A High School Pulled Its "Right-Wing Propaganda" Summer Reading List After Complaints – BuzzFeed News

Ponder ran an unsuccessful 2010 campaign for Alabama lieutenant governor as a Republican.

During the race, Ponder took a radical limited-government stance, and said in an email that he wanted to stop the federal government's "coercion, intimidation and blackmail" of states, according to AL.com.

He proposed that "all compulsory federal legislation that directs states to comply under threat of force by civil or criminal penalties or sanctions...be prohibited and repealed."

Local politicians from both sides of the aisle criticized Ponder's strong words. His Republican primary opponent, Hank Erwin, said "language like that" bordered on secessionist.

"We're not trying to secede from the Union," Erwin said at the time.

The mother, who asked her last name not be used, is a Democrat. Still, she said, she always taught her children to do "their own research, their own deciding on things."

But her teenage son hadn't really formed his own political beliefs before meeting Ponder, she said. And when he started the AP Government class, his sudden transformation was "scary."

"[My son] asked, 'Why shouldnt we be friends with Russia?' and 'Maybe dictatorship isnt so bad,'" said Jennifer. "He was never a racist kid. And he was a science buff."

She said she didn't complain to the school out of fear of retribution, and didn't see the reading list until it was posted online Wednesday.

"Now hes really argumentative, so we cant have good talks," said Jennifer. "Im never right, hes never wrong."

"I dont necessarily mind that he has his own mind, but this was implanted," she said. "This was purposeful by the teacher. It completely changed his ability to think about things on his own."

In a video he posted on Facebook, Morgan said the teacher is "a great Christian and a great human being" and "like a second father" to him.

He supports the reading list, but told BuzzFeed News he thinks it would be better if a few liberal books were added and students had to read one of each one liberal, one conservative.

"I don't think he purposefully tries to influence opinion, but I find that hard to believe because I actually shifted more left in his class than I originally was," Morgan said. "Before I went into his class I was far-right Republican, but now I am a libertarian. Fiscally conservative, socially liberal."

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A High School Pulled Its "Right-Wing Propaganda" Summer Reading List After Complaints - BuzzFeed News