Whitfield openly criticized those advocating against CRT by stating, “If you listen to their words that they have to say in an open forum, they’ll tell you exactly who they are about having school for and that is if you are a white, Christian, straight person.” “If she had said this about blacks or Jews, this may have made national headlines, but because it was against conservative Christians, it only made local headlines in the area,” Cordova said.Ĭordova and Rowan described another incident in which a GCISD principal, James Whitfield, agreed to leave his role after being accused of advocating for CRT. On the podcast, Mario Cordova, who was also among the 40 supportive speakers in the meeting, described an incident earlier in the year in which Lisa Grimes, a GCISD teacher, resigned after being caught on video telling other teachers, “I’m telling you, those conservative Christian people, they need to die they need to get COVID and die.”īoth Cordova and Rowan said it was an incident that reflected toxic attitudes “in pockets” of the district toward Christian parents. On his website,, he and others have compiled what he said was evidence of the district’s relationship with CRT and SEL propaganda. Conservative Christians ‘Need to Get COVID and Die’Īnother speaker during public comment, advocate Aaron Rowan, said he had been on a podcast called Deprogrammed with Keri Smith, in which he detailed the background of what he described as “existentially troubling attitudes” within school district officials. The idea that CRT is equivalent to teaching about racism has been the main talking point for critics against anti-CRT legislation, and those critics have often alleged that those pushing for policies that would prohibit CRT in public K-12 public schools are attempting to “whitewash” history.
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However, a sentence following the one Rodriguez read on page two of the document added, “However, in the event a teacher chooses to discuss a topic described above, the teacher must explore that topic objectively in a manner free from political bias.”
The speaker suggested that the policy would prevent teachers from being a “safe space” for children where their parents aren’t.īoard member Jorge Rodriguez said he took issue with the sentence in the policy stating that teachers “shall not be compelled to discuss widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs.” “I am shocked that we need this, but I am grateful for those who put this together so we can get this implemented,” he said.Ī speaker who said she was against the policy said it was “ridiculous,” arguing that those who proposed the policy are operating under the assumption that “racism doesn’t exist,” while also arguing that the policy would prohibit mental health treatment for children “by not allowing them to be themselves.” One speaker during the public comment session who stood in favor of the proposed policy said after being shown what children were being taught in school, “I was shocked.” Mark Robinson’s “Indoctrination in North Carolina Public Education” report. Race shaming and allusions to surgical castration in children’s literature-as well as accusations of xenophobia against political figures such as former President Donald Trump-were among the themes found in North Carolina Lt. In North Carolina, a task force was initiated in 2021 to give teachers and students an online portal on which to share their experiences with political and sexual indoctrination in the classroom.
The policy would require that teachers present controversial topics “in an impartial and objective manner,” while teachers “not use the classroom to transmit personal beliefs regarding political or sectarian issues.” The policy proposed that teachers should instead be required to present materials related to the founding documents, such as the Declaration of Independence, as well as speeches by African American statesman Frederick Douglas and Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King. However, under the microscope, parents and teachers have reported agenda-based content, such as ideologies telling children they can choose their own gender while authorizing teachers to diagnose students with gender dysphoria, a practice that steps outside the purview of taxpayer-funded public education. Many of these SEL programs that come from companies such as the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning promote themselves as resources to help children develop positive emotional skills that will in turn help them learn.