By The Yemeni American News
The topic of banning explicit books in school districts has now made its way to Hamtramck.
Nabil Nagi, who is the interim Superintendent for Hamtramck Public Schools released a statement on Friday, November 4th addressing this matter.
In the statement Mr. Nagi talked about how he and the school board members go through a “vetting and approval process” where they collectively review any of the materials used for the instruction to their students.
Mr. Nagi also addressed the allegations that were made towards the district which suggested that he and the board members allowed certain explicit books within their schools.
The full statement from Mr. Nagi is below:
November 4, 2022
Dear Hamtramck Public Schools Community,
The Board of Education, the administrators and the staff of Hamtramck Public Schools are focused on supporting our students and teachers in a safe and healthy learning environment. To that end, we always and collectively review any materials used for the instruction of our students or to which we provide our students access and any materials recommended through that process ultimately must be approved by the Board of Education.
Today we were made aware of posts on social media indicating the District has approved certain materials for our students that contain inappropriate language, images, and concepts that are inappropriate for our students. These posts purport to quote or depict images from these materials.
As stated above, Hamtramck Public Schools has a vetting and approval process for the review and approval of instructional materials for their appropriateness before they are provided to our students. We have investigated these posts and the material they reference in order to respond to them with actual fact.
That investigation has revealed that none of the material these posts have complained about and allege have been made available to our students have in fact been reviewed or approved. While we can understand community concern over what should and should not be made available to our students and while we welcome the voicing of those concerns, we should all be disappointed when unfounded accusations and allegations are made which basic inquiry and research could have prevented.
As a community we must work together because we share the same focus. That is to support all our students and staff. Together we will work to ensure that our children and our teachers are in a positive learning environment. We cannot do anything alone, nor can we do things as separate entities. We need to all work together. Correcting misinformation about our schools and its processes is a necessary part of that work.
Thank you in advance to our community members who are engaged in supporting our efforts in creating a safe learning environment for our staff and students. We want to assure our community that the District does have a rigorous process for vetting all materials used to educate and inform our students and we welcome input from the community in this regard.
Respectfully,
Nabil Nagi
Interim Superintendent
On behalf of Hamtramck Public Schools
