Racist Curriculum Approved, Parents & NAACP Outraged, Demand Racist Teacher Is Fired

In July 2017, a group of 10 parents and students filed a formal written complaint with Baldwin County’s School Board (Alabama) alleging discrimination against the LGBTQ community at Spanish Fort High School.

The complaint also outlined the political bias being taught by the 12^th Grade Government & Economics teacher – Gene Ponder. 

Later in July, Independent Press Journal (IPJ) exposed Ponder’s racist curriculum, which he’s been teaching for about 10-years and still teaches today.

In short, Ponder teaches his students that multiculturalism is the real suicide bomb, that voter intimidation is something that black people do to white people, that Muslims are murderers who are here in America to take welfare money before they kill us all, and that the LGBTQ community are sexual deviants.

Ponder also publicly posts anti-government, race-based rants, including decidedly weird stuff about him marrying his 14-year-old daughter, and his son’s “penises and white skin”.

Here are some of Ponder’s public statements, and a couple of PowerPoint slides that he shows to students in class:

After Ponder’s curriculum and public statements were exposed in July 2017, Independent Press Journal (IPJ) reached out to Superintendent Eddie Tyler, as well as Terry Wilhite, Spokesman for Baldwin County Schools.

Neither have responded to IPJ’s questions about Ponder’s curriculum.

According to multiple students who attend Ponder’s class – despite the complaint filed – Ponder started teaching the same biased and racist curriculum as soon as the 2017 school year began.

In an August 2017 school board meeting, students and parents appeared in-person to voice concerns directly to the school board regarding district-wide bias, discrimination, Ponder’s racist curriculum, and the board’s unwillingness or inability to take action.

“You’re making it sound like we’re doing nothing, but we’re taking care of the matter,” said a school board member to a student who complained.

Shannon Cauley, the school board president at the time, represents Spanish Fort (where Ponder teaches).

Cauley quickly and defensively tore into one of the students when the student asked the board “what” was being done about the complaint.

“You’re not entitled to know,” Cauley angrily said. 

“I gave you your three minutes” Cauley replied, referring to the 3-minutes that each speaker is allowed to speak.

Perhaps Cauley was noticeably upset at the student because that student brought about a complaint against Ponder – a teacher within Shannon Cauley’s own district.

It is unclear why Cauley would tell the student that she is “not entitled to know” what the board did about her complaint regarding a teacher.

Cauley could not possibly be referring to child-privacy laws, unless she has forgotten that Ponder is not protected by laws like the Federal Education Rights Privacy Act (FERPA).

Ultimately, if students are not entitled to know how their complaints are being addressed (even against public school teachers), then there is no way of knowing that anything meaningful is being done about it at all to hold public officials accountable.

Such dismissive and rude statements by board members only act to erode the trust between the school board and those they supposedly serve. 

At the next school board meeting in September 2017 – after weeks of Ponder’s dry, “punishing, grueling” book-based lessons, a handful of students and parents complained that they missed Ponder’s old ways.

One student complained about Ponder’s new book-based method of teaching, then shortly thereafter, the student admitted that if Ponder did not teach out of a book, he’d be biased.

“He [Ponder] makes it very clear what side of the political spectrum his ideas are on, and yes he does speak his political views,” the student said. 

Those admissions by the student did not prevent that student (and others) from asking the board to allow Ponder to go back to teaching his old curriculum again.

One parent, Gretchen Wenzel, who’s son is coached by Ponder, went as far as calling Ponder an “excellent” teacher, and saying “it needs to go back to the way it was.”

None of the (all-white) students and parents expressed concern over Ponder’s racist, anti-muslim, or anti-gay teachings – presumably because they agree with it. 

In any case, the school board was very quick to deny that they ever told Ponder to change his ways in the first place.

At the September school board meeting, Eddie Tyler and other school board members admitted that they never told Ponder to change his ways.

“We haven’t done anything,” said school board member Tony Myrick.

President of the school board (at the time), Shannon Cauley, proudly told everyone that Ponder still works as a teacher.

“He’s [Ponder’s] still there,” Cauley reassuringly repeated.

“I’ve known the teacher [Ponder] for a long time, for many years, if there’s any thought that the board, or superintendent, has gone to this teacher and said you better change your ways of teaching or else – thats never happened,” Superintendent Tyler said. 

Ponder’s racist curriculum and biased teaching style appear to get the stamp of approval from some of Baldwin County’s white residents, as well as the Baldwin County Board of Education, who admit that they haven’t done anything about it.

Based on Ponder’s actions in the classroom, he seems to have gotten this message of approval from the school board.

Shortly after these statements by school board members and the Superintendent, Ponder put the recording device away, stopped teaching by-the-book, and went right back to lecturing from his biased and racist PowerPoints again.

In October, about a month after Ponder went back to teaching his racist curriculum, multiple students who attend Spanish Fort High School (where Gene Ponder teaches) posted violently hateful, racist and homophobic songs online – singing about torturing and killing fellow (black and gay) students – with lyrics such as:

According to multiple students at the school, the students who created these (and similar) racist audio recordings reportedly organized fellow students for the sole purpose of creating such hate speech. It is also reported that the group of students would try to “one-up” each other, essentially competing to see who could be the most offensive, the most racist in their songs.

Sources within the school report that Ponder himself was overheard defending the students who sang these racist songs.

According to multiple students who attend Spanish Fort High School, the 3+ students who created the racist songs did not face any visible disciplinary action from the school, or from the Baldwin County School Board.

IPJ spoke to 4 students who wished to remain anonymous out of concerns of retaliation by school administrators.

“They didn’t do anything to them,” said one student. Another student said that “the school just wants to act like it never happened.” Yet another student confirmed, “nothing happened to the [racist] kids, if anything, racism has gotten worse since then.”

“They called him [racist student] into the office for a few minutes, but that’s it. He hasn’t been suspended or anything. I’ve seen one of the kids every day in class since it happened,” said a student referring to one of the (now 3) students who have been reportedly caught making violently racist songs.

Based on IPJ interviews with multiple students at the school, they describe the entire issue as having been swept under a rug, with no suspensions, expulsions, or visible school consequences levied against any of the students involved. 

When parents asked for information about the kind of consequences that those racist students faced, Superintendent Tyler claimed that “people were dealt with.”

When parents inquire about how things are dealt with, Tyler replies, “I’m not going to tell you what I did,” and refers to child privacy laws. 

Baldwin County Board of Education consistently uses child “privacy concerns” as an excuse to deny the public’s ability to hold the school board accountable for complaints that go ignored.

In a November board meeting, Tyler told parents that “privacy concerns” are the reason why he cannot explain what actions are taken regarding their complaints.

The Fair Education Rights Privacy Act (FERPA)  prevents schools from releasing student records without student/parent consent, including disciplinary files.

Some black parents suggest that Tyler is doing nothing because he knows he can deny any explanation to the black community by hiding behind child privacy laws.

Residents point out that they are not asking for identifying information of minors, only for meaningful and verifiable consequences to actually be enforced, which they don’t believe is happening.

Kellie Watson, resident of Spanish Fort said, “we are not asking for any student names, addresses, or personal information. We never asked for that or any violation of privacy. We’re asking for serious consequences. Not a slap on the wrist. They aren’t doing anything serious about our concerns. That’s what this is about. There are no consequences. That’s why we keep asking.”

FERPA might justify not releasing the disciplinary file of the racist students in-question, but it does not prevent the school board from imposing meaningful, even visible disciplinary action against the students who sang about the torture and killing of other students.

The absence of visible consequences (suspension, expulsion) for such a serious issue leaves many students at the school (and their parents) doubting that anything was done at all. 

In Baldwin County, a 15-year old black student was arrested for “passing a book bag to another student in class,” even though the student had already been visibly suspended for a week prior to the arrest.

Also in Baldwin County, violently racist white students (who sing about the torture and killing of other students) are not visibly suspended when they sing about tormenting n*ggers with firehoses and the KKK, or committing genocide on all gay people.

Worse, if consequences were levied against the racist students, then those consequences appear to have been so extremely minuscule – a mere slap on the wrist that did not even reach the level of “suspension.”

If visible disciplinary action had been taken, surely students at the school would have noticed, and it wouldn’t be such an issue to parents.

To many in the community, the absence of visible consequences implies an inadequate punishment.

The impression left with many students at Spanish Fort High School is that racist students can say violently hateful things about torturing n*ggers and killing all gays, and those students won’t even get suspended. But, when minorities commit an infraction of any kind, they get the book thrown at them, including disciplinary action that is visible, humiliating, and often excessive.

Most people don’t need to fully understand FERPA privacy laws to know that students who publicly post songs about the torture and killing of fellow students should be facing consequences up to and including expulsion, regardless of their rights to privacy. 

Tyler’s consistent reference to “child privacy” only highlights that no visible punishment is apparent to anyone, even students at the school, otherwise students and parents would not be wondering what the disciplinary action was in the first place.

Interestingly enough, child “privacy concerns” do not seem to justify or explain the board’s inaction regarding Ponder’s racist and divisive curriculum.

“Child privacy” and FERPA does not apply to Gene Ponder, who is is not a child, nor a student. In fact, Gene Ponder is an adult, and a public employee who’s professional actions ought to be accountable to the public.

In November, when the school board was faced with black parents asking about the racist songs and Ponder’s racist curriculum, Tyler claimed, “I’ve addressed every one of them [issues at Spanish Fort High School] since I’ve been superintendent.”

It seems that some statements made by Superintendent Tyler (and school board members) are not consistent. In fact, depending on who the board is talking-to, it appears they may say completely different things.

Based on the series of statements made by the school board, some students and parents in the black and LGBTQ communities have voiced their distrust in Superintendent Tyler and the school board, including disbelief that anything is being done about their complaints at all.

Many residents of Baldwin County are angered that the school board continues to allow someone like Ponder – someone who uses hateful content to shape the minds of children – to continue teaching.

Parents and students also assert that by refusing to punish the racist students, and refusing to get rid of Gene Ponder, the school board is essentially condoning hate-speech and racism.

At the school board meeting in November, Elva Barnett, a parent of a student and the wife of the Baldwin County NAACP President, said, “I don’t care if its on social media, maybe it didn’t happen at school, the thing about it – it’s hate. You’re condoning hate of another race. That is like you’re saying it’s ok to do it.”

Mrs. Barnett went on to say, “and when you hear students listening to the resource officer [Officer Harville], laughing at this racial slur stuff [racist songs], and he’s playing it for another teacher [Ponder] as he’s walking down the hall, and students in the classroom hear this – that’s not ok.”

Parent and local author Edrick Prim also addressed the school board.

“They wonder why it makes it so hard for us to receive and respect you when you are not blowing the whistle, and I see that you see that something’s not right … It shouldn’t have to wait till the worst case scenario for us to say something,” said Prim.

Dorothy Williams, a parent who’s kids all graduated from Baldwin County’s school system emphasized, “our children aren’t getting a fair shake.”

Kellie Watson, a resident of Spanish Fort, spoke with IPJ after the school board meeting was over.

“This type of injustice against the black community has been going on in Alabama for a long long time, and because people refuse to do anything about it, it’s especially bad here in Baldwin County,” Watson said.

At the November 16, 2017 school board meeting, a concerned black parent tried explaining to the board that “half the kids are afraid” to bring up racism to administrators because “nothing’s being done.”

Before the parent could complete his thought, school board member Shannon Cauley interrupted to say, “No they’re not”.

Cauley’s dismissal, which was caught on video, suggests that Cauley believes that she – a white woman – knows what black children are afraid of better than the parents of those black children, or the black children themselves.

Furthermore, Cauley’s actions support the argument that issues related to race discrimination are being dismissed at the highest levels.

In-light of songs that said “torment the n*iggers with firehoses” being sang by students in Cauley’s district, she still managed to dismiss the black parent’s concerns over the fear and safety of black kids.

It may comes as no surprise that Shannon Cauley represents the City of Spanish Fort on the school board, which happens be where Ponder teaches, and also where those racist songs originated.

In the spirit of apples not falling far from trees, it is not difficult to see how Cauley’s dismissive nature is an example of the systemic racism (and insensitivity to racism) that is coming out of students and teachers in her district.

It is hard to imagine race issues getting addressed when Cauley herself is so insensitive and dismissive of the concerns of black students and their parents.

At that same school board meeting in November, Alec Barnett, Baldwin County NAACP President said, “We cannot have teachers teaching hate in school, and then you just ignore it, then he [Ponder] stays there, still in school, teaching hate.”

Eddie Tyler defended Ponder, pointing the finger at the black community instead, “you got your information wrong. He [Ponder] wasn’t teaching hate.”

Apparently, Superintendent Tyler does not consider it hateful to teach students that “Multi-culturalism is the real suicide bomb.”

In another slide, Ponder compares Mohammed (the prophet of Islam) to dictators like Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. 

Ponder’s slide states that Mohammed is “evil” and suggests that he’s “still able to commit murder even after death,” some 1,400 years ago.

Using such logic, Ponder might have compared apples to apples by describing the number of deaths at the hands of other religions or ideologies (in total) since the death of their leaders and prophets.

In any case, it is unclear how this subject relates to the topic of “Comparative Economic Systems,” which is what he was supposed to be teaching in this slide in the first place.

Demonizing the Islamic faith and those who follow it appears to be the sole point of this slide, and a recurring theme in his curriculum as well.

Since Eddie Tyler proclaims that this is not “teaching hate,” it’s hard to imagine what he does consider “teaching hate.”

Superintendent Tyler seems to think that teaching students that Muslims are here in America to take welfare money from us before they kill us all, is not “teaching hate.”

Nor is it racism, or “teaching hate” – according to Tyler – when a teacher portrays black men as violent, or describing voter intimidation as something that armed black people do/have historically done to white people.

Ponder’s teachings are even hateful towards core principles of our Government (such as democracy) which is bizarre, considering he’s a “Government” teacher.

Ponder’s teachings go as far depicting Superintendent Tyler and the school board themselves as bullies, which is ironic, considering how often Tyler and the school board have defended Ponder’s curriculum.

Ponder’s public statements are in-line with his curriculum, which appears to have the underlying objective of influencing kids with a his white-male centric, anti-government, racist ideologies. 

The school board has already admitted that Ponder is “still” teaching, and that they “haven’t done anything,” and “never” told him to change his ways.

Amazingly, 5-months after Superintendent Tyler (and the board) was made aware of Ponder’s curriculum, Tyler still claims that the school board doesn’t condone hate.

“To draw a broad brush over this system that we condone hate, that’s just not true,” Tyler said.

Many members of the black community believe that the only possible explanation for Ponder not getting fired is that Tyler (and board members) might actually agree with Ponder’s racist teachings, and that they may also be defending a friend whom the Superintendent himself has admitted knowing “for years.”

Tyler’s comments noticeably infuriated many members of the black community.

One resident (who spoke to IPJ on the condition of anonymity, out of worry that the parent’s student would get retaliated against by the school or school board), said, “he’s [Tyler] treating the black community like we’re blind, illiterate, and stupid all at at the same time. Like we can’t clearly see the curriculum for for ourselves. It’s racist. It’s anti-muslim. It’s anti-gay. It’s not acceptable. They need to get rid of that teacher [Ponder] before this turns into something else. And Tyler needs to stop treatin’ black folks like we’re just gonna sit back and take it.”

Another parent of a student who asked to remain anonymous said, “he [Tyler] says we got our information wrong? No, we don’t. WE DON’T. We’re fed-up with folks like Tyler ignorin’ racism in schools then turnin’ round, saying crap like ‘you got your information wrong’ to black folks when they complain. He’s tryin’ to deny things is even happenin’ cuz his friend’s [Ponder] the one who did it. It’s a good-ole boy thing. Pretendin’ like it ain’t no big deal to teach racism, talking to us like we’re dumb, like we don’t know what’s goin’ on here.”

When asked what the black community believes should be done about Ponder, the answers from students and parents are echoed almost word-for-word.

So far, every one of the –  approximately 38 – members of Baldwin County’s black community who have both seen Ponder’s racist teachings and been interviewed by IPJ have said some kind of variation of, “He [Ponder] should be fired.“

Kellie Watson, resident of Spanish Fort elaborated, “Ponder should have been fired a long time ago when this all came out in the summer, the fact that he’s still around half a year later says a lot about the school board members themselves.”

At the school board meeting, Alec Barnett, President of the Baldwin County NAACP called-out board members publicly, saying, “for you to just sit there, as a school board, superintendents, and don’t do nothing, seems to me you want to sit there and push someone to get in to a fight before something gets done, and thats not what we want to see for our community.”

Barnett continued, “We’re just not gonna sit still and let this keep going on in our school system. Hate is not gonna be tolerated – not while the NAACP’s around.”

Barnett spoke to IPJ after the meeting, and elaborated further.

“We’re sick of talking. We’re tired of them sweeping everything under a rug and wanting to just talk about it but never actually do nothin’. This here is a racist teacher [Ponder], dividing people, by color, by religion, teaching hate for years, it’s all right there for school board to see, and they’re just letting him go about his ways teaching. He [Ponder] just needs to go. School board keepin’ him around after all that stuff comes out… what’s that say about them?” Barnett said.

Gene Ponder, Principal Brian Williamson, Superintendent Eddie Tyler and Director of Communications Terry Wilhite have not directly responded to IPJ’s multiple inquiries about Ponder’s curriculum. School board member Shannon Cauley has also ignored all recent requests for comment.

To see more of Ponder’s curriculum for yourself, click on the following links:

RACISM EXPOSED: “Where are my white male federal privileges” asks Alabama teacher. [PowerPoint Slides]

EXPOSED: The Anti-Government, Government teacher. [PowerPoint Slides]