Three candidates are running for three open spots on Chelsea School District’s Board of Education.

As the November election approaches, three candidates are running to fill the three available seats on Chelsea’s Board of Education. To help voters understand their positions on key issues such as curriculum and budget priorities, Sun Times News sent five questions to each candidate. Below are Dr. Erin Hunt-Carter’s responses to two of the five questions. Additional questions will be covered in next week’s issue. Candidates Heidi Reyst and Sara Tracy did not submit responses.

Q: School safety is a significant concern nationwide with yet another school shooting in Georgia. How do you plan to strengthen or revise Chelsea’s safety protocols to ensure a secure learning environment for students and staff?

Erin Hunt-Carter
I am heartbroken and incandescently angry that my children have grown up with the fear of school shootings as a constant reality. School safety is one of my highest priorities. To that end, I supported Superintendent Kapolka in creating the new Director of Safety and Security position. I also supported his decision to hire Mr. Doug Whitsel for this role at the beginning of the school year. I credit Mr. Kapolka for the work he put into creating and filling this position, as well as his patience and responsiveness to my many questions during this process.

As a parent, I was initially unaware of many of the proactive measures our district has already implemented to protect student safety. In the coming months, I will work to learn more about how our district responds to emergencies. I will also advocate for additional resources to prevent violence and ensure the safety of students and staff in the event of an active threat.

We must continue to take a multifaceted approach to preventing school violence. This includes physical measures, such as building security; social-emotional measures, like providing adequate mental health resources; and proactive training for both students and staff. Coordination with the Chelsea Police Department and community engagement are also essential. In that spirit, I strongly encourage anyone reading this to ensure that any firearms they own are securely stored. I grew up with parents who were extremely responsible gun owners. If every family took the same precautions they did to store firearms securely, thousands of lives would be saved. Free trigger locks are available through Project ChildSafe in conjunction with local and Michigan State Police departments and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Q. With ongoing debates over censorship and curriculum content, including race, gender, and history education, how will you ensure that Chelsea’s curriculum is inclusive and representative of all students’ backgrounds?

Erin Hunt-Carter
We are living in remarkable times! Our ancestors would be astonished by the wealth of knowledge we can access with just a few taps on a screen. Unfortunately, the reliability of that information is often difficult to evaluate. Any discussion around content and censorship must also include the importance of teaching students media literacy. Students must be taught how to find reliable sources and assess their quality. Over a decade of teaching at the university level has shown me that these are skills many adults find challenging. In the future, our students are more likely to struggle with misinformation and low-quality information than with issues related to simple censorship.

That being said, I am firmly against censoring or softening accurate scientific and historical information. I taught my kids the value of honesty. I expect them to tell me the truth, and I expect our teachers to tell our kids the truth. They deserve accurate information presented in an age-appropriate manner. We do not help our children by minimizing, altering, or omitting difficult content. This is particularly relevant to teaching history. For instance, they need to understand the horrific reality of the transatlantic slave trade and how the moral rot of slavery has shaped American history from its inception to the present day. They need to know that the Holocaust was real. Nobody feels good learning about these topics, but we do students a grave disservice by opting for comfort over truth.

Our students deserve access to books and materials appropriate for their reading level, personal interests, and educational needs. They deserve to see themselves and their families represented in these reading materials. They also deserve to learn about people, places, and ideas that are very different from their own. For these reasons, our curricula and educational materials must address topics like the historical challenges and achievements of people of color, women, and LGBTQ+ folks.  I will always support variety and diversity in the educational content presented to our children.