Athens Drive seniors will be voting in this year’s presidential election in November. Teachers drill into them the importance of researching candidates before voting, however many disregard this task before they hit the polls. A story told time and time again is that when someone forgets to research their candidates, they pick whatever name they recognize. Unfortunately, this can be risky when you don’t know what policies people promote. While a name can be repeated in a positive light, it can equally occur with candidates you don’t agree with. 

A candidate who embodies the importance of researching candidates is Michelle Morrow. Morrow is running for State Superintendent of North Carolina schools. However, Morrow has never worked in a school setting, and all of her children but one have been fully homeschooled. Morrow has worked in hospital settings as a nurse in several states, including “[managing] a health clinic in the most rural area in the lower 48 states”. She distrusts schools, calling them “indoctrination centers”. 

Active on X (formerly Twitter), Morrow has made some questionable remarks towards former and incumbent presidents, as well as other famous figures such as Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates. She has made several tweets about former President Barack Obama and current President Joseph Biden endorsing the idea of killing them by firing squad in front of a crowd. In a tweet from May 2020, she wrote “I prefer a Pay Per View of [Obama] in front of the firing squad.” Since then, when asked about her previous tweets, she stood by her previous statements. According to a CNN article, “In other comments, Morrow repeatedly shared the false claim that Obama was Muslim, called Islam evil and expressed belief in a conspiracy theory that tens of thousands of Chinese troops were stationed in Canada to invade the United States to help Joe Biden become president.”

On schools and policy, Morrow is extremely distrustful of current education practices. She frequently reiterates that school programs currently in use are “indoctrinating” kids with topics that are useless for curriculums. She wants to end Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training for teachers and swap that for her own lesson planning training, which can be risky seeing as she doesn’t have formal school teacher training. DEA training is important for schools because it “helps educators recognize and address racist or biased ideas, build systems to protect students from discrimination, and improve academic and social-emotional outcomes for marginalized students” according to Hyperspace, a company that does the training in North Carolina for schools.  She makes vague statements on her website about her intentions, stating that “as Superintendent, Michele and her team will deploy a common-sense discipline and safety plan.” She wants to create safer schools by “prioritiz[ing] spending on student resource officers, video surveillance, and weapons detection systems in every school based on the 2021 safety audits.” In the reverse, studies from 2018 by the NIH show that stricter programs can make students feel less safe in schools, not more.

Morrow is fairly new to the political scene, having ran once prior to this coming election for a school board seat she did not receive. She is popular among conservative electors, with endorsements from names such as the Western Wake Republican Club, The Beaufort Observer, Carolina Teacher’s Alliance, Stand for Health Freedom, Angie Todd, Louis Rogers, and Pauline Bruno. No one is leading the polls, but time will tell in November what next year’s schools will look like.