The Brunswick County, North Carolina, Board of Education voted unanimously this week on a policy that bans employees from using their positions to persuade students to support particular political theories or issues.
The new policy aims to “ensure that social theories of any kind (i.e. Holocaust Denial Theory, 9/11 Theory, Critical Race Theory) are not presented to students unless approved by the Brunswick County Board of Education,” reported WECT News6.
“I represent all of you, the whole citizenship of Brunswick County,” said board member Gerald Benton. “I’d like the schools to be a safe place for factual information to be conveyed to your child and you can teach your child what’s right and wrong yourself.”
During last month’s meeting, a number of “divisive theories” were raised, including Critical Race Theory (CRT), “action” civics, and the “1619 Project.”
CRT is a Marxist philosophy that embraces the concept that all social and cultural issues should be viewed through the lens of race.
“Action” or “protest” civics is an initiative that seeks to indoctrinate K-12 students into woke “action” political organizing, under the guise of restoring “unity.” With an “action” civics program in place, students can, for example, earn school credit for helping to organize a Black Lives Matter protest or “Defund Police” rally.
The widely discredited New York Times’ “1619 Project” claims the true founding of America was 1619, the year the first slaves were brought to the colonies, and that the nation was founded on slavery and has been systemically racist since then.
“Brunswick County is teaching factual history,” said Benton. “We are not indoctrinating your child. In fact, we insist upon both sides of every issue to be taught equally and represented in our social studies classes.”
The amended rule states:
This policy should not be construed as prohibiting the impartial study and discussion of political or other controversial issues in the classroom setting, including the dissemination of factual information about serious problems the school system or the community may be facing because of political actions, where such teaching or information reasonably relates to the standards of the course.
Both sides of the political issue shall be presented, supported by primary or balanced secondary sources, so that students are provided an opportunity to be well informed and to be able to make their own decisions regarding political or other controversial issues.
Further, this policy shall ensure that social theories of any kind (i.e. Holocaust Denial Theory, 9/11 Theory, Critical Race Theory) are not presented to students unless approved by the Brunswick County Board of Education. It is the responsibility of the Board to ensure that curricular standards are taught using well documented, factual resources and not opinion or conjecture.
County Commissioner Pat Sykes said in a statement reported by WECT:
As a Commissioner, I believe the inclusion of such theories is an intentional effort to indoctrinate children and others with a specific political ideology. This is a part of a far-left agenda to divide us on race, to victimize black students and to make white students feel guilty. They want to take God out of our country and tear down our Constitutional Republic and replace it with a socialist system. As a citizen of this great country, I will do what I can to protect and defend my God, the United States of America, North Carolina, and Brunswick County from this far-left movement.
School board member Robin Moffitt agreed with many parents that she finds the discussions about CRT disturbing.
“It’s very upsetting to me to know that our children are being indoctrinated,” she said, reported Port City Daily. “My heart was pounding when you guys were talking. I don’t agree with it. I don’t think anybody should be made to feel different for the color of their skin, whether you’re white, black, brown, or yellow.”
United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE), a national parents’ organization that grew out of the battle against the Common Core State Standards, called for states to ban CRT in K-12 schools.
CRT, USPIE says, seeks to “make some children feel guilt and anguish — not because of anything they have done, but solely based on the color of their skin.”
“THIS is racism,” USPIE emphasized, adding that when states pass laws banning CRT and “action civics,” parents will then have grounds to demand that schools eliminate all discrimination, as well as to form a foundation for litigation, if needed.
“USPIE believes Critical Race Theory is in fact child abuse,” the group asserts. “Teaching children they are oppressors or victims based on their skin color, teaching children to judge others based on the color of their skin, teaching children they cannot succeed in America because of the color of their skin is just plain wrong.”
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