Heated debate at Board of Education meeting

ALPENA, Mich. — Public comments got heated during Monday night’s Board of Education meeting.

Many Alpena residents argued against the teaching of critical race theory in Alpena schools. Other speakers countered that CRT is a college–level theory nobody teaches at the k–12 level. One parent said the desire of other parents to remove controversial subjects from the curriculum concerned her.

“It’s really, really terrifying to me to hear someone say the simpler we keep it at school, the better. How are we going to prepare our kids for going out into the world and dealing with what’s actually happening?”

Many members of Alpena’s LGBT community spoke up as well.

They advocated for a sex and gender identity non–discrimination policy and greater protections for LGBT students