Virginia parents condemned an “anti-racism” curriculum in a middle school pilot program, saying it is “Marxist” and “only creates resentment” at a school board meeting Thursday.
Albemarle County Public Schools introduced a curriculum called Courageous Conversations About Race between May and June for all grades at Henley Middle School. The guidance, which district leaders approved in February 2019, includes talks about race, white privilege, bias, and transgender issues. Some parents bill the curriculum as critical race theory.
“What I see now really, truly scares me — what’s going on in tax-supported schools here in Albemarle County,” said David Wallace, who noted he is an Army veteran, teaches at a private school, and was a police officer for 22 years. “CRT is a Marxist program that is hell-bent on isolating, dividing, and diminishing our ability to work together as a community, and if you bring forth this policy, it will destroy our community even more and fragment it even more then it is right now.”
Wallace continued: “I don’t hate anybody — I spent my time defending my Constitution, my citizens, and my community. I love people of all colors, all religions, all backgrounds, so to adopt policies that are going to be detrimental to our young women, our young men — we cannot let that stand. We must work together as a community.”
Daniel Mais, a father of two children in the district, said teaching “anti-racism, white privilege, and the other ideas of critical race theory” only “creates resentment and division and serves no good purpose.”
“Despite ACPS’ good intentions with the implementation of its anti-racism policy, Courageous Conversations, and culturally responsible teaching, I strongly disagree with its methods of fighting discrimination with more discrimination,” Mais told school board members Thursday. “Children should be taught that personal responsibility and hard work and effort is the key to a good life and that race is not a factor.”
Marie Mierzejewski criticized the school’s “liberal agenda.”
“I’m never for discrimination of any kind. I have a sibling … that would not fall … into the white, cisgender category,” she said. “I am not racist, I’m not a bigot, I’m not any of those things, however, I may not subscribe to the same liberal ideology that many of the people that are OK with this liberal agenda are for.”
More than 400 parents signed a petition to remove Courageous Conversations from the district’s docket. They demanded the school conduct “open, public surveys” to approve aspects of the course and urged board members to conduct a “comprehensive, balanced analysis” of the proposal.
“As diverse members of the Albemarle County community, we join our neighbors in vehemently supporting a learning environment for our children that is free from discrimination, hate, exclusion and bullying of any kind,” the online form read. “We are concerned about the new Courageous Conversations program being piloted at Henley Middle School, and whether it is the right way to achieve the above goals we are all united in supporting.”
After dozens of parents spoke out against the methods, the school board employed a lottery system July 1 to limit public comment on the matter ahead of the Thursday meeting. If the number of parents exceeded 40, the lottery was to be used.
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“Historically, school board agendas have set aside 30 minutes to hear public comments during business meetings, with each speaker provided up to three minutes,” the board wrote at the time. “This allows for as many as 10 speakers. In recent meetings, however, the number of requests from people wishing to address the board during a meeting has exceeded two and three times that number, extending well into the time set aside to review or vote on business agenda items.”
A similar fight has been ongoing in nearby Loudoun County, Virginia, after a school board appealed a preliminary injunction that reinstated a middle school physical education teacher who refused to refer to students using pronouns other than their biological gender. Byron “Tanner” Cross was suspended from his role in May and sued the school system through his counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian pro-free speech group.
