A Black mother took aim at critical race theory during a local school board meeting, comparing the education to tactics used by Nazi Germany and the Ku Klux Klan.
“Critical race theory is not an honest dialogue, it is a tactic that was used by Hitler and the Ku Klux Klan on slavery very many years ago to dumb down my ancestors so we could not think for ourselves,” Shawntel Cooper said at the Loudoun County School Board meeting Tuesday. “Critical race theory is racist, it is abusive, it discriminates against one’s color. … You can not tell me what is or is not racist.”
The fiery rebuke came as parents at the district, one of the richest in the nation, have recently begun fighting back against plans to adopt a “culturally responsive” curriculum framework that called on the district to dismantle “white supremacy.”
Cooper was not the only parent to speak out at the meeting, with other parents voicing concerns about the district’s Diverse Book Collection, which is supposed to be an initiative to expose students to authors of different races, gender identities, and sexual orientations.
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One group of parents read aloud passages from Monday’s Not Coming, a sexually explicit book that at one point described a girl being assaulted. The parents argued that if reading the passage of the book made the school board uncomfortable, it wasn’t appropriate for students.
“If this is inappropriate for me to read to you, this is inappropriate for our children,” one parent said. “Get these dirty books out of our schools.”
Other books parents complained about included My Princess Boy, which tells the story of a young boy who likes wearing dresses and playing with girls’ toys that was included in the kindergarten curriculum. A junior in high school, meanwhile, could choose to read Whatever: Or How Junior Year Became Totally F$@cked, the story of a teenage boy who faces internal crisis after drunkenly kissing another male.
“Schools should not be imparting their belief structure on our children. That should be left to the parents to share their values, morals, and ethics in a family setting,” one parent said. “That is the most important. Those should be for the parents to impart to their children, not the school.”
One parent told the Washington Free Beacon that opposition to the school’s curriculum and reading lists has hit “critical mass” after six members of the school board allegedly launched an “Anti-Racist Parents” campaign where they targeted parents who had expressed opposition to the curriculum. That parent is now participating in a recall campaign against the six board members.
“This school board, the administration, and the Facebook mob … put Loudoun County as ground zero in a national fight against critical race theory,” the parents said at the meeting. “Every single one of these parents would step in front of a train for their kids, and they will step in front of you too.”
Parents insisted their opposition to the new curriculum is in no way political.
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“I really don’t care if you’re a Democrat, Independent, Republican, white, Asian, black, Hispanic. Everyone needs to be a part of this movement because our kids are bigger than any party, any socially constructed identity group,” a parent said. “If people want their kids to be free thinkers who are successful as adults, then this stuff needs to be torn out from the roots.”
The Loudoun County interim superintendent pushed back that critical race theory is not part of the school’s curriculum and said that “media reports and social media posts have sought to distort the equity work by Loudoun County Public Schools.”
“In explaining LCPS’ equity priorities, it might be helpful to state what they are not. They are not an effort to indoctrinate students and staff into a particular philosophy or theory. What they are is an effort to provide a welcoming, inclusive, affirming environment for all students,” the statement said.
