Today we bring you a guest writer from Parents Rights in Education. They are active regionally and State wide protecting the rights of parents and children. Give the article a read and then stop by their website and learn how you can help and support their efforts.
Across the nation and in the state of Washington, in an effort to promote equity and inclusion, schools have begun to teach Critical Race Theory. Critical Race Theory or CRT asserts that systemic racism is part of American society and challenges the beliefs that allow it to flourish; if you are white, you are inherently racist, if you are a person of color, you are inherently oppressed. Therefore, white people must acknowledge their “white privilege” and do the work to overcome it. On the other hand, people of color live under oppression every day and have been since the founding of our country. Proponents of CRT feel this type of education is necessary to fight against systemic racism which is ingrained into our society including the public school system.
But the prospect of children being taught that they are either privileged or victimized simply because of their skin color has resulted in negative consequences and has parents protesting at school board meetings in many states. A Virginia high school teacher berated a student in front of an English class for not acknowledging the race of two girls seen in a presentation slide. In a California high school, a teacher loudly admonishes a student for asking the question, why is there not a white student union club when there is an Asian student student union club, arguing that it’s racist to have clubs limited to racial identity, while also excluding white people from having their own club too. And Last year a Seattle teacher training accused white educators of committing “spirit murder” against black students.
Parents and some brave teachers are understandably disturbed by what is being pushed by activist school boards and superintendents and are starting to push back. They are testifying at school board meetings, organizing protests, and telling their stories to the media. One group of concerned parents in Loudoun County school district were doxed by a secret group of current and former teachers, publicizing their names, addresses and pictures of them and their kids on social media. In the same school district one brave teacher testified before the school board about the damage done to kids by CRT, which tells white kids they need to be ashamed because of their privilege, and students of color that they can never get ahead because they are oppressed.
This is not fair to any child. Every child is beautifully and wonderfully made. They deserve to know that they are valued as an individual with their own unique talents and abilities. When schools have this type of policy, they create an atmosphere where children can achieve to the best of their abilities, while also getting the individual attention they need in order to succeed. That is what every student deserves.
Because this has become such an important issue Parents’ Rights in Education has created a resolution to stop CRT and BLM policies and curriculum from being implemented in the public schools. We have created a kit with the resolution, petitions and instructions which may be used by any citizen group to present to their school board. Already, parents in the Battle Ground School District and the Lynden School District have started distributing petitions and gathering signatures.
If you would like to send a message to your school board about CRT:
- Visit our website, https://www.parentsrightsined.org/stop-anti-racism-curriculum.html
- Decide which resolution you need, the one to reject CRT or the one to remove CRT.
- Download the petition and the instructions and start gathering signatures.
- Share the petition and the link for the online petition with friends, neighbors, and anyone else living in your district.
CRITICAL RACE THEORY IS DIVISIVE AND DESTRUCTIVE, WE MUST PUSH BACK!
Does the Camas School Board Care?
I attended the Camas School Board meeting on Monday evening, the 10th of May. Here is my observation. The meeting first started with many concerned parents airing their many and varied grievances. Once finished, it was board business as usual. Next, School Board Superintended Jeff Snell read a list of items which where outlined on the video screen located at the north end corner of the room. Once finished, about 4 or 5 school administrators gave updates on items, budgets, finance, projects etc… Each presenter held a microphone, walked up to the video screen and addressed the board members to their right, parents to their left. Now here is the observation. Not one of the admininistrators thanked (common courtesy) the parents in attendance before or after their presentations nor offered any acknowledgment that the parents were in attendance –all sitting to their left. Most did not even offer a glance at the many frustrated parents who moments earlier gave passionate, well thought out speeches. Wow! Just wow!!
This is why every parent should be outraged. I work for a living providing a service to manufacturing companies some small and some very large and publicly traded. When products are in development or ready to be launched such a board/launch meeting would include vendors, customers and shareholders. I assure you that pink slips would be issued post-haste by the management if their administrators — salesperson, design/ project/product managers along heads of production who failed to graciously thank, let alone acknowledge the very important people in attendance.
Parents, this is where we are at. They don’t care about you, so by extension, they could not possibly care about your children no matter how much lip service they have given to the contrary in 2020 and the year to date? Could this be a leadership thing? What the monkey does is what the other monkeys do. Maybe people who just lack for graciousness? Bad manners? Or it could be something more nefarious? Nevertheless, this was a disgrace and an outward show of disrespect for the parents in attendance and the parents who have a child in Camas schools.
Sometimes, it is the little things that say a lot about people, companies, and organizations. We’ve all experienced the waiter or waitress that doesn’t greet you with a smile, or thank you for your patronage. The little things matter, yet what happened at the board meeting, likely unnoticed by many, is no small matter considering the level of frustration, concern, and anger displayed by Camas parents, and for that matter, the many parents across this country voicing the same grievances. There are many.
To conclude, I left the meeting imagining what the board members might have been saying to each other after the parents left. I imagined that someone might have uttered the following: “we gave them their three minutes, moved them along, we finished with the real business. Good meeting…”
The Camas School Board disrespected every parent in that room and the many outside the building, and we the parents must insist on a apology and a pledge by CSB that does not ever happen again.
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