In It Together: A Conversation About Race Schools Vary On Subject Of Racism Some Tackle Controversy Head-On, Others Leave Instruction To Parents

History teacher Linda Lovett would’ve never pegged Chevie Kehoe as a white supremacist back when he attended Colville High School.

He was bright, polite, a nice boy. Hung around after class to talk history.

Lovett was floored when Kehoe emerged last year as an accused murderer who supplied Aryan Republic Army members with guns used in bank robberies.

But teachers didn’t dwell much on racial issues a decade ago when Kehoe was in school. That’s starting to change.

“It’s hatred. It’s wrong. I teach it as very un-American,” Lovett said. “I tell my kids, ‘If you’re made of the right stuff, you’re not going to treat other people like that.”’

When teachers in Eastern Washington and North Idaho want to bring historic racial struggles to life, they don’t have far to look. The region is a lively laboratory of groups spewing beliefs like those that set the stage for the Holocaust and the Ku Klux Klan.

Some parents worry that educators are meddling in issues better left to families. Others believe such teaching should happen more routinely, that the lessons found in our back yard are too important to be occasional fodder for current events class.

“It’s easy to study other places where people have been persecuted and say, ‘They’re Germans, they’re all bad,”’ said Eric Edmonds, a history teacher at Lake City High School in Coeur d’Alene. “But it’s important for students to see they were good people and it happened to them. And it could happen here, too.”

But Edmonds said there is no specific mention of the Aryan Nations in the district’s curriculum. The Hayden-based white supremacist group plans a parade July 18 in downtown Coeur d’Alene.

“I really don’t think they deserve to be honored by having a place in our curriculum at all,” said Hazel Bauman, the district’s elementary education director. “Ninety-nine percent of us do not reflect the thoughts and views of those few people in Hayden.”

Racial issues emerge most often in history and social studies classes, where some teachers include them in class sessions about conflict.

When Peter Perkins was teaching about the Ku Klux Klan at Rogers High School in north Spokane, he took several teens to a speech by civil rights attorney Morris Dees. Dees co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center in Alabama.

Perkins also told students what KKK and Aryan Nations recruiters look for in potential members: a young, impressionable loner from a broken family who perhaps isn’t doing well in school and has low job skills.

“The white supremacists have tried to stake out this territory, tried to claim it as their own. They operate best in a climate of fear,” Perkins said.

“Anything we can do to educate our students and make them critical thinkers combats their plans for a whites-only homeland.”

Jerry Lee, a government teacher at Post Falls High School, includes a unit on political thought that covers everything from the “far right to the far, far left,” he said. Students learn about the Aryan Nations, The Order, the Militia of Montana and also about the Black Panthers and Jewish Defense League.

He said if his students support hate groups, they keep quiet about it.

“The kids I get are all seniors,” he said. “They are socially astute enough to know when to shut their mouths.”

Despite teachers’ attempts, some say the discussions are too haphazard and should be part of the regular curriculum.

Adriane Albertowicz, who graduated this spring from Sandpoint High School, said the Aryan Nations parade has been given little attention in her classes. Community reaction to the planned parade is widespread, with human rights activities planned in Spokane and North Idaho.

“Maybe it’s been mentioned in one or two of my classes, but not in-depth,” Albertowicz said. “There hasn’t been any problem-solving ideas. There hasn’t been very much encouragement to think of a solution.”

Post Falls mother Vicki Caughran said schools should push kids to speak up about racism.

“They need to teach social skills to kids as well as educational skills,” Caughran said. “They should teach tolerance in schools.”

Bob Bartlett, director of cultural affairs at Gonzaga University, wishes more junior and senior high school teachers would make deliberate efforts to talk about the area’s racist reputation.

“To know the ‘why’ behind the march is of the same importance of knowing the ‘why’ behind World War II,” said Bartlett. “What’s going on with race relations in this country?”

In doing that, though, teachers must be careful not to condemn all forms of conservative thought, said Kristen Hruby, who has a son in the Bonner County School District.

She said her son’s history teacher once told him he’d never be a humanitarian because of his conservative views.

“Just because you’re a Christian doesn’t mean you’re intolerant,” Hruby said.

Ray Barker, a Colville pastor, said public schools have given an undeserved black eye to organizations such as the Aryan Nations and the Ku Klux Klan. Barker adheres to Christian Identity beliefs - that people from Northern Europe, not Jews, are God’s true chosen people.

“Why do we have these incidences across the nation? In a sense, it’s because the people are frustrated.”

Those groups are legitimately angry because of a corrupt government, Barker said. But schools don’t encourage students to try to really understand those organizations.

“The school system needs to say. ‘Hey, what’s going on here?’ They need to start teaching the truth.”

Talking about racial conflicts in class can be touchy. There’s the occasional parent who objects. And some students share racist sentiments themselves.

“Some of the students seem to have a definite prejudice against black people,” said Dawaine Shoemaker, who teaches social studies at Kettle Falls High School. “So the first question is, ‘Why are you prejudiced? What are your reasons for your feelings?’

“They say, ‘It’s just the way I feel. They don’t belong here. You should send them back to Africa.’

“I say, ‘With that attitude, maybe some of the rest of us should be sent back to Ireland, England, wherever our ancestry is. You want to be careful, maybe you’re advocating against your own rights.”’

Teachers say it’s important to let kids speak freely when discussing racial conflict. But Robert Isitt, social studies department head at Shadle Park High School in Spokane, said it’s equally important to know where to draw the line.

His students get into passionate debates on affirmative action, bilingual education and white supremacy.

But they aren’t allowed to make racist statements or use racist terminology. And, although Isitt plays devil’s advocate to keep debates rolling, he has limits. “I will not take the position of a white supremacist, not even for pretend.”

Paul Voorhees, who teaches Current World Problems at Northport High School, said his students love discussing racial conflict, affirmative action, welfare - anything dealing with fairness.

Like many teachers, Voorhees says he’s not out to convert students to his beliefs. But he likes to challenge them to think beyond their usual boundaries.

“I really think they’re never going to change their minds, but I think they can learn to value other people’s opinions - see there’s other opinions outside the small town of Northport,” Voorhees said.

“This year’s senior class actually had a black person in the class, which is not very normal for Northport. It helped discussion. People were a lot tamer.”

When Chevie Kehoe and his brother, Cheyne, were arrested, teachers at Colville High School spotted an instant teaching tool.

The brothers had attended the school, and a relative was a substitute teacher. But that didn’t stop current events teachers from using the events as a springboard for debate, said Sheila Stalp, who teaches Contemporary World Problems.

“We talk about almost everything that goes on in the news. We don’t dodge anything, and so far I haven’t been called on the carpet for any of it.”

Jim Perkins, a former history teacher in Colville schools, said plenty of educators dodge racial issues altogether. Some of their students, after all, might sympathize with white supremacists.

“It would be smashing toes,” said Perkins, a longtime civil rights activist. “Some won’t touch it because once (a discussion) gets going, they don’t know where it’ll lead.”

But Edmonds, a first-year Lake City High School teacher, said he’s not afraid to take that chance, despite warnings from his college professors to avoid controversy.

“It’s more my job to tell kids what’s happening,” Edmonds said.

“They pretty much tell you ‘don’t be controversial.’ But if you annoy everybody, you’re in good shape.”

About this series Racism in the Inland Northwest is a topic that provokes strong views from many vantage points. And an Aryan Nations march planned in downtown Coeur d’Alene next month has brought discussion of those divergent views to the region’s dinner tables and water coolers. For the next several weeks, The Spokesman-Review will report on those discussions. This series of articles focuses on people trying to cope with prejudice, hate or the perception that the region is a sanctuary for racists. Today’s story focuses on public education and increased classroom discussion of race issues.