Wake school board to protect classroom political advocacy | America's best public school in Durham? | Antifa rallies to support extremist UNC professor

No. 144 — Sep. 28-Oct. 4, 2025

Teachers’ union and political advocacy allowed in Wake classrooms

Why Wake County says it’s OK for teachers to wear ‘red for ed’ shirts in school - N&O

An effort to prohibit political advocacy by employees of the Wake County Board of Education has run afoul of the left-wing North Carolina Association of Educators teachers union, some of whose members like to wear red NCAE t-shirts in the classroom.

Although the position of the district’s head of human resources is apparently that a red shirt is merely “support[ing] public education generally” and not a “political message” (according to the board’s attorney), the “Red4EdNC” website disagrees, describing that the purpose of the movement’s founding in 2013 was “to demonstrate support for public education in NC and to protest recent regressive legislation passed at the state level.”

The board is now considering a policy to draw a clear line on what is impermissible for employees, starting with model policy by the NC School Boards Association, which would have prohibited employees from “presenting their personal political views to students in the classroom or when otherwise engaged in the instruction of students.”

However, as this language might be too restrictive on the public support of the NCAE or other left-wing causes by teachers in the classroom, whose politics tends to align with the Democrat majority on the board, the policy proposal was modified to only prohibit “endorsing or opposing a referendum, election, or a particular candidate for elective office.”

This policy will receive an initial vote from the board at a first reading at the board’s meeting on October 7.

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A tale of two public schools in Durham

The best public high school in the country is in NC, Niche says. Here’s where - N&O

Fight between more than a dozen people on Durham high school’s campus didn’t involve students - WRAL

A Durham school has been named by one ranking the best public high school in America. At least, a public school with a campus in Durham achieved that honor: the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics is unique among the state’s K-12 schools in that it is part of the UNC System, rather than part of the Durham Public Schools, which underperform compared to statewide results.

NCSSM’s overperformance is unsurprising considering the student body is selected out of high performing students from across the state, and academic results are often more reflective on the academic ability of the students rather than the pedagogy of the school. (The rest of the top five public schools, according to the ranking, are similarly selective institutions such as the Massachusetts Academy for Math & Science and the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science & Mathematics.)

However, another Durham school was in the news this week for an entirely opposite reason, with a School Resource Office from the Durham County Sheriff’s Office having to deploy a taser to break up a fight between “multiple individuals” at the Southern School of Energy and Sustainability, a magnet high school in the DPS.

WRAL reports that the fight involved “at least 12 people,” and that social media video appeared to show a fight in the school’s hallway despite claims from a spokesperson that the fight involved individuals who were not students, and did not occur inside the school building.

Although one might think that a school with a name like “Southern School of Energy and Sustainability” might perform similarly to the “North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics,” such a comparison could not be further than the truth.

SSES received a “D” performance grade on its school report card for 2023-2024 by the NC Department of Public Instruction, with students underperforming even the low standard of the DPS district average with less than 20% of the students scoring Grade Level Proficient in Biology and NC Math 1. As to the behavior of students at SSES, the reported rate of criminal acts is 2.4x the district rate and 3.5x the statewide rate, while somehow managing to report a bullying and harassment rate and arrest rate of absolutely zero.

As to SAT results, NCSSM students scored an average of 1,388 in 2024, 222 points above the statewide average, while SSES had too few results to be included in the results.

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Is a violent antifa professor back at UNC?

A UNC professor has been suspended and reinstated after his public 2017-2018 antifa rhetoric and activity were resurfaced in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination.

Although many stories about Dwayne Dixon over the past week noted that he had an assault charge in 2018 in Orange County that was dropped, even fewer noted why he was charged (for assaulting a journalist on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus the night Silent Sam was torn down) or why the charge was dismissed (a clerical error for which the DA’s office took responsibility).

“It was either a very, very big error or it was intentional malevolence,” explained Patrick Howley, the victim of the assault Dixon was charged with, in an interview with the Triangle Trumpet:

Although one would think that a history of committing assault on campus should be a prime factor in assessing whether someone “poses a threat to University students, staff, and faculty,” the incident appears to have played little role in the university’s decision to place him on leave “following recent reports and expressions of concern regarding alleged advocacy of politically motivated violence” or reinstate him after “a thorough threat assessment.”

In fact, the Fox News article which appears to be behind much of the renewed interest in Dixon only dedicated one sentence to the assault, citing an early WRAL article which contained no information regarding the victim or the outcome, despite the fact that the Fox News author, Peter D’Abrosca, was a colleague/subordinate of Howley’s at Big League Politics at the time the assault occurred.

Between when Dixon’s suspension was announced on September 29th, and the announcement of the reinstatement on October 3rd, not only did the ACLU threaten the school, but the very type of extremist antifa organization aligned the violence Dixon had advocated for was involved in an on-campus protest organized in his support.

The flyer for the protest on October 1st not only included antifa language, referring to Turning Point as “far right” and those “targeting” Dixon as “fascists,” but was posted by Triangle Radical Events, an Instagram page which has also published anti-media material rejecting “peaceful” and “non-violent protests,” and also promoted at least one anti-immigration enforcement demonstration in Durham in June which featured black bloc antifa and vandalism of a Vietnam War memorial.

flyer posted by @triangleradicalevents, @uncsjp, @cjacollective, and @siembraunc on Instagram

UNC Investigates Professor Over Ties to Anti-Racist Group; Rally Held in His Support - Chapelboro.com

Supporters of UNC professor back his right of free speech at campus rally after his suspension - WRAL

Community rallies to support UNC professor placed on leave for alleged advocacy of political violence - Daily Tar Heel

Supporters rally, call for UNC Chapel Hill professor to be reinstated - ABC11

UNC professor on administrative leave over alleged ties to anti-fascist organization - N&O

Although apparently organized and likely attended by those who believe that violence is an acceptable tactic against “fascists” (aka anyone on the right), and featuring the same antifa rhetoric, the rally itself appears to have been entirely peaceful, with a reported 100-150 participants gathering on the UNC campus to support Dixon.

This lack of violence is to be expected under the antifa theory of “Diversity of Tactics,” under which violent force is only deployed when considered “effective,” which it would not be at a daytime rally for the purpose of getting an ally reinstated while under investigation for advocating political violence.