Title: After allowing parents to opt-out of the Black History Month curriculum, a Utah school is switching the decision - CNN
Headings: After allowing parents to opt-out of the Black History Month curriculum, a Utah school is switching the decision
After allowing parents to opt-out of the Black History Month curriculum, a Utah school is switching the decision
By Leah Asmelash, CNN

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In a since-deleted Facebook post on the school's official page, Hirokawa expressed his reluctance in sending out the opt-out forms to parents, according to reporting from CNN affiliate KSL. Hirokawa cited his family's immigrant background in the post, saying that his great-grandparents were forced into an internment camp, and he sees value of teaching children about the difficulties people of color have faced in US history. "I believe that all of us, and especially our children, need to participate in Black History Month and in the process learn how to appreciate and love those who may be different than us," Hirokawa wrote, according to KSL. Even before the protests of 2020 against police brutality or a global pandemic disproportionately affecting Black people, there were growing pushes to incorporate Black history into school curriculums outside of February. Jesse Hagopian, a teacher at a Seattle high school, told CNN last year that history is often taught through a Eurocentric lens that reduces the contributions of Black people. The effect of the omission isn't just an incomplete picture of US history, it can also damage Black students' self-worth, he said. "When Black students don't see themselves in the curriculum, it's truly destructive to their sense of self," he said. " Oftentimes, the only time they see themselves in the curriculum is when slavery is being taught. And you cannot reduce our existence to the enslavement of African people." When Black history is taught, Hagopian explained that the accounts are often romanticized or inaccurate.