According to The Washington Post, English teacher Mary Wood was accused of breaking a state statute that forbids teachers from making their pupils "feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress" due to their race.
(Pictured Above: Author Te-Nehisi Coates)
One student in particular called Coates' book "reading hate propaganda towards white people," and another claimed it made them feel "ashamed to be Caucasian."
She was then told to stop teaching Coates' work immediately and was handed an official letter of reprimand.
For some parents in the district, though, this wasn't sufficient, and they showed out to school board meetings to demand Wood's dismissal.
Wood is reportedly experiencing a chilling effect that makes her hesitant to teach any lessons that can be seen as controversial even though she is still employed by her school, according to the Post.
According to the Post, "For Wood, teaching authentically means introducing students in her lakeside town to writers like Coates - voices unfamiliar, even unsettling." However, in light of what transpired the previous year, Wood was suddenly concerned that anything, from the most provocative essay to the least intriguing statement about her weekend, may be rejected, recorded, and reported by the students she was supposed to be instructing.
The article goes on to describe how astonished Wood was by the attacks considering that she was instructing high school students in an upper credit English course and wasn't promoting Coates' writing to oblivious kindergarteners.