Sandra Day O'Connor omission noted as North Carolina Board of Ed OKs controversial teaching documents

Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman ever appointed to the nation's highest court, was unjustly omitted from a list of remarkable women in American history, critics of new grade-school teaching guidance in North Carolina claimed this week.

"I know we cannot think of every person in history, every event in history, every major theme in history, but I cannot for the life of me understand how in this particular standard within the unpacking documents how we missed Sandra Day O’Connor — the first female to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981," conservative board member Olivia Oxendine said, according to the News & Observer in Raleigh. "I don’t know how we missed that historical figure." The board approved the new documents in a 7-3 vote, which also included compromises such as leaving out the terms "systemic racism," and "gender identity," according to WTVD-TV of the Raleigh-Durham area.  The examples of women "who have contributed to change and innovation in the United States" listed for a 5th-grade classroom in the state include the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, suffragette Susan B. Anthony, abolitionist Sojourner Truth and former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.