Article a 'hit job'

Editor, Gettysburg Times,

The article in Saturday’s Times by Harry Hartman [“Adams County Moms for Liberty ‘here for the children’,” Saturday August 31] was a disgrace. The story is basically a press release for a rightwing organization seeking to bring the battle over “critical race theory” to Gettysburg. Mr. Hartman should know that the job of journalists is to provide balanced, contextualized reporting of current events, not to pass on propaganda from ideological extremists. He should assign a real reporter to write a story correcting the misimpressions conveyed in this article.

The article stooped lowest when it slandered one of the Gettysburg’s best teachers, Alisha Sanders. The article attacked Ms. Sanders for signing a petition that the article claims pledges to “teach CRT and the 1619 Project regardless of whether it is part of approved [sic] curriculum.” This is patently false. The petition criticizes efforts to dictate the way teachers teach about race in the public schools, ending with “We the undersigned educators will not be bullied. We will continue our commitment to develop critical thinking that supports students to better understand problems in our society, and to develop collective solutions to those problems. We are for truth-telling and uplifting the power of organizing and solidarity that move us toward a more just society.” The signatories do not pledge to teach CRT or the 1619 Project, nor to disregard the district’s approved curriculum. They pledge to teach the truth, which is exactly what we should expect from all our teachers.

Not surprisingly given the overall quality of this article, Mr. Hartman did not contact Ms. Sanders to verify the charges against her or to get her side of the story. And it got her name wrong. Most telling, in attacking Ms. Sanders the article singled out the only Black teacher in the Gettysburg Area School District. I’m sure that Mr. Hartman and Moms for Liberty will claim that they have not a racist bone in their bodies, but attacking the only Black teacher in the school district while calling for less honest teaching of race in the schools sure is a bad look.

Gettysburg needs more honest discussion of race in our schools, not less. Our children need more teachers of color, and those teachers need to be treated with respect. Readers of the Gettysburg Times deserve real journalism, not puff pieces and hit jobs. And Alisha Sanders deserves an apology.

Charles Weise,
Gettysburg