Two mothers say that Columbus Academy, one of the most well-known private schools in Ohio, has expelled their daughters over their parents’ criticism of Critical Race Theory.
Columbus Academy claims that Andrea Gross and Amy Gonzalez have leveled “false and misleading attacks” on the school and its leadership, and therefore, sent a letter to the two families informing them their three children will not be re-enrolled in the fall, according to a report by ABC 6.
One of the children is reportedly a high school junior, who has attended Columbus Academy since kindergarten.
“No child has ever been denied re-enrollment to Columbus Academy because a parent raised questions, concerns or criticisms about a child’s education,” Columbus Academy insisted in a statement.
“However, any parent who waged a public campaign of false and misleading statements and inflammatory attacks harmful to the employees, the reputation, or the financial stability of Columbus Academy would be in clear violation of the Enrollment Agreement and would be denied re-enrollment for the following school year,” the school added.
Gross, who co-founded the “Pro-CA Coalition” with Gonzalez — a campaign against teaching Critical Race Theory at Columbus Academy — says she believes the school is “trying to send a message to the other members of our coalition that if you speak out and you ask questions that they will punish your innocent children, and our members are afraid.”
“Separating people by the color of their skin is regressive, we are not just anti-racist, we are also pro-human,” Gross added.
“When they are bringing DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion, it just doesn’t seem like inclusivity. Seems more like inherent bigotry,” added Gonzalez, whose daughter is Latina.
On Wednesday, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson asked the two moms if they were “surprised that the school decided to punish your children for what you did?”
“Yes,” Gross responded. “I would say we were very surprised that the school decided to retaliate against our children. Unfortunately, just asking questions has resulted in our children being punished.”
“I think the problem at our school is, in particular our board, they are breaching a fiduciary duty to our entire community by failing to speak to us,” Gross continued, adding that this all started because the parents wanted to “have just an open dialogue of communication.”
“We just wanted to ask questions, like, ‘What is the curriculum? Are you teaching the 1619 Project? Why did you double the diversity department but you have no learning specialists for our children 3 to 12 years old in the school?'” the mother said.
Gross continued:
The diversity department specifically doubled this year while our kids 3 to 12 had no learning specialist in our lower school this year — so it’s a choice of where they’re going to allocate their finances, and we believe that the way that they do it is in a discriminatory manner because they neglect our Latino population, they neglect our kids that learn differently. There are other minority groups in our school that feel like their voices are not heard or represented.
“It’s a tribalization and it’s to separate so that we all start to try to tear each other down which unfortunately that is what happened,” Gross added.
Columbus Academy Head of School Melissa Soderberg and the President of the Board of Trustees Jonathan Kass wrote a letter to Gross, in which they stated, “you have pursued a course of action that has been anything but civil, respectful, and faithful to the facts.”
“You have engaged in a campaign against Columbus Academy through a sustained, and increasingly inflammatory, series of false and misleading attacks on the School and its leadership,” added Soderberg and Kass, who went on to claim the mothers have “caused pain, and even fear for physical safety, among students, families, faculty, and staff.”
Gross and Gonzalez are not the only parents fighting back against Critical Race Theory in academia.
In Loudoun County, Virginia, parents are calling on the Loudoun County School Board to refrain from teaching students that “any race is inherently superior or inferior to any other race,” and with Fight for Schools, launched an effort to recall school board members who were found participating in a Facebook group that had created and shared a list of parents who opposed Critical Race Theory.
Last week, an employee of Manchester School District in New Hampshire resigned, citing “anti-white” propaganda and Critical Race Theory staff training.
Last month, a teacher at the prestigious Dwight-Englewood prep school in Bergen County, New Jersey, resigned over what she called a “hostile culture of conformity and fear” created by Critical Race Theory.
The teacher’s resignation was praised by a prominent black professor at Columbia University, John McWhorter, who encouraged “truly antiracist parents” to pull their kids from Dwight-Englewood prep school.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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