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MARCH 23–29, 2023
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PRESORTED PERMIT NO. 97 BEAUFORT, SC 29902
COVERING BEAUFORT COUNTY
LOWCOUNTRY LOWDOWN
LOLITA HUCKABY
Sometimes message is missed when coming from bully pulpit
Millie Bennett, president of Diversity Awareness Youth Literacy Organization, answers questions for the Beaufort High School student-run organization during a meeting in Columbia in February. John A. Carlos II/Special to The Post and Courier
‘It all just feels so hypocritical’
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BEAUFORT wo of Beaufort’s top government leaders took to their bully pulpits last week to vent their frustrations. First, County Administrator Eric Greenway used his time at the podium to complain about press accounts of the recent settlement with Bay Point developers. He contended the account incorrectly gave credit to the Gullah-Geechee Fishing Association, the Coastal Conservation League and the S.C. Environmental Law Project for the action. Greenway told his bosses, the County Council; in fact, it was he and the county legal team that convinced the developers to drop their appeal. But he also complained, at a prior committee meeting, that the County Planning Commission’s citizen members aren’t interpreting their role as advisors to the Council correctly.. According to Greenway, the commissioners — who are appointed by County Council — are using their personal opinions too often and listening to the public who doesn’t always know the facts. Beaufort Mayor Stephen Murray, the next day, after opening the meeting by saying to his council, “let’s do some democracy,” used his time in the pulpit to lambaste the Historic Beaufort Foundation and its Director Cynthia Jenkins. His remarks echoed complaints made earlier in the meeting by 303 Associates co-CEOs Jonathan Sullivan and Courtney Worrell and retired CEO Dick Stewart. Murray, who at one point confessed his remarks might be “petty,” continued his tirade against Jenkins and the HBF
SEE LOWDOWN PAGE A5
Beaufort County students lost access to 97 books — they want them back
By Sara Gregory sgregory@postandcourier.com
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BEAUFORT adelyn Confare was in her AP English Literature class the first time she heard about the 97 books some adults wanted out of her school district’s libraries. Her classmates at Beaufort High School passed around the list, pointing out ones they had each read. Many saw favorites cataloged, books they gushed over and couldn’t stop
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talking about. One of them, Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” was assigned reading in another class. Confare was outraged but also baffled. Why remove books that
students want to read? Confare is a bookworm. Two tall shelves in her bedroom are filled, and they don’t even hold all her books. But for most of her 17 years, reading has simply been a pleasant hobby, a way to disappear into fantasy worlds and learn about people whose lives are nothing like her own. Then, two adults made a list of books that touched on issues of race, gender and sexual identity,
SEE ACCESS PAGE A4
3rd book removed from Beaufort County schools Committees return 9 of 10 of latest batch of books to shelves
By Mike McCombs The Island News A third book — The Haters by Jesse Andrews — has been removed from the shelves of the Beaufort County School District in its entirety as 10 more book committees met Wednesday, March 15 at Okatie Elementary School to review books currently under review by the Beaufort
County School District. The Haters, joins two other books — Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, removed in February, and It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover, removed in January, that will be kept out of the Beaufort County School District for at least the next five years. Committees have now reviewed 36 of the 97 books un-
NEWS
SPORTS
Dancing With Our Stars raises over $300,000 for CAPA of Beaufort.
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der review, returning 33 to the shelves in some fashion. Here’s how Committees 27 through 36 ruled on the books they reviewed: No. 27: The Art of Racing In The Rain by Garth Stein, return to library circulation. No. 28: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, return to library cir-
SEE COUNTY PAGE A2
MILITARY
INSIDE
Collision at 3 results in altercation, ends game at Battery Creek.
Nonprofit Military Hearts Matter joins SC Veterans Coalition.
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