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Terri Cunningham-Swanson recall, Plattsmouth Community Schools, Nebraska (2023-2024)
| Plattsmouth Community Schools recall |
|---|
 |
| Officeholders |
| Recall status |
| Recall election date |
| January 9, 2024 |
| Signature requirement |
| See also |
| Recall overview Political recall efforts, 2024 Recalls in Nebraska Nebraska recall laws School board recalls Recall reports |
A recall election against Terri Cunningham-Swanson, member of the Plattsmouth Community Schools Board of Education in Nebraska, was held on January 9, 2024.[1] A majority of voters voted in favor of recalling her, removing her from office.[2]
The recall effort began after the school district removed several books from school libraries pending a review. Students held a protest of the book removals in April 2023, and the high school librarian resigned from her position in May 2023, citing the book removal policy as the reason. The book removal policy began after the board revised Article 6 Policy 6300, which establishes the school district's criteria for media materials. The revised policy was crafted by Cunningham-Swanson.[3][4][5]
Since the board initially approved the revision to Policy 6300, members also approved a plan to shelve the books in question in a less accessible area and to allow students to access those books if their parents signed a consent form. To see a list of books that were reviewed or removed from the district, click here.[5]
An earlier recall attempt against Cunningham-Swanson did not go to a vote. The Cass County Election Commission did not verify enough signatures to put the recall on the ballot.[6]
Cunningham-Swanson was elected to the board in 2022. In the race for four at-large seats, she came in third with 19.15% of the vote.[7]
Recall vote
Terri Cunningham-Swanson recall, 2024
Terri Cunningham-Swanson lost the Plattsmouth Community Schools, At-large recall election on January 9, 2024.
Recall Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
| ✖ | Yes |
62.2
|
1,649 | ||
No |
37.8
|
1,000 | |||
Total Votes |
2,649 | ||||
|
|
Recall supporters
Ryan Michael Whitmore filed the first recall petition against Cunningham-Swanson. “Terri has decided to push an extreme personal agenda that will be a burden on the staff and taxpayers,” Whitmore said. “The agenda is to remove materials that are related to LGBTIA+, showing certain minorities in a positive light and showing Christianity in a negative light.”[5]
Jayden Speed, a supporter of the recall effort, said the book removal policy was against the First Amendment. "Access to literature, access to books are core tenets to our freedom, of our first amendment rights," Speed said.[6]
Christine Knust, who worked as the high school's librarian until she resigned in protest of the book removals, said, “While book challenges are often done with the best intentions and in the name of age appropriateness, they often target marginalized communities such as the LGBTQ community."[3]
Recall opponents
Cunningham-Swanson said she and the other board members were upholding the district's guidelines on school library materials. “The books I asked to be reviewed break these guidelines in some way or another,” she said. “The vast majority is due to very graphic sexual content. And I do mean graphic. The list of books is on the website, too. Parents can check them out for themselves. Then go to a parent-run website, such as booklooks.org or ratedbooks.org to read the content of these books.”[5]
When Cunningham-Swanson ran for a place on the board in 2022, book removal was one of her platforms.[3] She included the following statement on education and curriculum on her campaign website:[8]
| “ | As student performance continues to plummet in America, academics have been put on a back burner to social programming. Our schools need to return to their original intent, to educate our children. We need Reading, Writing, STEM, Civics, American and World History to be the curriculum of our schools. And the text books for these subjects need to be free of CRT, CSE, SEL, and other forms of indoctrination. The time has come to return to basic academic standards that once kept American students at the top of the world's academic performers.[9] | ” |
Background
Books removed from shelves pending review
The Plattsmouth Board of Education appointed a committee of school district teachers to review 52 books that could be found in the district's libraries. The committee recommended putting all but one of the books—Triangles by Ellen Hopkins—back on the shelves. A majority of the board voted to accept that recommendation. According to News Channel Nebraska, the 52 books reviewed by the committee were:[10][5]
| “ | PCSD list of books reviewed/removed are Triangles, Smoke, Crank, Glass, Fallout, Burned, Tilt, and Tricks - all by Ellen Hopkins; Red, White and Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston; George - Alex Gino; Lucky - Alice Sebold; Looking For Alaska - John Green; This One Summer - Mariko Tamaki; I'll Give You the Sun - Jandy Nelson; Gabi, a Girl in Pieces - Isabel Quintero; Grit - Gillian French; Juliet takes a Breath - Gabby Rivera; The Poet X - Elizabeth Acevedo; America - E.R. Frank; The Black Flamingo - Dean Atta; Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens; Without Merit, It Ends With Us, November 9, Ugly Love - all by Colleen Hoover; Clockwork Princess - Cassandra Clare; Guyaholic - Carolyn Mackler; Go ask Alice - by Anonymous; The Hate You Give - Angie Thomas; The Perks of Being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky; Kingdom of Ash - Sarah J. Maas; Kingdom of Ash, Empire of Storms, A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Frost and Starlight - all by Sarah J. Maas; The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood; The Infinite Moment of Us - Lauren Myracle; Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut; Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult; The Haters - Jesse Andrews; Beautiful Disaster - Jamie McGuire; Living Dead Girl - Elizabeth Scott; Red Hood, Red Hood - Eliana Arnold; Like a Love Story - Abdi Nazemian; Sold - Patricia McCormick Middle School; Ghost Boys - Jewell Parker Rhodes; Life Is Funny - E. R. Frank; Pet - Alwaeke Emezi (was taken off the shelves in the summer of 2022); Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe - Preston Norton (not found in the system) Elementary School.[9] | ” |
Path to the ballot
- See also: Laws governing recall in Nebraska
To get a recall on the ballot in Nebraska for a multi-seat office, the number of signatures collected on petitions must equal 35% of the votes cast for the candidate who received the highest number of votes for the office in the last election. Recall supporters have 30 days to collect the signatures.[11]
The recall petition against Cunningham-Swanson was approved to collect signatures in October 2023. Supporters had to collect 686 signatures from registered voters by November 6, 2023.[12] Recall supporters said they submitted 918 signatures on November 6, 2023.[13] The Cass County Election Commission verified 859 signatures, enough to call for a recall election.[14]
2024 recall efforts
- See also: School board recalls
Ballotpedia tracked 40 school board recall efforts against 83 board members in 2024. Recall elections in 2024 removed 14 members from office, including three who resigned before the election, and retained seven members in office. The school board recall success rate was 13.4%.
The chart below details the status of 2024 recall efforts by individual school board member.
2023 recall efforts
- See also: School board recalls
Ballotpedia tracked 48 school board recall efforts against 97 board members in 2023. Sixteen of those board members faced recall elections. The recall elections were held on January 10, 2023, August 1, 2023, August 8, 2023, August 29, 2023, November 7, 2023, and December 12, 2023. The school board recall success rate was 13.4%.
The chart below details the status of 2023 recall efforts by individual school board member.
Recall context
- See also: Ballotpedia's Recall Report
Ballotpedia covers recall efforts across the country for all state and local elected offices. A recall effort is considered official if the petitioning party has filed an official form, such as a notice of intent to recall, with the relevant election agency.
The chart below shows how many officials were included in recall efforts from 2012 to 2024 as well as how many of them defeated recall elections to stay in office and how many were removed from office in recall elections.
See also
- Plattsmouth Community Schools, Nebraska
- Recall campaigns in Nebraska
- Political recall efforts, 2024
- Political recall efforts, 2023
- School board recalls
- States that allow school board recalls
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Cass County Election Commission, "2024 Plattsmouth School Board Recall Notice of Election," accessed December 7, 2023
- ↑ KETV 7, "Plattsmouth voters recall school board member who crafted book removal policy," January 9, 2024
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 News Channel Nebraska River Country, "Books removal causes stir in Plattsmouth," May 9, 2023
- ↑ KETV 7 ABC, "Plattsmouth High School librarian resigns over controversial book policy," May 10, 2023
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 News Channel Nebraska, "Second petition filed against Plattsmouth school board member," September 21, 2023
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 3 News Now, "Petition to hold recall election fails in Plattsmouth," August 30, 2023
- ↑ Cass County Election Commission, "Results: General Election November 8, 2022," accessed September 6, 2023
- ↑ Terri Cunningham-Swanson for School Board, "My Platform," accessed September 6, 2023
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ News Channel Nebraska, "Contested books back on school shelves, recall election set for 2024," November 14, 2023
- ↑ National Conference of State Legislatures, "Recall of Local Officials," accessed July 27, 2021
- ↑ 6 News WOWT, "Petitions collected to recall Plattsmouth school board member," October 12, 2023
- ↑ Facebook, "Recall Terri Cunningham-Swanson post on November 6, 2023
- ↑ 6 News WOWT, "Plattsmouth school board recall petition receives enough signatures," November 14, 2023
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