The controversy over Manchester School District’s use of DEI materials in middle school — and a school administrator urging teachers to hide them — continues to roil the Queen City.
But while parents and elected Republicans are denouncing the race-based “Wheel of Power and Privilege” materials on microaggressions, some Granite State Democrats are defending the curricula and the school district.
NHJournal first broke the story of the email from Amadou Hamady Sy, the Manchester School District’s executive director of Student Engagement, Outcomes and Success, to teachers and staff “reminding” them to “refrain from sharing any training materials, especially presentation slides, surveys, facilitator guides, or discussion content with students or external parties. These resources were designed strictly for internal staff development purposes.”
The reason, Hamady said, was the “current political climate and heightened scrutiny around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work.”
State Rep. Erin Kerwin (D-Manchester), responding to an email complaining about the DEI materials, defended the DEI instruction.
“After reviewing the lesson plan and the information you sent, I want to be honest with you: I respectfully disagree with your assessment,” Kerwin wrote. “I believe that learning about microaggressions and understanding the experiences of people from different backgrounds is an important and necessary part of education today.
“Addressing difficult topics like bias and discrimination is not about creating division: it’s about fostering understanding and preparing our young people to work and lead in a diverse society,” Kerwin added.
DEI ideology is based on the theory that White people are inherently racist, regardless of their actions, attitudes, or beliefs. It also teaches that all White people — even those born in poverty — have cultural privilege in America that gives them more social power than affluent people of color.
State Sen. Victoria Sullivan (R-Manchester), who first turned the spotlight on the materials, has filed a right-to-know request regarding the instructional training the district has paid for over the past two budget years.
The incident echoes the 2021 controversy when the district was caught mandating “white privilege” training, including materials declaring “whiteness a pillar of white supremacy”, as part of its DEI efforts. After NHJournal published the details, the district reversed course and withdrew the mandate.
The previous mayor, Joyce Craig (D), supported race-based training and curricula in Manchester schools. The current mayor, however, does not.
“While I cannot comment on personnel matters, on a broader level, I firmly believe there is no place for these types of materials in the classroom,” Mayor Jay Ruais, a Republican, told NHJournal. “This is unacceptable and not what should be taking place in our schools. I’ve made it clear that it is my expectation that this will not happen again.”
Manchester Democratic state Rep. Christine Seibert mocked Sullivan and others for their concerns over these materials.
“Oh no! A lesson aimed at making kids aware of how the things they say might affect others? What blasphemy!” she posted on social media. “Go busy yourself with actual issues affecting Manchester and its citizens.”
Defenders of the school system also point to the district’s statement that the materials were designed for teachers only and that releasing them to students was a mistake. But critics like House Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R-Auburn) want to know why a public school district would have training materials it has to hide from the public.
“Republicans are shocked but not surprised that the Manchester School District is trying to hide its curriculum from public view,” Osborne said in a statement.
Ruais shares that concern about transparency.
“As I’ve consistently stated, parents have a right to know what is going on in their child’s school, and nothing should come between a loving parent and their child,” Ruais said.
“This newest incident is yet another example of their disdain for parents who inquire about their own children. It is clear, the only DEI that the Manchester School District is focused on is ‘disdain, exclusion, and intimidation’ against parents and students.”
And, added Osborne, the district’s behavior demonstrates the need for “the wildly popular Education Freedom Accounts to put education back on track.
“Transparency is of the utmost importance, and if Manchester Schools are refusing to provide that, then parents deserve the ability to send their student to another school that will.”
