Greenfield teacher fired for teaching Critical Race Theory was involved in 1991 Jasper textbook controversy

A Greenfield High School teacher who was fired for allegedly teaching Critical Race Theory in her classes was involved in a similar controversy 31 years ago when she was teaching English at Jasper High School.

Original post: Greenfield R-4 School District fires teacher who allegedly taught Critical Race Theory.

In 1991, the Jasper R-5 Board of Education voted unanimously to remove a McGraw-Hill textbook, The Writer's Resource: Readings for Composition, that was being used in the English IV college prep class because of language that offended some parents.

The teacher of that class, Kim Morrison, had contacted all parents beforehand letting them know that the book contained language she did not condone and asked any parents with concerns to contact her.

Not one parent contacted her. As is often the case, they went directly over her head to school board members.

Some Jasper parents and students fought unsuccessfully against removal of the book. 

A McGraw-Hill official told the Joplin Globe that not only was it the first time a school district had voted to remove the book, it was also the first time the company had ever received any complaints about it.

During the board meeting, a board member held up the book and said, "This is poison. This has no business ever getting in a classroom. Our kids shouldn't have to face that."

Thankfully, the next year, the 11 "kids" in that class, some of whom briefly considered a legal challenge to the board's decision, were in college where they never had to encounter anything offensive in their books.

That controversy did not cost Kim Morrison her job, though she did not return to the Jasper school district the following year.

At Greenfield this year, parental complaints about her teaching Critical Race Theory (she wasn't) led to a split vote that resulted in her contract not being renewed for next year.

According to Morrison, none of those complaints came from the parents of the students in her classroom.

From the Greenfield Vedette:

"I was told then by the principal that there had been some parents' complaints," said Morrison. "She told me that she didn't feel comfortable telling who, but she did confirm that none of them had students in the class." 

(The post originally said the board president held up the book and said it was poison. The post has been corrected to reflect it was a board member, not the board president.)