A South Carolina teacher had her AP lesson shut down after students snitched that she planned to have them read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ memoir

• A South Carolina teacher’s lesson was shut down after students complained they were uncomfortable.
• The AP English lesson included reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2015 memoir on racism “Between the World and Me.”
• PEN America called the removal of Coates’ work “an outrageous act of government censorship.”

A South Carolina teacher’s AP lesson that would have used Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2015 memoir “Between the World and Me” was shut down after students complained the material made them uncomfortable and could violate state laws by discussing systemic racism.

This past spring, Chapin High School English teacher Mary Wood included Coates’ book in her lesson plan before the AP English Language exam, according to lesson plans and documents obtained by The State.

The lesson asked students to analyze Coates’ arguments in “Between the World and Me,” specifically around systemic racism in America — but students complained that videos they watched before reading the book made them “uncomfortable,” according to the documents, The State said. 

“I actually felt ashamed to be Caucasian,” one student said to the school board, The State reported. “These videos portrayed an inaccurate description of life from past centuries that she is trying to resurface. I don’t feel as though it is right because these videos showed antiquated history. I understand in AP Lang, we are learning to develop an argument and have evidence to support it, yet this topic is too heavy to discuss.”

Another student wrote to the school board that Wood told students she hoped she wouldn’t get fired for the lesson, while a third student said the discussions around systemic racism were likely “illegal” in South Carolina, The State said. 

The students’ complaints prompted the school board and principal to step in, leading to the book being removed from the lesson plan, The State said. 

Wood said in the documents that she had taught Coates’ memoir the prior academic year with no issue, The State added. 

Both Wood and Chapin High School did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. 

The move has sparked a response from PEN America, a nonprofit organization defending free expression in literature. On Tuesday, Jeremy C. Young, a program director at the nonprofit, called the removal of the book “an outrageous act of government censorship.”

Young compared the situation to the AP African American Studies course debacle in Florida, which also involved the removal Coates’ writing from lesson plans. 

Coates did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. 

South Carolina Republicans are pushing forward with plans to restrict how public schools teach material related to various topics of race and racism. Though a Senate-approved bill doesn’t specifically cite so-called “critical race theory” — the university-level academic frameworks that’s become a target of conservatives nationwide — the legislation lets parents challenge lessons that teach about implicit bias or white privilege, according to the Associated Press.

That bill is still winding its way through the state’s GOP-controlled House of Representatives and hasn’t been made law yet.