New Hampshire District Cuts Suffrage Unit, Says Students "Already Know Women Can Vote"
The Rockingham County Cooperative School District voted Monday to eliminate its 11th-grade unit on the American women’s suffrage movement, citing concerns that the content was “redundant,” given that, according to board chair Stewart Pelkey-Loomis, 57, “the women in question already got what they wanted.” The eight-week unit, which had covered the period from Seneca Falls in 1848 through the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, will be replaced by a 20-minute video titled “Voting: A Right For Everyone, Eventually.” Asked about the suffragists who were jailed and force-fed during the campaign, Pelkey-Loomis said he “wasn’t familiar with that part” and that “it sounds like a movie, possibly.” A retired social studies teacher in the audience was observed leaving the meeting and getting into her car without speaking.