Comments | Eastern NC Now

We do not have any of this nonsense going on in Beaufort County Schools, As long as we keep conservative representation on the Board of Education, we will have a team that will be on the lookout for it if it appears.

Where we do have a problem is that some of our Board members are not yet fully on board with the parental rights landmark Supreme Court ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor. This showed up when I offered motions to amend our existing written school board policies covering how we handled materials that were controversial with parents and the community. For example, we have an existing policy that says decisions on controversial materials will be made based on opinions of educational staff. My motion was to change this to say that they would be made on the basis of the opinions of both parents and educational staff. Charles Hickman seconded my motion. Carolyn Walker spoke against it, saying we should rely only on the opinions of teachers. She got five votes for her position, which is a majority of the nine members of the board.

After that meeting, I emailed all of the other board members several articles explaining the Supreme Court's ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor plus a full copy of the court's decision. I expect to bring this key parents rights issue back to the board in the future.

Under the Mahmoud decision, all issues dealing with anything that could touch on religion are decided solely on the position of parents. The court ruled that issues related to homosexuality and transgenderism are related to religious beliefs but did not rule on any other issue areas yet. On those issues, schools are required to notify parents of any such content and allow parents to opt their children out of those activities that contain such materials or presentations. When it comes to any matter touching on religion, the Supreme Court has completely frozen out educational experts and left it 100% up to parents.

As long as I am a member of the school board, I will continue to stand up for parents rights.

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 5:15 pm By: Steven P. Rader

JUST SAY NO TO Keith Kidwell.

He and his local pal Garris are only here to serve themselves.
NOT YOU...NOT WeThePpl, who here locally.

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 12:57 pm By: Washingtonian

Great article!

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 11:55 am By: Joe Davis

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished!!
However, I wish to thank Nick 4 his interest n Good Government.
I have little enthusiasm for numbers,accounting,bookkeeping so I must express gratitude 4 what NFritz has done 4 us here n Washington.

The problem wasnt just w th last CityManager, it was the whole indoctrinated CityGovt & its "STAFF." Thankfully some of those r now gone, but not enough.
One thing Trump learned aftr his 1st term is that it was of little help to hav a strong new President if th corrupted cabal undr hm remained th same.
So I say Trump learned his lesson,& in his 2nd term he fired a whole lot of bureaucrats. Our Council needs to do th same. Any advisory committee member who has been w th City for 3-4 yrs or more should be replaced w new blood. And I dare say a few more of th Dept Heads. They r still a problem & are still "working th system" w/out the eyes of the CityCouncil.

But back to Nick Fritz, thank u so much 4 bein who u are. Dont let th corrupt ones pull u down to their

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 10:35 am By: Washingtonian

Too many of our teachers are in these radical teachers unions. I would not vote for a teacher for anything unless I knew them very well personally and knew that they were not caught up in this teachers union nonsense. And WHAT are they teaching our children?

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 9:22 am By: Bubba

Van Zant: Could there be mendacity at the the core of all subterfuge afloat, like so many varied 'turds, floating in their political punchbowl?'

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 3:36 am By: Stan Deatherage

The only people disrupting these meetings are Garris and her devotees. The ones she is claiming to be disruptive are only politely trying to have a legal meeting. Having a real meeting is the last thing Garris and her zombies want, because they have been operating illegally and have essentially been caught. They are performing acrobatics in order to keep this out of any official record in an attempt to wiggle out of this tight spot they have put themselves in. Their arrogance knows no bounds.

In the meantime, Garris and the illegal shadow committee are unilaterally making decisions to exclude and harm conservatives. The people that have hijacked the Beaufort County Republican Party are essentially acting as outlaws at this point in time. Some external controlling authority needs to come and review this sorry situation.

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 2:51 am By: Van Zant

These radical teachers unions are enemies of America and are indoctrinating our children. Their members like Davis and Cornelius should NEVER be elected to local school boards. NEVER.

Commented: Monday, February 16th, 2026 @ 8:48 pm By: borderhawk

Lloyd Williams is clearly a Democrat plant in the Republican primary. He could have filed to run against a Democrat judge but instead primaried a Republican who had already announced. Now the other shoe drops. Democrats are endorsing Williams and financing his campaign.

Commented: Monday, February 16th, 2026 @ 8:02 am By: Rino Hunter

Steed: I read an article somewhere recently that discussed what you and I have been debating over: the Boomer (1946-1964) political strategy vs. the Gen X (1965-1980)/Gen Y (1981-1996) political strategy within the realm of Conservative thinking.

The Gen-ZYennials, those born between the early 90's to early 2000's, are the ones really setting "old world" political gatekeepers on fire. They are taking knowledge they've learned from previous generations, studied many different angles and are asking hard questions NOBODY, only a select few are excluded from NOBODY, wants to bring into public discussion.

In some ways, I think some people are genuinely trying to protect the "old world" because times SEEMED to be better. Others are doing so because they want total f-ing control over everything.

Many of our collective heroes come from the "old world". The key to this is taking what was before and making it work in the NOW. It's not anything drastic; it's a kick in the ass.

Commented: Sunday, February 15th, 2026 @ 12:37 pm By: John Valley

One thing that is not followed AT All by these present-day leaders of the Beaufort County Republican Party is the Republican Party Plan of organization. Some higher level of the party needs to come down and fix this. The people here are not capable of doing it. As things are, the party will not survive this.

Commented: Sunday, February 15th, 2026 @ 4:18 pm By: Van Zant

The latest inflation numbers show that inflation is down at its lowest for several years, quite a change from the galloping inflation of the Biden era. Good job, President Trump.

Commented: Saturday, February 14th, 2026 @ 4:11 pm By: Concerned Taxpayer