SC School Board Candidates Fund Mailers Attacking Local Teacher

English teacher Mary Wood made national headlines last year when students in her AP Language and Composition class complained that she was teaching Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, and that by doing so she was somehow violating a vague proviso based on a defunct Trump administration Executive Order, which has was originally introduced by members of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus. The proviso, which uses language originally intended to prevent federal employees from being required to complete diversity training, has been renewed for the past several years in the state budget.

While the book has not yet been banned statewide in South Carolina, Lexington- Richland School District 5 took the controversial step of prohibiting Wood from using it last year— and did so without following the formal process the district had set up for considering book challenges from community members.

As Coates himself summarizes Woods’ experiences in his new book The Message,

She was a teacher in South Carolina who had been forced to drop Between the World and Me from her lesson plan because it made some of her students, in their words, “feel uncomfortable” and “ashamed to be Caucasian”. Moreover, they were sure that the very subject of the book— “systemic racism”— was “illegal”….

I tracked down Mary’s number. We spoke for about half an hour. She talked about the whole ordeal— the paranoia incited by anonymous complaints; the school board meetings, where she was pilloried; the threats to her job.

This week, the Ohio-based Super PAC Defeating Communism sent out mailers in the district supporting three Lexington-Richland 5 school board candidates: Jason Baynham, incumbent Catherine Huddle, and former board member Ken Loveless (who has most recently been in the news for ethics fines related to conflicts of interest during his last term on the school board).

The mailers included Wood’s name and image, and connected her ominously with the idea that “CONTROVERSY IS REARING AROUND OUR SCHOOLS”.

An image of the mailer has been shared widely on social media. There are two versions: one featuring Loveless and Huddle on the reverse side, and one featuring Baynham. All three candidates have claimed that had no involvement in the mailer, though Loveless and Baynham have acknowledged donating to the super PAC that created them.

Wood and her family are now again concerned for their safety.

“Everyone should know what has happened, the dangers they have placed not only on me and my family, but on my colleagues and the students at the schools in this district,” Wood said today in a group message among public education supporters.

Across the country, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, threats against teachers, librarians, and other school staff have increased. Louisiana librarian Amanda Jones begins her book That Librarian, with a representative message she received for maintaining a diverse library collection:

Amanda, you are indoctrinating our children with perversion + pedophilia grooming. Your evil agenda is getting print + national coverage. Congrats. Continue with your LGBT agenda on our children cause we gunna put ur fat evil commie PEDO azz in the dirt very soon bitch. You can’t hide. We know where you work + live… you have a LARGE target on your back. Click, click… see you soon…

School board groups like the National School Boards Association were so concerned with the growing threats to school staff and contentiousness and even violence at school board meetings that in 2021 they asked for federal assistance. (In response to the NSBA’s please, local politicians successfully pressured the South Carolina School Boards Association to break from the national organization.)

It seems, then, that much of the backlash against the mailers is based on a genuine concern for the safety of Wood and other school staff, as well as that of their families.

The candidates deny responsibility, but Baynham and Loveless acknowledge donations.

According to a Federal Election Commission filing, Baynham donated $1,000 to the Super PAC, and someone donated $14,000 under the name of Loveless’ wife.

A page from the FEC filing shows the donations made by two Lexington-Richland 5 school board candidates to the Defeating Communism super PAC.

Today, after backlash online, all three candidates released statements denying responsibility for the content of the mailers. Loveless and Baynham each acknowledged they had made contributions to the super PAC responsible for the mailers.

In a Facebook post today, Loveless shifted responsibility for the mailers entirely to the super PAC, thought he acknowledged that “a donation was made to an organization that was getting involved in the elections”. Filings show that donation was made in the name of Loveless’ wife, in the amount of $14,000.

In a similar Facebook post, Baynham similarly placed blame for the mailers on the super PAC, while acknowledging he had “contributed to an organization to help my campaign”.

Huddle, who is not on record as having donated to the super PAC, denied connection with the mailers in a short statement.

None of the statements today mentioned Wood by name, or expressed regret that their donations had been used to attack a teacher who was, notably, not a candidate for office, but a current employee of the district they were campaigning to oversee.

Although Loveless and Baynham both suggested they would have been prohibited from speaking with the super PAC, actual FEC rules governing candidate coordination with super PACs are considerably looser in the wake of the Citizens United court decision.

According to the Brennan Center, candidates can and often do speak with super PACs, and there are loopholes that may even allow for some unofficial coordination between candidates and super PACs. (It is also much more difficult to know what super PACs are up to, since many of their donors do not have to be disclosed, so even if a candidate isn’t, themselves, working directly with the super PAC, others close to the candidate might do so.) Similarly, ProPublica explains that “So long as candidates and Super PACs don’t discuss the particulars of their election spending — such as exactly where or how long their election ads will run — they’re free to discuss strategy and candidates can even help fundraise.”

Indeed, the FEC filing for Defeating Communism shows that the only donations from individuals reported during the period that references the candidates are from Loveless and Baynham; the remaining $18,000 in donations comes from “other political committees (such as PACs)”. Those donations seem to have come from the Advance Liberty PAC (which, according to an analysis by Open Secrets, primarily targets the construction and energy sectors).

Huddle, for her part, donated over $300 to Loveless’ campaign this cycle according to state ethics reports; Loveless donated a roughly identical amount to Huddle’s campaign; Loveless Commercial Contracting (the business involved in Loveless’s ethics fine during his last term) donated an additional $500 to Huddle’s campaign. Huddle also received a $1000 donation from a PAC affiliated with Florida governor Ron DeSantis (Great American Comeback).

As of this writing, none of the candidates have responded to requests for comment sent to their official campaign websites this morning.

Scott Herring, a music professor, and Mike Ward, an entrepreneur, are also running for seats on the board.

This piece will be updated if any of the candidates respond to requests for comment.