Collier County School Board approves use of controversial textbooks

The Collier County School Board on Monday approved the use of new textbooks for the upcoming school year.

Some parents and members of the community spoke out against the books, saying they teach the tenets of critical race theory, which the state Board of Education recently banned.

The board voted Monday to deny objections from the community and ultimately approved the books they voted on back in April.

Board members maintain the new textbooks do not in any way teach critical race theory, and while they aren’t concerned about the books, they did write a letter asking the publisher if the viewpoints on their website are of third-party contributors and not the company. They also asked the publisher to change a statement that read “Black lives matter.”

The publisher answered, saying viewpoints in the blog posts don’t represent the entire company. HMH said their “Black lives matter” statement was not political and will remain on the website, a satisfactory response for the board.

Parents like David Stedman find the board’s approval of the books to be a slap in the face.

“It seems like they were determined regardless of whatever argument there was to make this decision today.”

He and other community members said they’ll continue to fight to keep ideologies out of the classroom.

The district said it opposes teaching critical race theory in classrooms.