He discussed what high school kids all want to talk about This is just sad: Scott Kercher, a beloved history teacher in New Jersey, dared to tackle some of the tough issues of our times, hosting frank conversations about racism and gender identity when he came to the 85% white school district of Sparta in Republican Sussex County. He won an award and statewiderecognition for his efforts as head of the district’s diversity council, but make no mistake: This is a cautionary tale. Now an effective leader who knew how to connect with kids is gone, thanks to an intrusion of right-wing politics that is threatening the quality of education in Sparta. It’s a powerful example of the kind of atmosphere that we do not want to build in our schools, where teachers are scared to speak up and nobody wants this job because of the political lurch that we’re living through right now. But let’s start at the beginning. In 2020, more than 400 former students wrote a letter in the wake of George Floyd’s killing, saying they didn’t think Sparta was doing enough to prepare them for a diverse world. Kercher, a social studies and languages supervisor, says he happily stepped in to help. It would have been negligent not to. Having just created Sparta’s diversity council when he came to the district in 2019, he set to work, inviting the primary authors of the alumni letter to join his efforts – and in doing so, ended up…