Prepared by activist high schools, North Carolina students arrive at college ready to protest

As the school year draws to a close, many who have observed the anti-American/pro-Hamas agitators on campus are wondering how did this happen? Why are University of North Carolina students setting up tent encampments, occupying buildings, and knocking on doors to shout their demands? Students haven’t demonstrated openly like this since the 1960s.

The seeds of unrest may be sown by the North Carolina Association of Education (NCAE), which proclaims, “We must dismantle unjust systems.” And by “unjust system” they seem to mean anything that doesn’t fit with the most recent progressive trend. While allowing students to express themselves is important, schools that allow or even encourage major disruptions to the school day (such as walkouts and rallies) for radical causes should instead focus on improving state reading and math scores.

This type of thinking, frequently encouraged by teachers and administrators, may have led students at Carrboro High School to place a “Do-It-Yourself Crafts Guide” in their school library. On its cover is a crowbar. He teaches students how to bypass alarm systems and safes, how to use angle grinders and bolt cutters, and how to bring “a mass of bodies into a building,” thereby removing a space “from the landscape capitalist.” Fortunately, pressure from parents led to the guide’s dismissal.

Protests are actively encouraged in Chapel Hill/Carrboro City schools because “action for social justice” is one of their five core values. This school system borders the UNC campus. The momentum of protest, however, goes beyond the framework of the UNC and seems to be accelerating.

For example, in May 2022, students from Madison Early College High School in Asheville went to protest in front of Madison High School against the overthrow of Roe v. Wade. The same month, hundreds of students at Carrboro High School walked out of class to protest the same issue, and approximately 250 to 300 students walked off campus, missing half a day of classes. Shortly after, students at Durham’s Riverside High School walked out of class to protest the law’s rollback. Roe v. Wade and in favor of gun control.

In 2023, students participated in a national school strike in response to school shootings. Students at Guilford County high schools, including Grimsley High, demonstrated in support of gun reform. In Charlotte, students at Garringer High School also walked out of class to protest “gun violence.”

In January of this year, students at Spotswood High School in Rockingham County walked out following the temporary removal of 57 books from the library shelves.

Protests also occurred frequently in response to issues related to human rights and international wars. It would therefore make sense for students to protest against China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims, the oppression of women in Islamic countries or the wars in Ukraine, Syria or Yemen. This is not the case. Instead, after the terrorist organization Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, students came out to protest – in the name of Hamas.

In December 2023, students at Wakefield High School in Raleigh organized a “Rally for Justice” for “Palestine and other countries.” When parents and the community expressed concerns about the inherent ignorance and anti-Semitism that would be promulgated by such an event, Allison Shafer, general counsel for the State Board of Education, said that “neither Neither the State Board of Education nor the State Superintendent has the authority to intervene. in local cases like this” because of “U.S. Supreme Court case law that makes clear that students “do not give up their right to free speech at the school gate” .

Just after the rally, an attendee from Wakefield told Jewish students “maybe we should bring Hitler back.” When a complaint was made, the principal responded that students had the right to express their opinions.

In February 2024, Carrboro High School students walked out of school chanting “Stop the genocide” and repeating other Hamas arguments. They were joined by students from Chapel Hill High School.

In March, when a Durham teacher did not return to school after a photo showed her in front of a “Palestinian” flag in her classroom, students staged a walkout to protest her absence. They held signs reading “Liberate Palestine” and “End the Occupation,” proof of their anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic indoctrination.

These protests are intimidating to students who may not agree with the agenda or simply want to focus on their studies. Protests are often a manifestation of poor education. Many of these actions encourage hatred of Jews. Regardless, this type of activism results in the protests and encampments we see at UNC, across the state, and beyond.

Although student protests will subside over the summer, all indications are that they will return in force this fall, unless there is a change in leadership. Reforms are needed at several levels, from the Ministry of Education to school principals. Political activism is no substitute for academic integrity. It is time to return our schools to their primary mission: education. Otherwise, our young people and society will lose.