School district in South Carolina, United States
School District Five of Lexington and Richland Counties (abbreviated as District Five or informally as Lex-Rich Five) is a South Carolina school district encompassing a land area of approximately 196 square miles, (508 km2), roughly half of which is situated in each of Lexington and Richland counties. Student enrollment is at 16,717 as of August 2005. The school district consists of the northern portion of Lexington County lying north of Lake Murray and the Saluda River and the northwestern portion of Richland County lying south of the Broad River. The School District is primarily a residential suburb located to the northwest of the city of Columbia, the capital city of South Carolina. Included in the District Five are the towns of Irmo and Chapin. The school district has three attendance areas: Chapin, Dutch Fork, and Irmo. District Five operates a total of 12 elementary schools, four middle schools, five high schools, and one alternative school.
The interim Superintendent is Akil Ross, appointed in June 2021 following the sudden resignation of former superintendent Christina Melton at a board meeting on June 14 over conflicts with some school board members. The Chief of Academics and Administration is Anna Miller. The Current Board Chair is Rebecca Blackburn Hines.
History.
In February 2023, an AP English teacher in Chapin was forced to halt a lesson on Ta-Nehisi Coates' book Between the World and Me by school administrators, who claimed that the lesson violated state budget provisions. South Carolina law prohibits the use of state funds for lessons that teach that "an individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his race or sex" or "an individual, by virtue of his race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously."
References.
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