White County school board Chairman Edd Cantrell says people with concerns about Tennessee's social studies standards should take them to the state. Credit: Chas SiskWPLN

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A rural Tennessee school district is refusing to send back textbooks that critics say are biased in favor of Muslims.

The White County Board of Education agreed unanimously last week to hire an attorney to represent them in a potential legal battle. Board members face the threat of a lawsuit from a group called Citizens Against Islamic Indoctrination.

The district is one of many in Tennessee where textbooks have been called into question, but the dispute in White County has been particularly intense. There have been rallies, calls for board members to resign and radio ads targeting them by name.

They say the district should return textbooks to its publisher, Pearson, especially one used by seventh-grade world history students. Activists accuse the district of working in secret to approve the books.



But it was the board’s supporters who turned out in force for the school board’s meeting last week. About 70 people were there, many from a group organized over social media calling itself the

Association for Accurate Standards in Education

.

“We believe that the school board is supporting balanced and fair education,” said Deanna Lack, a Sparta resident whose son graduated from White County schools last year. ”And we want to let them know that we’re behind them 100 percent.”



Supporters applauded after board members, one by one, rejected accusations that they’d acted improperly and said they would not abandon the textbooks.

The White County school board’s stance is not unusual.

Activists have criticized textbooks in a number of districts, including Williamson, Maury and Robertson counties. So far only a few districts have agreed to replace them.