Why I’m suing my former employer, a school district, over critical race theory

[Kamaji]

Why I’m suing my former employer, a school district, over critical race theory

By Emily Mais
May 1, 2022

The first days of returning to school after the COVID-19 pandemic were overwhelming. Like other educators across the country, those of us working in Albemarle County, Va., public schools were suddenly faced with fresh challenges that required our full attention and energy: implementing new health and safety procedures, helping students who had fallen behind academically during virtual learning and doing our very best to restore a productive learning environment for all.

It was at this exact time our school district decided to introduce controversial policies and mandatory teacher training based on critical race theory. The goal was laudable — to “become an anti-racist school system” — but the curriculum, in fact, produced the opposite result.

As assistant principal at Charlottesville’s Agnor-Hurt Elementary School, I witnessed firsthand how this training directed teachers to be racist by viewing each other and their students based solely on race and then treating each other differently according to the color of their skin. Indeed, this curriculum, based on Glenn Singleton’s book “Courageous Conversations About Race,” promotes harmful racial stereotypes. It also teaches that students of color are inherently disadvantaged.

I believe every person is made in the image of God and entitled to equal treatment and respect, so this content immediately set off warning signals. And I wasn’t alone. Fellow teachers and staff members repeatedly shared their concerns with me about how the curriculum created a racially divisive and hostile environment and about the hurtful comments other staff members made throughout the training, which denigrated them for being white.

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In one training session, the group discussed the district’s race-related hiring practices. I commented on the topic, intending to use the phrase “people of color,” but as I was talking, I said “colored” instead. I immediately apologized, but one staff member would not accept the apology and berated me in front of the group.

Rather than accept it for what it was — a genuine slip of the tongue — the district treated me like a racist in need of further “anti-racism” instruction. District officials called me into meetings and demanded that I further address a situation for which I continued to apologize — yet my repeated apologies were never good enough.

They allowed some staff members to continue harassing me by calling me names — including “white racist b–ch” and “two-faced racist b–ch” — spreading rumors about me and even standing outside my office to intimidate me and anyone who came to talk with me. I reported this to my superiors, but the district ignored me and let the harassment continue.

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Source:  https://nypost.com/2022/05/01/why-im-suing-my-school-district-over-critical-race-theory/