GOP claims some NC teachers are ‘abusing’ their profession to indoctrinate students
Some North Carolina teachers are misusing their position to indoctrinate and influence students, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson claimed in a report he released Tuesday.
The “Indoctrination in North Carolina Public Education Report” comes as Robinson and other state Republican leaders are trying to pass legislation that would put new rules on how schools teach about race and racism. GOP leaders say the report, which they insisted is not meant to be a teacher witch hunt, shows that there’s a need to pass legislation regulating what’s taught in schools.
“This is an attempt to stop the abuse of the teaching profession by a few who are using that profession to put undue pressure on young minds to accept their way of thinking,” Robinson, a Republican, said at a news conference Tuesday. “That’s what this is. It is not an attack on teachers. The overwhelming majority of our teachers are hardworking folks who do a fantastic job every day.”
Robinson presented his report Tuesday to the Senate Education Committee, which backed a bill that would prevent schools from “promoting” Critical Race Theory. Supporters say House Bill 324 will prevent indoctrination, but critics say it will have a chilling effect that causes teachers to whitewash the teaching of history.
“This week marks the first week of our kids going back to school,” Sen. Jay Chaudhuri, a Raleigh Democrat, said at the committee meeting. “I feel that we should be spending time this week honoring our children.
“Instead we’re spending time debating a Fox News-driven issue that’s more about fear-mongering that’s turned into a fishing expedition of our public school teachers.”
Robinson responded back in a heated exchange with Chaudhuri.
“To sit here and call it a Fox News-driven issue when I have stood with teachers who have cried because they feel like their jobs and livelihoods and professions have been threatened, for you to call it that is an insult, an absolute insult,” Robinson said.
The Senate Rules Committee backed the bill Wednesday. It will go for a vote by the full Senate on Thursday.
Even after a positive Senate vote, it would have to go back to the House to see if it supports the Senate’s changes.
Task force collected complaints
For months, Robinson has publicly charged that teachers are using their classrooms to promote leftist views. In March, Robinson announced he was creating a task force to collect complaints from parents, teachers and students.
The report received more than 500 submissions. Some of the examples Robinson and Senate leader Phil Berger cited included:
▪ Wake County fourth-grade students read the book “George,” in which Robinson said the main character questions his own sexual identity and talks about removing his genitalia. Robinson said LGBTQ issues should be discussed at home and not at school.
▪ The Governor’s School used a “flying gender unicorn” graphic to ask students questions about their sexual identity and who they are attracted to. The Governor’s School is a summer program for some of the state’s brightest high school students.
▪ A Catawba County school assignment asked about xenophobia, which as an example sentence, said that Donald Trump could be said to have xenophobia.
“In reading this report, it’s clear that some have used their personal and political beliefs to influence students rather than to educate them,” State Superintendent Catherine Truitt, a Republican, said at the news conference.
Discussion of ‘white privilege’ questioned
In a press release, Berger cited how a parent said a white male teacher made his class of 20 students play the “privilege game.” In another example, Berger said a parent claimed that a freshman history class was told that if “you were white and Christian, you should be ashamed.”
Berger also cited how The Governor’s School gave handouts about white privilege, male privilege, straight privilege and Christian privilege. He disputed the argument from critics of House Bill 324 that it “will have a chilling effect on teachers who want to do the right thing.”
“I would suggest that not doing this bill will have a chilling effect on teachers, especially given the examples that we have seen in the report of teachers who have said that they are concerned about the training that they’re having to go through,” Berger said. “They’re concerned that if they speak up during that training there’s going to be retribution.”
But Charlotte-Mecklenburg teacher Justin Parmenter says the complaints he got from the task force as part of a public records request were “dominated by white racial resentment.”
“These submissions include recommendations to cancel Black History Month, pleas to stop making white students feel guilty by teaching so much about slavery — which one individual remarked ‘is getting old’ — and suggestions to end hiring practices aimed at increasing diversity of school staff,” Parmenter wrote in a July blog post.
‘Witch hunt’ of teachers?
Robinson and other GOP leaders said the purpose of the report and the legislation is not to engage in a witch hunt.
“I don’t want this report to be about chasing down teachers and issuing reprimands, and I don’t think that’s what the lieutenant governor has in mind,” Truitt said.
But Tamika Walker Kelly, president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, tweeted Tuesday that it’s unfair that the report specifically names the educators who drew complaints while redacting the names of those who submitted complaints.
“Shining a light on how the teachers are teaching this material, whether it is verified or not, can amount to disruption in the classroom and in some ways I think can be characterized as a witch hunt on our public school teachers,” said Chaudhuri, the senator.
Robinson said that his purpose was to address the issue moving forward.
“We wanted to answer a simple question whether or not indoctrination was occurring in the North Carolina public education system,” Robinson said. “The simple answer to that folks is yes. We need to start a process to end it.
“I believe that the bill Senator Berger has introduced will do just that along with this report as well.”
GOP targets Critical Race Theory
Republicans at the state and national level have filed bills targeting Critical Race Theory.
Critical Race Theory, according to the UNC-Chapel Hill history department, is a “scholarly framework that describes how race, class, gender, and sexuality organize American life.” Critics argue that it promotes Marxist and anti-American concepts,
School districts have denied teaching Critical Race Theory. But Berger has said that teachers are teaching it.
House Bill 324 was passed by the state House in May on a party-line vote.
The version modified by the Senate has 13 things that it says schools shouldn’t promote, including that particular privileges should be ascribed to a race or sex. The language comes amid complaints from conservatives about schools teaching about white privilege and how it has impacted people of color.
Other things that the bill says can’t be promoted include:
▪ ”Any individual, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress..”
▪ “The United States government should be violently overthrown.”
▪ “The United States was created by members of a particular race or sex for the purpose of oppressing members of another race or sex.”
▪ “The rule of law does not exist, but instead is a series of power relationships and struggles among racial or other groups.”
The bill defines “promote” as “compelling students, teachers, administrators, or other school employees to affirm or profess belief in the concepts” listed in the legislation.
This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 11:37 AM.
