Education Issues - Actions / Reactions

[GURPS]

Conservative Parents Sweep Texas School Board Elections on a Theme of Transparency, No Masks, and No CRT in the Classroom​

Saturday, school board elections were held for four suburban Fort Worth, Texas, school districts. Candidates backed by a conservative parents’ organization won all 10 seats they contested and unseated at least three incumbents.

Usually, school board elections are low-key affairs that draw scant interest. But ever since COVID, Critical Race Theory (CRT), and mainstreaming of sexual grooming in our classrooms brought the stupidity and cruelty of many school board members to public view, they have become a battleground. Once sane people saw the horror show and bullsh** that was the Loudoun County, Virginia, school board, they started paying attention (ordinarily, I link to articles by colleagues, but in this case, there was so much excellent RedState coverage of the Loudoun County fascism that I’m giving a single link for all the coverage).

Yesterday’s elections were just a continuation of the revolt over CRT that started last year. Even though we all know it is only taught as an elective in law school and a total non-issue in school board elections, teaching children to observe racial stereotypes and judge classmates based on their skin color is deeply offensive to thinking people.

 

[GURPS]

Excellence in Equity: California Eyes Obliterating 'Bias' by Getting Rid of Grades​

In California, they’re trying to rid America of its obliterative bias.


One way: Stop giving grades in college.

As seen in a March 16th memo posted online, the president of the state’s public university system asked the Academic and Student Affairs Committee to consider a big change.


In some cases, the old ways have been alright — particularly grading on a curve — but ultimate equity trumps all:

The University of California is exploring innovations in instructional delivery, assessment, and grading to improve learning outcomes, promote academic integrity, and advance educational equity. Traditional grading practices, such as averaging grades across assignments or grading on a curve, have merit in some cases but there may be more effective options for advancing achievement and educational equity. UC campuses are engaged in a variety of initiatives to reexamine assessment and grading practices, some of which are illustrated in this written item.

The president references “learning outcomes,” but if I understand correctly, at issue is reward rather than retention — grades, after all, reflect the latter.

 

[Hijinx]

Am I right in observing that if they do this the act of paying tuition will mean a graduation document is assured?

 

[GURPS]

How Critical Race Theory Atrophied Excellence​

While leftist apologists in corporate media like to claim that CRT is a theory bandied about in graduate schools and that K-12 teachers don’t actually use the words “critical race theory,” they are wrong to assume this makes CRT a mythical rallying cry for white supremacist voters. In truth, CRT has brought about bad policy by subverting state governments, school boards, and district leaders with poisonous ideology and bad logic.

According to CRT dogma, all disparities in outcomes between different racial groups are attributable to systemic racism. Thus, if black and Hispanic students fail their classes and are suspended more often than white and Asian students, this must be because of racism, not because they aren’t working as hard or behaving as well. The problem supposedly lies with the discriminatory standards set, not with the students who aren’t meeting those standards.

From this perspective, affluent districts like Keller or Southlake with glaring achievement gaps between different racial groups have a big problem. On the whole, they may be exemplary, but their unequal performance outcomes would negate this. Instead of meeting the needs of their struggling students of color, they focused their efforts on serving the majority of competitive upper-middle-class students.

In order to fix this problem, these school districts’ priorities were accordingly flipped by left-leaning school board members and district leaders committed to CRT. As Luke Rosiak writes in his recent book “Race to the Bottom,” this has happened all over the country, particularly in ritzy suburban schools where “equity” (that is, ensuring equal outcomes) becomes the overarching goal of every policy. Since boosting performance across races while narrowing the pre-existing gap is impossible, the usual course of action is to flatten all students to the same low standard.

Parents Fight Back Against CRT Destroying High-Achieving Schools

Most parents were upset about their neighborhood schools, which they were paying top dollar to be zoned for, falling short.

thefederalist.com

 

[GURPS]

One of the hot new accusations against conservatives is that they’re banning books left and right. And usually, a “ban” means that a book has been reserved for a more age-appropriate audience. For example, there was an uproar on social media over the banning of the Holocaust graphic novel “Maus,” but it wasn’t banned — it was just moved up to a higher grade level. That’s not to say books haven’t been banned — liberals have banned classics such as “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Randi Weingarten, who has limited replies to her tweet and yet is perhaps the most ratio’d person on Twitter whenever she tweets, said her union, the American Federation of Teachers, has joined a coalition to prevent the banning of books by people who are “trying to ban knowledge.”

American Federation of Teachers joins coalition to stop those who are banning books, 'trying to ban knowledge'

twitchy.com

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

Books bans are when the state proscribes specific books from even being published. I can buy pretty much Amazon every book referenced in pieces like this in less than three minutes.

But sure. Book bans are everywhere. https://t.co/kwUgdnyio3

— Miles Smith IV (@IVMiles) May 11, 2022

 

[GURPS]

Disinformation Czarina Nina Jankowicz Declares Parents Concerned About Critical Race Theory “Disinformers”​

Now she’s moving from targeting Russians to targeting parents concerned about CRT:

President Biden’s new disinformation czar dismissed the parents angry about critical race theory being taught to their kids as disinformers “weaponizing” the issue “for profit.”

Nina Jankowicz, the controversial pick for Homeland Security’s Orwellian “Disinformation Governance Board,” brushed off concerns when asked about the divisive race-focused teaching philosophy while speaking in Ohio in October.
“Critical Race Theory has become one of those hot-button issues that the Republicans and other disinformers, who are engaged in disinformation for profit, frankly … have seized on,” she said.
She noted that she lived in Virginia where Loudoun County — which saw throngs of parents angrily speaking up at school boards — was “one of the areas where people have really homed in on this topic.”

 

[GURPS]

Science teachers’ association holds a conference with a presentation on ‘queering your classroom’​

Here’s one that Libs of TikTok posted Tuesday night, and we think it’s pretty special. If you’ll recall, it seems the White House recently settled on LGBTQIA+ as its official inclusive alphabet, including intersex people as well as asexual people, with the plus sign for anyone they forgot. Intersex people are often overlooked, but activists like to include them because they provide biological proof that someone can have a vagina but not a uterus, for example, so “menstruators” doesn’t cover them.

We don’t see anything too shocking in this presentation, but it’s interesting that it’s presented by the National Science Teaching Association, and we all know that science class today isn’t what it was when we were in school.

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

Fight Against School Equity Agenda And De-Leveling “Being Won on the Ground by the Parents” In Barrington, Rhode Island​

The “equity” and “de-leveling” controversy in Barrington, Rhode Island, is continuing to reverberate. We covered it in Parents Revolt Against “Equity” Agenda In Barrington (RI) As School District Drops Precipitously In National Rankings:

Barrington, Rhode Island, where Legal Insurrection Foundation is based, is the center of a firestorm of parent protest over an “equity” agenda scaling back or eliminating accelerated high school courses. This so-called “de-leveling” has united parents of all political affiliations in a parents movement that is gaining steam with calls to replace town political and school leadership.

Coverage by Fox News went viral, Rhode Island parents enraged at school board for removing honors classes in ‘equity obsession’. I was quoted in the story:

Bill Jacobson, a long-time Barrington resident and founder of Legal Insurrection, said, “De-leveling is part of an agenda of equalizing outcomes. This equal-results approach stems from critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion, which posit that unequal outcomes are the result of systemic bias and discrimination. ‘Equity’ in particular is the codeword for bringing high achievers down to equalize outcomes,” Jacobson said. “‘Equity’ has become an unhealthy obsession, and parents are seeing the impact.”

 

[GURPS]

FBI INVESTIGATED CONCERNED PARENTS​

Emphasis added. These “investigations” were ridiculous and could only have been intended to intimidate conservative parents from being involved in their public schools. One might note that these parents merely attended public school board meetings to express their opinions. I am not aware of a single case where they demonstrated outside the home of a school board member.

One investigation allegedly began after the FBI received a tip that a mom had told a local school board, “We are coming for you.” The complaint “alleged that the mom was a threat because she belonged to a ‘right wing mom’s group’ known as ‘Moms for Liberty,’ and because she is a ‘gun owner,’” the congressmen wrote. An FBI agent reportedly interviewed the the mom, who said she was upset about a school mask mandate and wanted to elect new board members.

Sounds like an insurrectionist! But imagine having a couple of FBI agents ring your doorbell on instructions from the Attorney General because you don’t align politically with the Biden administration.

In another instance, the congressmen wrote that an FBI agent interviewed a tipster who admitted he had “no specific information or observations . . . of any crimes or threats.” The tipster had submitted a complaint against an anti-mask-mandate dad, claiming that the dad “fit the profile of an insurrectionist,” and the FBI had opened an investigation into the dad.

The “tip line” sounds like something out of Red China. More details on that case from the Congressmen’s letter:

Another one:

The congressmen also claimed that the FBI began an investigation into Republican elected officials in a certain state because a Democratic state-party official claimed that the Republicans “‘incited violence’ by expressing public displeasure with school districts’ mask mandates.”

Contemplate that: a complaint by a “Democratic state-party official” was enough to trigger an FBI investigation of “Republican elected officials” who opposed mask mandates. What country are we living in?

 

[GURPS]

Kiel, Wisconsin school district charges kids for using wrong pronouns​

The school district in Kiel, a city of 3,600 residents, has charged the three eighth-graders at the Kiel Middle School with sexual harassment after an incident in April in which the students refused to use “they” to refer to a classmate who had switched pronouns a month before the alleged incident, according to reports.

“I received a phone call from the principal …forewarning me, letting me know that I was going to be receiving an email with sexual harassment allegations against my son,” said Rosemary Rabidoux, whose 13-year-old son Braden is one of the students charged with sexual harassment.

“I immediately went into shock,” she continued in an interview with FOX 11. “I’m thinking sexual harassment? That’s rape, that’s inappropriate touching, that’s incest. What has my son done?”

 

[GURPS]

A transgender professor who resigned from a Virginia university after sparking outrage by complaining that pedophilia is a “stigmatizing” term has been hired by prestigious Johns Hopkins University.

Allyn Walker, a former assistant professor at Old Dominion University who is a biological female but identifies as “non-binary,” created a firestorm last November by pushing the term “minor-attracted person” as an alternative to the “stigmatizing” designation of pedophile. Walker, author of a book called “A Long Dark Shadow: Minor-Attracted People and Their Pursuit of Dignity,” resigned after being put on leave, but has now resurfaced at the Baltimore school’s Moore Center for Prevention of Sexual Abuse.

“We are excited to share that Allyn Walker, PhD, will be joining the Moore Center as a postdoctoral fellow on May 25,” the Moore Center tweeted.

Old Dominion University put Walker on leave last November after an interview Walker gave to the Protasia Foundation to promote the book. In the interview, Walker insisted that the term “minor-attracted persons” was a preferable alternative to pedophile.

“It’s less stigmatizing than other terms like pedophile,” Walker said. “A lot of people when they hear the term pedophile, they automatically assume that it means a sex offender. And that isn’t true. And it leads to a lot of misconceptions about attractions toward minors.”

Virginia Trans Prof Accused Of Defending Adult-Child Sex Hired By Johns Hopkins | The Daily Wire

www.dailywire.com

 

[GURPS]

Two top administrators at the Santa Barbara, California, school system resigned shortly after a three-part Daily Wire series that exposed how a Communist-supporting “ethnic studies” teacher committed battery against a teenage girl in class and then continued to influence school policy even after his criminal conviction.

In the series, the victim – an illegal immigrant whom The Daily Wire referred to with the pseudonym of Maria because she is a minor and the victim of abuse – also alleged that Jennifer Freed, a “social emotional learning” guru, pressured her to drop the charges against the teacher, Matef Harmachis. Freed denied the allegation, though she has boasted that she holds group sessions for schoolgirls in which she talks to them about sex. Harmachis was convicted of battery, but later called his victim a “Karen.”

Assistant Superintendent for secondary education Shawn Carey announced her resignation only days after signing a contract extension. Her school district salary in 2019 was $207,000. After leaving the city school district, she will take a new position as director of school and district support for the county education office. A job ad matching that position says the salary tops out at about $141,000.

Santa Barbara School Officials Resign Following CRT, ‘Grooming’ Scandal | The Daily Wire

www.dailywire.com

 

[GURPS]

Mom Reads Aloud Purported Assignment Given To Daughter. School Board Cuts Her Mic Because It’s Too Obscene​

“This will be horrifying for me to read to you, but that will give you perspective on how she must have felt when her teacher required her to memorize this and to act it out in front of her entire class,” the mother said.

The assignment allegedly read, “I don’t love you. It’s not you, it’s just, I don’t like your d**k. Or any d**k in that case. I cheated Joe.” The mother was immediately cut off after she read the assignment.

A Board of Education member told the mother that they cut her off for the use of profanity.

“If you don’t want me to read it to you, what was it like for my 15-year-old daughter to have to memorize pornographic material and memorize it and portray —,” the mother said before her microphone was silenced.






So Obscene the assignment cannot be read in public school board meeting .. but this ok for a 15 yr old

 

[GURPS]

Virginia Mom Sues School For Allegedly Turning Her Son Into An Insufferable Woke Race Activist​

Melissa Riley sued the Albemarle County School Board over its “anti-racism” policy that she believes completely shifted her biracial son’s outlook on race, she told “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Monday.

“We didn’t have issues before,” Riley told Watters. “He is in eighth grade. He’s seeing himself just as a black man. He’s seeing things that don’t go his way as racism. And he is finding safety in numbers now.”

CRT holds that America is fundamentally racist, yet it teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race. Its adherents pursue “antiracism” through the end of merit, objective truth and the adoption of race-based policies.

Riley is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against Albemarle County School Board by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) in December over the CRT and “anti-racism” ideology. She said her son started using “racism” as an “excuse because they (school district) have told him that that’s how people see him, as a black man, that the world is against and [he] sees it as a negative now.”

Though the suit was dismissed in April, ADF intends to appeal the case.

“The judge’s ruling in this case supported our anti-racism policy,” the Albemarle County School Board told TheDCNF when reached for comment.

 

[GURPS]

School district tells Philadelphia teachers to attend 'Kink, Trans Sex and BDSM' workshop to 'learn more about trans community' where they were told there is 'no age limit for gender journey', how to use sex toys and what 'puppy fetishes' are​

• Philadelphia's School District emailed teachers and staff on their mailing list to inform them about the three-day free Trans Wellness Conference
• The School District told City Journal that promoting the event was part of its commitment to 'creating equitable and inclusive environments'
• Sessions included discussions of gender reassignment surgery, with a surgeon saying he would consult with patients as young as ten
• Another discussion was about sex toys and sex after gender realignment surgery; other sessions discussed fetishes

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

Kindergartners sent home with masturbation assignment​

Four-year-olds at an Alert Bay, British Columbia school were reportedly given this homework assignment on touching their private body parts. The worksheet asks students to draw pictures of places in their home where they can masturbate privately.

Here’s the worksheet the children were asked to complete:



An angry parent took to Facebook with this post: