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Parent urges Pennridge to restore books and SEL removed under earlier curriculum changes
Summary
A parent said the district’s earlier curriculum changes removed books including Tears for a Tiger and elements of social‑emotional learning; she said that omission reduces students’ access to conversations about depression and suicide and announced she will opt her child out of ‘Vermillion’ curriculum.
During the student services public comment period, Laura Foster identified herself as a parent from East Rock Hill and urged the district to restore books and social‑emotional learning (SEL) materials she said were removed previously under what she called the "Vermillion" curriculum changes.
Foster said her seventh‑grade child’s ELA class lacked the book Tears for a Tiger, which she said had been removed. "This is completely Jordan Adams taking this out to whitewash our realist curriculum so that we don't have to talk about things like depression and suicide and to to remove SEL," she said. Foster said the replacement reading focused on football and career/technical education and that parent presentations about mental health do not substitute for SEL integrated into classroom instruction.
Foster said she would opt her child out of the district’s "Vermillion curriculum" and that she has archived the opt‑out paperwork she believes was used previously. She also said teachers she spoke with at a back‑to‑school night called Tears for a Tiger a "good book" and said they were disappointed it had not been returned to the curriculum.
What the district said at the meeting
The comment occurred during public comment; no administration response was recorded in the committee excerpts. The remaining public comment was noted as occurring after the end of the committee meeting.
Ending
Foster concluded her remarks by asking the named administrator (Bradley) to address the opt‑out procedures and said she would make her archived materials available to staff.
