Critics of New Hampshire Education Commissioner Stay Quiet After Teacher Abortion Report

The cache of documents Edelblut recently made public includes the investigation report into a New Hampshire public school teacher who took a student to an abortion clinic during school hours – and without informing the the girl’s family. The veracity of the abortion incident has been questioned in the Boston Globe shortly after, Edelblut first mentioned it in an April editorial.

“Was this accusation proven true? He didn’t say it,” wrote the Globe’s Steven Porter. “Two days after Edelblut’s op-ed was published on the ministry’s website, officials have still not provided any additional information to support the abortion-related claims. It is unclear when and where this allegation may have been raised, who investigated it and whether it was found credible.”

Documents released by Edelblut in May clearly indicate that the abortion incident did indeed occur and was reported to the Ministry of Education. On Monday, the DOE released another document, the letter informing the teacher that a formal departmental investigation had been opened.

The teacher was later fired by the school district.

The letter released Monday said the teacher was to be investigated for code of conduct violations for “alleged failure to properly supervise and adhere to ethical standards regarding student boundary protocols.” The letter does not mention any alleged criminal conduct, such as violating the parental notification law for minors seeking an abortion.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office declines to comment on this matter and refers all questions to Edelblut’s office.

The name of the teacher, student and school district are all redacted in public records. The age of the student involved is also unknown.

Edelblut’s office declines any comment on this subject.

Contacted Monday, Porter did not directly respond whether he planned to write a follow-up to his initial article questioning whether the Edelblut abortion story actually happened.

The current conflict between Edelblut and the media began in April when NHPR published an article accusing the commissioner of using his position to wage a culture war.

“Edelblut exploited his surveillance powers to raise grievances against the public education system and, at times, against individual educators,” the left-wing media outlet claimed.

Edelblut’s op-ed, the one Porter questioned, was a defense of his work as commissioner. In it, he cites the examples of a student being called a “white supremacist” for displaying a Trump flag, an art teacher using class time to promote Black Lives Matter, and an investigation into the gender in a school that tells students that teachers will keep their gender preferences a secret. parents.

“When I took on this role in 2017, I made a commitment to focus 100% on children. Thank God someone takes care of the children,” Edelblut wrote.

All these incidents, like that of the abortion, are detailed in the May public press release.

Edelblut, a conservative Christian who homeschooled his children, has been a lightning rod for controversy since his early days as commissioner. Teachers unions were quick to accuse him of classroom interference, even taking him to court over the state’s anti-discrimination law.

Last month, a federal judge ruled that the law was too vague to be deemed constitutional and that its implementation depended too much on Edelblut’s opinions. The New Hampshire Chapter of American Teacher’s Federal and the National Educators Association of New Hampshire were both plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

However, these same unions have become scarce since the release of the report on the abortion incident and other complaints. The fired teacher was to be represented by one of the two unions operating in the state, but neither Deb Howes, president of the AFT-NH, nor Megan Tuttle, president of the NEA-NH, responded to the requests for comments.

This article was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair and unbiased reporting and analysis of political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more NH Journal articles, visit NHJournal.com.