Public commenters press board on religious invocations and student-data privacy

CATAWBA COUNTY, N.C. — Public comment at the Catawba County Board of Education's March 23 meeting included a challenge to the board's invocation policy and concerns about student data collection through educational apps.

Lawrence Wiedemann, a public commenter, told the board that policy 2.315 and the board's practice of allowing invocations at meetings "has established as part of this government function a religious invocation. This is a black and white violation of the constitution," and urged officials to reconsider the practice. The board did not take action on the complaint during the meeting.

Charlie Shepherd, another commenter, listed several education apps by name and said he was worried third parties and AI-based services were "turning our kids into data mines" and collecting sensitive information about students. The chairman asked Shepherd to email the list of apps to the district so staff could review them; Shepherd said he would provide the list.

Earlier in public comment, Kyla Little, an arts advocate with Arts Culture Catawba, gave a testimonial about how school theater programs affected her life and urged continued district support for arts and cultural programming.

The district did not announce formal policy changes at the meeting. Board staff acknowledged the comments and requested documentation from the speakers to inform staff review. The invocation complaint and the app-privacy concerns were raised during public comment and remain open items for potential follow-up by the board and district staff.

(Reporting in this article is based on the board's March 23, 2026 meeting public-comment record.)