Torie Wheatley is a passionate teacher and adjunct professor in the Mecklenburg County school district. She has taught and inspired children for 14 years, but because of anti-DEI measures, she and her students have struggled.
“Expectations have been put into place to try and dismantle everything related to DEI,” says Wheatley. “But when it’s in your fabric of who you are, and when DEI is best practices and the best inclusivity of all, you can’t remove that from education, and that’s where I’m firm on.
“This is education. Education is DEI. Education is diverse perspectives, diverse lifestyles, and honoring those within our students and ourselves. So to take that away, you’re taking away what we need in education.”
Wheatley calls herself a rebel and stops at nothing to fight for her students. “I’m no tolerance when it comes to my babies. I’m no tolerance when it comes to what is right, and I’m no tolerance when it comes to supporting all of my students and their needs, their communities and whatever they have.”
In North Carolina, public schools and universities have gutted their libraries, defunded organizations and centers associated with DEI, and attempted to erase any proof of the factual record of historic racism.
“[Teaching] is definitely something that moves me, that shakes me, but also with everything happening, it’s definitely sad, and… stifling, and it’s painful that the system is against what we try to protect,” says Wheatley. “I tell people, 2025-2026 was probably one of my hardest years. Dealing with ICE and protecting my kids, despite what society wants to do, [students] are dealing with suicidal ideation because they’re afraid to go to school, or they’re not being seen. DEI not just impacted…how we teach, but it impacted the mental well-being of our students.”
In June of this year, the North Carolina House voted 71-47 to override Gov. Josh Stein’s veto of Bill 227. According to the document, the new bill claims that DEI promotes discriminatory practices relating to concepts around diversity. Instead, it wants, “…students, teachers, administrators, and other school employees [to] recognize the equality and rights of all persons and to prohibit public school units from promoting certain concepts that are contrary to that intent.”
These concepts refer to any content claiming that groups (like people of color, people with disabilities, and the queer community) are disproportionately represented, compared to the cisgender white community.
“With this whole anti-DEI…mindset. There has been a lot of things where we had to pull. So, of course, the banning of certain books, the banning of certain topics…even when it comes to teaching my beginning teachers, there are certain topics we had to tailor [to Bill 227] because it sounded too DEI, like equity and inclusion. We had to tailor our diversity conversations for talking about intersectionality or talking about anti-racism…that was one of our books, “How to be anti-racist”… we couldn’t do that book anymore for our beginning teachers.”
Wheatley’s high school abides by these new policies but will continue to honor its students and staff. “We [teachers] do all we can to protect our babies, but it’s hard to protect them when the world around them is not.”
A teacher’s struggle
During “Operation Charlotte’s Web,” Wheatley and other teachers checked up on their kids regularly. Says Wheatley: “I had students come to me and say, ‘Dr. T, I’m not comfortable coming to school because I don’t feel safe because ICE was around my neighborhood, or I saw satellites, or my parents were approached. So I’m not going to come to school.’”
“As a teacher, when we don’t see them [students], our hearts stop,” Wheatley continues. “Like my gut wrenched. So every day I’m texting parents. I’m calling parents [asking] are you okay?… I’m sending parents emails saying, ‘Hey, you all, here’s what services I have seen providing free legal advice. So, I would try and be that person to give them that support.”
Like many other educators, Wheatley has pushed her students to choose safety over class. For many students, school is a place of community and belonging. Still, federal and state policies have tainted that safety. WBTV claimed that over 56,000 students were absent the first two days ICE arrived in Charlotte.
“This is where we [educators] had to use our heart versus the policy,” says Wheatley. “If my heart is saying, if you come to school you might get abducted – taken away by these evil people…then no…my heart doesn’t feel comfortable [telling students to come to class]. So, we’re [teachers] going to work with you [students], and I’d rather you stay at home, and we’ll work and figure out how we’re going to bring success to you.”
She adds, “We had to get creative as teachers when it came to dealing with our babies who were afraid of ICE. And luckily I’m at school where I have a lot of teachers who are rebels…who will work with our students and who will protect them equally.”
But teachers can only do so much when policymakers are watching their every move. “It’s unfortunate that those of us who are challenging education, those of us who are trying to do what’s best for our kids, are the ones who are being condemned the most.” Wheatley has applied to over a thousand jobs, but her doctorate focuses on urban education. “Everything that comes under my doctorate is DEI. So, even the process of finding jobs within the higher ed sector has been a horrible process, and I’m not alone; I have colleagues who are going through the same thing because we’re so DEI-focused we’re not getting jobs.”
“I can’t move to higher ed because of what and who I am,” she continues, “And I’m not going to be in a place that’s going to subject me to lower or to not be my full or authentic self. That’s not healthy for my mental, that’s not healthy for me and what value will I bring to y’all [universities] if you’re trying to stifle everything I’m great at?”
Wheatley stays grounded through her students and makes sure they feel seen. “I tell my kids I’m just here to listen. I’m not here to judge; I’m just here to give advice. I’m here to just be your support, and sometimes just doing that is enough…”
Sometimes listening is what parents and educators lack, and it’s up to teachers to fill that gap.
“To be a teacher,” she says, “is to love every single one of your students that comes through that [classroom] door. So if I’m not making that student comfortable, then what am I doing?”
Though these past few years have been tough, Wheatley wouldn’t trade the lessons she’s learned. “I think these years have, if anything, propelled me to be a stronger teacher and propelled me to just fight the good fight…to support all my students and stand my ground.” Usually, Wheatley would describe herself as bubbly and non-confident, but this year things had to change.
Creating activists, not spectators
Wheatley says some students have pointed out the effects anti-DEI policies are having on their education. “With some teachers, they can tell. Like ‘oh, why don’t we learn about this [subject] with some teachers but we learn it with you?’ So they can see where, sadly, some of the staff takes on this [anti-]DEI thing.” She’s also noticed that students are rewriting and willing to break their parents’ trend of discrimination.
“That’s the kind of youth that we have. We have those youth who are not repeating those [parents] patterns, who are calling their parents out.”
Yet Wheatley adds that kids are understanding what’s going on but have no idea what to do with it, and that’s where the teachers come in.
Wheatley’s high school allowed its students to participate in the ICE protests and hold spaces when they needed. She adds that she has seen kids use social media and drawings, realizing that activism isn’t all about marches; it’s about challenging oppressors in any way they can.
Wheatley explains, “We’re all in that space, we’re all fighting for justice, fighting for what’s right, but it seems like what’s wrong seems to be the winner.”
She continues, “So we’re all [teachers] trying to keep their [students’] morale up and letting them know… ‘Hey you all, this is something historically that we have been through before [and] we went through it again. We conquered it once; we can conquer it again.”
Understanding the importance of history, Wheatley brings up events like Stonewall, different advocates and allies, and continues to strengthen her will with quotes from Angela Davis and others. She says, “We [as a society] don’t know what to do. Where one day, certain things might be happening. The next day, we’re crumbling right beneath our feet.”
Because of the erasure of DEI practices, Wheatley feels as though she has to hide who she is. If she hides her identity, she could keep her job but lose her students because they can no longer find representation in school. When these thoughts occur, Wheatley wonders if she should leave teaching behind, but her students remind her that living in her truth is what helps them understand complexity and that they shouldn’t fear differences.
The stress of new policies and regulations can feel unbearable for teachers. Wheatley adds, “We don’t know what to tell our kids, and for me that’s a frustration…The only thing I can tell them is that we’ve been through this before and that we’re going to be okay, but of course, my spirit is saying, I don’t know. Like, are we going to be okay? Or are you going to be okay? For me, that [thought] is where my heart breaks, ’cause I’m kind of giving them this…false hope of a possible better [future], but they’re seeing a pattern of we’re getting consistently worse.”
“Parents are scared, teachers are scared, kids are scared. But whatever comes, we wanna protect our [students], and we wanna be there, and we want them to know that, ‘Hey, no matter where you are, you are protected in these four walls of the school.’”
Wheatley adds, “I think just providing a moment of silence, a moment of refuge – if it can’t be all day, we’re going to have this moment or this hour and a half that you’re in our class. And I think that’s kind of the goal…let’s do things day by day and let’s make sure when they [students] are here that it’s purposeful and intentional and that they are filled with support and love.”
This story is brought to you by Rosedale Health and Wellness and Dudley’s Place.
