Retired Lt. Gen. Richard Clark, formerly the 3rd Air Force commander, reads to students at Ramstein Intermediate School in Germany in March 2017. Certain books in libraries at Defense Department schools like Ramstein are being temporarily removed from shelves pending a review for compliance with recent executive orders. (Jennifer H. Svan/Stars and Stripes)
Elementary school reading assignments on immigration to America, Black History Month social studies material and chapters on sexuality and gender for high schoolers have been marked for now as “do not use” resources by the Pentagon’s school system.
The Department of Defense Education Activity memorandum names eight specific materials that are not to be used in classes pending a review in response to executive orders from President Donald Trump. More lessons may be sidelined on further examination, according to school officials.
The directive, issued Wednesday, was addressed to DODEA administrators, educators and other school leaders. It came out as the school system also announced it was ending several cultural observances and reviewing clubs and extracurricular activities.
The two-page document states that DODEA is “conducting an operational compliance review to ensure alignment with” the recent executive orders titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” and “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.”
A fifth grader at Liberty Intermediate School at RAF Lakenheath, England, reads "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" at the school library in this undated photo. While students can still read the Harry Potter series, some books are being temporarily removed from Defense Department school libraries pending a review for compliance with recent executive orders pertaining to “gender ideology” and “radical indoctrination.” (Stars and Stripes)
DODEA schools this week began taking action to comply with the executive orders. Educators, students and parents told Stars and Stripes about books being removed from library shelves, student organizations such as the Pride club and Women in STEM being disbanded, and instructions to remove bulletin boards with materials that could be flagged as violations of the executive orders.
An email sent to teachers Friday from Wiesbaden Middle School’s principal, under the direction of regional staff, said no library books will be available for checkout next week while they are reviewed for compliance.
Teachers also must review their classroom books, including personal collections, the instruction said. The schools have been given a compliance date of Feb. 18, according to the email.
At Wiesbaden Elementary School, a portrait painted on glass of Michelle Obama was removed Thursday following the canceled observance of Black History Month, according to a person familiar with the school and a picture of the removal viewed by Stars and Stripes.
A Trump executive order defines “discriminatory equity ideology” as “ideology that treats individuals as members of preferred or disfavored groups, rather than as individuals, and minimizes agency, merit, and capability in favor of immoral generalizations.”
As part of the review across DODEA, school resources “potentially related to gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology topics … should not be utilized for instruction,” the guidance says.
“Educators are expected to implement this directive immediately. Principals must ensure that educators are aware of and comply with this instruction,” the memorandum states.
An attachment names “selected instructional resources that should not be used” during the review. The subjects identified are Advanced Placement psychology, elementary social studies and secondary language arts, health and social studies.
A reading of “A Nation of Immigrants” is temporarily off-limits in fourth grade social studies in a lesson about “the peopling of the United States.”
That lesson is not connected to the book, “A Nation of Immigrants,” which was written by John F. Kennedy in 1958, according to DODEA officials on Friday.
A discussion of a section titled “How Does Immigration Affect the U.S.?” had also been shelved.
Meanwhile, elementary social studies lessons, pending review, will no longer include Albert Cashier, who was born female in Ireland but fought as a man in the Battle of Shiloh and other major Civil War campaigns. Cashier retained the identity of a man until death.
In Advanced Placement psychology, a chapter on sexuality and gender must also be removed from instruction while being evaluated, the DODEA memo says.
The College Board says the learning objective for students, which it said was part of the curriculum for decades, is to “describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development.”
It was not immediately clear Friday how removing the chapter could affect DODEA students’ AP credit for the class.
In 2023, when the Florida Department of Education asked the College Board to remove similar content from the course, the board refused, saying that it “cannot modify AP Psychology in response to regulations that would censor college-level standards for credit, placement, and career readiness,” according to a board statement at the time.
The DODEA middle school health content under review deals with sexuality, covering topics such as gender identity, gender roles, transgender, homophobia and biological sex, according to a sample of the curriculum from the company G-W, available online.
The novel “Becoming Nicole,” part of independent reading for “strategic literacy” in grades six through 12, is also on the list.
The New York Times bestseller is about “the inspiring true story of transgender actor and activist Nicole Maines,” according to a publisher’s synopsis.
