Norwin school board member wants to bar CNN news show for students

Jan. 12—At least one Norwin School Board member wants the district to stop showing a CNN-produced news program to middle schoolers during homeroom.

During a workshop meeting this week, Alex Detschelt — a self-described conservative Republican — asked fellow board members to consider eliminating CNN 10 along with any other live or on-demand broadcast that is outside of the scope of the school district's pre-approved curriculum. A vote possibly could come at board's Jan. 17 meeting.

"It seems to be innocuous," Detschelt said of CNN 10 broadcast.

Superintendent Jeff Taylor, who said CNN 10 has been shown in the middle school classrooms for several years, described the broadcast as an "instructional resource." Students are not required to watch it during the homeroom activity period, he said.

Board President Darlene Ciocca told Detschelt she could not vote on his proposal without ever having seen a CNN 10 broadcast. Taylor said he would provide board members with a link to the broadcasts.

"I don't want to delay these things unnecessarily," Detschelt said.

CNN declined to comment. Instead, a spokesman encouraged people to watch the program on CNN.com or its YouTube channel, which has 582,000 followers. The first CNN 10 broadcast of this year was released on Monday.

The 10-minute segments this week have featured reports on U.S.-Russia talks regarding Ukraine, different public responses to the pandemic around the world, including Hong Kong, North Korea testing a ballistics missile, a new record for U.S. home prices and the impact on home flippers and a research project on whether dogs have the ability to differentiate between languages.

CNN bills the program as a free daily "on-demand digital news show ideal for explanation seekers on the go or in the classroom." In 2020, CNN 10 replaced CNN Student Network, which first aired in 1989.

Reviews are mixed on sites like CommonSenseMedia.org, where it gets 3 out of 5 stars.

One parent complained about their children being shown "offensive news," while another posted: "CNN has not reported favorable on our president or anything to do with my family's Conservative values."

Others gave it 5 stars and rave reviews, including a middle school teacher.

"At first I was hesitant to show the program since it has 'CNN' in the title, and I live in the middle of the Bible Belt," he posted. "I should say I'm a conservative Christian, and I'm very sensitive to content inappropriate for kids. I have three kids of my own, and my wife and I are very careful about what our children are exposed to. I will say this, without any reservations, that CNN 10 is the most kid appropriate true news program out there that is truly unbiased."

The use of CNN 10 in other school districts also has been the subject of discussion.

School officials in Horry County, S.C., which includes Myrtle Beach, had internal discussions about whether teachers could continue viewing the program — or any television news — in classrooms at the end of last school year, The Sun News reported. In an email chain obtained by the newspaper, one school official wrote that he heard the matter was "a response to parents complaining about their kids watching 'fake news CNN.'"

After word spread that teachers had been ordered not to use programming from any media outlets, including CNN 10, a district spokesman told the newspaper that the staff had been reminded that any news programs used in class "should directly align to the state instructional standards and support the curriculum."

Students in the Yough School District also can watch CNN 10 each morning. The district has not had any problems with it, said Superintendent Janet Sardon.

Parents in December discussed the programming on the Yough Area Community Facebook Page, with some encouraging others to call the district and complain. The thread contained nearly 200 comments.

Removing CNN 10 broadcasts from Norwin classrooms is among the issues that "were core elements in the election," Detschelt said. He and fellow Republicans Shawna Ilagan and Christine Baverso won board seats in November on a slate called Norwin4Change. The three new Republicans and Bob Wayman voted as bloc in December in failed attempts to appoint Detschelt as the board president and remove attorney Russell Lucas as the district solicitor.

Dropping the broadcast, however, is not about a particular entity, whether it is CNN or Fox News, but instead is about "the singularity of a message," said Wayman.

"When we only show one point of view, whether it's right or wrong ... there is no comparable (broadcast), particularly in current events," Wayman said, noting he is not that familiar with the content.

Norwin uses video broadcasts in teaching multiple current events from multiple perspectives, and "we use a number of resources for that," Taylor said.

Detschelt, however, said he does not believe any broadcast medium or online should be shown to students, unless it is part of the curriculum approved by the school board.

"It is informational. It is not controversial," Sardon said.

Joe Napsha is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Joe at 724-836-5252, jnapsha@triblive.com or via Twitter .