u2019s totally fine that you are uncomfortable with that,\u201d he said. \u201cWhenever you have something new come to you, it\u2019s OK to feel uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n But now it\u2019s Currie who feels uncomfortable.<\/p>\n \u201cAt this point it\u2019s extremely difficult to continue the work I want to do at Efland,\u201d he said. \u201cI worry that my presence at Efland is not what\u2019s best for the children. … My kids are talking about it (the controversy), and we have to buckle down and focus.\u201d<\/p>\n Video below recorded some of the meeting in which “dozens of community members converged on Efland-Cheeks Elementary School Friday evening to sound off on a controversial children’s book read in the classroom.<\/em>”<\/p>\n http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/video\/controversy-over-gay-themed-book-020202023.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gay fable draws complaints at Orange County elementary school BY MARK SCHULTZ The Charlotte Observer In \u201cKing & King,\u201d a prince agrees to marry to ascend the throne. \u201cTheir search for a suitable bride extends far and wide, but none … Continue reading How it started<\/h3>\n
Parents disagree<\/h3>\n
Teacher plans to resign<\/h3>\n