I called up Greg Wickencamp to ask him to walk me through a very awkward Zoom call.

Hi, Dr. Nell.

Oh, you might be muted there, I think.

Greg was working as an eighth grade social studies teacher in Fairfield, Iowa, when he recorded

this conversation.

And the Zoom was with his boss, the superintendent, who had been trying to speak with for months.

But I was hoping to kind of run through some things that have been concerning me for some

time and hopefully get some insights if that works for you.

Greg was hoping to talk about this new law that he was struggling to comply with.

One of those bills that bans the discussion of, quote unquote, divisive content.

Greg wanted the district to be clear about what divisive content was.

He tried emailing the district that had not worked.

He thought that fit a pattern at his school.

To similarly flippants and seemingly gaslighting responses are often made.

Going into this meeting, things were coming to a head for Greg personally.

He had been complaints about how he taught.

He used Ibrahim X. Kendi's anti-racist book, Stamped, from the beginning.

The indigenous people's history of the United States, too.

So you wanted to meet with your superintendent just to be like, do you have my back here?

Like I'm using these books.

Like are we good?

Exactly, exactly.

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