The Lottery and Nazareth ISD

In the now 50-year-old short story, The Lottery, a woman is stoned in order to “guarantee” good crops. The story is often read by public school students to stage discussions about all sorts of topics, including capital punishment, superstitions, and comparisons to the more modern Hunger Games.

Ironically, a form of The Lottery exists today with Nazareth ISD, a school district which has decided that it will sacrifice children and its alleged goal of providing a quality education, as long as the sacrifice serves to protect a fake reputation, all with a Christian veneer.

First, an introduction. The city of Nazareth is about an hour south of Amarillo, and had 310 residents in the 2020 census, according to Wikipedia. Nazareth ISD’s entire K-12 student body has fewer than 500 students.

From what I can tell, NISD is a prime example of the rural school districts that should be consolidated; it has one elementary school, one middle school, one high school, and spends more than $15k/student (over 50% more than the same figure in Arlington ISD, for example).

But enough about the villain in this story, let’s talk about the victims.

Samantha Nelson’s family is one of the fewer than 100 families that reside in the City of Nazareth. She and her husband have four children, the oldest of whom should be in fifth grade.

Nelson was enamored with NISD just three years ago, when its principal, Robert O’Connor, sent out a newsletter conveying his thoughts on high-stakes testing:

Exh 1-A.

But that was 2021. In September of 2022, when her oldest daughter was in 3rd grade, Samantha Nelson informed NISD that she would be “opting her out” of STAAR[1] testing, a choice she knew that many other parents across Texas had made.

NISD’s agents immediately began working on a way to “discourage” STAAR dissenters. Notes from NISD’s October 12, 2022 board meeting state:

6.K EIE(LOCAL) Update–Retention & Promotion[2]

Though the above notes show that NISD was investigating changes to the retention policy, no change to any policy was made during the 2022-2023 year.

As promised, the Nelson’s oldest daughter, L.N., tabbed through the third-grade STAAR in April of 2023, without selecting answers, and submitted the test blank. However, NISD had no choice but to promote her, as its policy on promotion allowed consideration “only” a student’s performance in coursework, assessments, and final exams.[3] NISD couldn’t flunk L.N. based on her grades and the school awarded her Achievement Awards for Music Memory and Spelling.[4]

But that common sense policy wouldn’t last. In July of 2023, NISD Superintendent Garlitz was working to “beef up [NISD]’s EIE(LOCAL) Retention and Promotion Policy to combat against parents thinking that they can “Opt Out” of STAAR for their students,” as she stated in an email on July 7, 2023 to an agent of the Texas Association of School Boards.[5]

As the email above shows, NISD feared the Nelson “opt-out” so much that its leadership was actively contriving a method to beat Nelson into submission, and “combat against parents” who might join the revolt. To the Nelson’s knowledge, no other family had opted out, but even that was enough to make Nazareth ISD go to DEFCON 1 in its attempts to stop the anti-STAAR challenge.

Sadly, the response by NISD to a student’s decision to opt out of the STAAR has revealed that the Christianity professed by NISD’s leaders needs work - as every Christian knows, we live with hope and faith, not fear. And certainly not such fear that a child’s education should be sacrificed to maintain a mere façade of excellence.

Every school district in Texas has a handful of STAAR rebels who refuse to pretend that the STAAR is a good use of time, but no other district has reacted to those actions with such hostility.

Public school personnel throughout the state go out of their way to work with students, in spite of whatever problems the students’ parents are causing, and do it routinely. But contrary to the whole body of public school education, Nazareth ISD appears more dedicated to maintenance of a fake reputation than it is to providing the real thing.

In July of 2023, the NISD school board amended its promotion policy to include “Achievement of at least approaches grade level on state assessment instruments shall be required.”[6]

The revised policy also created a new Retention Committee that would vote to allow students who did not “approach grade level” during which the student’s parent, teacher, and principal must vote unanimously, giving the principal and teacher veto power over a student’s advancement and ability to punish a student who refuses to participate in STAAR testing.[7]

The amended retention policy had no impact at the time on L.N., as her advancement to the fourth grade during the 2023-2024 school year had already been determined.

Near the end of fourth grade, Mrs. Nelson informed her daughter’s teacher that L.N. would again be opting out of the STAAR test by again submitting a blank test. The teacher warned that a retention meeting would be held during the summer, while also assuring Mrs. Nelson that her daughter was more than ready for 5th grade.

As planned, L.N. again tabbed through the STAAR test, turning in a blank test, and in the summer of 2024, Mrs. Nelson received the expected letter from Principal Robert O’Connor[8] saying L.N. failed to show that she “approached grade level” on the STAAR test for the fourth grade. A retention committee meeting to include NISD Principal O’Conner, L.N.’s teacher, Nelson, and her husband was scheduled. The committee reviewed L.N.’s academics, which included: a) excellent grades;[9] b) UIL Outstanding Achievement Awards;[10] c) the results of a STAAR interim fourth grade test that predicted her result on the actual STAAR would be “Masters Grade Level”;[11] and d) the statement of L.N.’s teacher that L.N. had mastered her material and even had “stretch growth” in reading.

Principal O’Connor recognized during the meeting that L.N. had made good grades for math and reading and never stated that L.N. had not mastered the material, but he still voted to force L.N. to repeat 4th grade because L.N. did not take the STAAR “at her potential” and the STAAR assessment was a critical component of the evaluation.

Because of NISD’s “new and improved” retention policy, Principal O’Connor had the final say (by refusing the unanimous vote), and denied the promotion. He insipidly defended his position by stating that the test was “what was required of our students” for advancement.

In the legal world, we call this “pretext” – establishing law or rule designed to target the disfavored. Principal O’Connor and Nazareth ISD have a duty under the Texas Constitution to provide an appropriate education to every student. (Additionally, one would think that Principal O’Connor, a professing Christian with a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Text, would consider a duty not to mistreat children for political purposes, but hey, what do I know?) But instead of providing that education, NISD tossed away its duty to L.N. and the public education system; Principal Robert O’Connor, Dr. Kara Sue Garlitz, and the Trustees of Nazareth ISD all acted deliberately to punish a student who belongs in fifth grade by denying her promotion to the fifth grade…all to make an example out of anyone who opposed the STAAR, backsliding on Principal O’Connor’s declaration just a couple of years prior that he would focus on students and not on test scores. (Go back and read that first email!)

When Mrs. Nelson attempted to resolve the issue this summer, Superintendent Kara Garlitz defended the decision to retain L.N. by asserting that her decision was in the best interest of the district, and that she was balancing the interests of the child with the interests of the district. Of course, one wonders how “interests of the district” can cause anyone to arrive at “force a student to repeat the fourth grade unnecessarily.” Naturally, as every public school bureaucrat does when questioned, Garlitz suggested that Nelson avail herself of the nearly useless grievance process, known mostly for slowly sucking the life out of any parent trying to get an ISD to follow the Education Code.[12]

Even when Mrs. Nelson asked what L.N. would be expected to learn in taking fourth grade again, Superintendent Garlitz could not respond with any academic reason, but retreated to the classic Nuremberg defense: she was following the district policy.

Damning to NISD’s position is the reality that no other students who had to have retention meetings were retained without parental consent, and other academically failing students who took the STAAR test were promoted.

Yes, you got that right – failing students who performed badly on the STAAR were promoted, but a student who had demonstrated she was ready for the next grade was held back!

At no point has any agent of NISD stated or even attempted to argue that L.N. is not ready for fifth grade. The entire stated argument is that NISD is following a policy, and the policy requires consideration of the STAAR, with the implication that L.N.’s refusal to take the STAAR at the best of her ability equates inexorably to a requirement to retain, irrespective of any other consideration.

In August, Norred Law filed a suit on the family’s behalf, seeking a temporary restraining order in state court. Strangely, even a week after the suit was filed, the district court had failed to even deny the requested temporary restraining order, or formally recognize the case as accepted in the judicial system at all.[13] We therefore dismissed the first suit and filed a new suit in federal court, all while Nelson is working through the useless grievance process.

L.N. has missed school, missed “picture day”, missed her time to participate in cheer and other extracurriculars. Every inane communication with NISD has stupidly claimed that NISD wants L.N. to come back to school, but not offering to put her in the proper grade.[14]

The Nelson family has now gone through all three stages of the ISD grievance process, and during the last stage, the Nazareth ISD Board of Trustees voted to affirm the unchristian, anti-education decision to hold back a fifth grade child in order to punish her and her family for their position on the STAAR.

This third stage was held as public spectacle and appeared to be a modern-day version of The Lottery, where a idyllic small village of pagans barbarically pray for a good crop. Only in this very real story, NISD is sacrificing one of its students while eschewing its duty to the child and the Texas Constitution. Rather than show a child the mercy the district’s agents and teachers show to every other child who is not parented the way that NISD prefers, NISD’s idolatrous agents have chosen to pick up stones to protect a fake reputation of educational excellence.