South Carolina’s Pickens Middle School planned racially segregated events to “talk with students about how to cope with being a student in a predominantly white school,” according to documents provided to Parents Defending Education (PDE).
The Pickens County school was set to have separate meeting sessions with speaker Adrienne Young who, according to school principal James Kind, has “spoken about unity in schools for the past fifteen years.”
Her “unity” sessions, however, were planned to have students segregated based on the color of their skin.
Indeed, the different sessions were exclusionary for “African American Students,” “Hispanic Students,” and “Two or More Background Students.”
According to PDE, “students who did not fall into these categories, such as white, Asian, and others, were not invited and were excluded from these special presentations and lunch meals.”
As Fox Carolina reported, the school said the original plan for the racially segregated sessions — in which lunch was provided — was to provide an “opportunity for students of specific minority groups to ask questions to the speaker surrounded by others like them – to create an increased sense of security for them to be open and candid.”
Attempting to justify the segregation further, the school’s statement said, “Again, these small group sessions are additional to the main speech that will be provided for all students.”
After parental backlash, however, the school decided to change course.
“Based on feedback from parents regarding the plans for the small group learning sessions, the school is providing an opportunity for all PMS students to have an option to attend the small group learning sessions,” the school said.
“One of the Core Beliefs of our school system states that ‘We believe the cultural diversity promotes full development of the individual and society,'” the school concluded, appearing to double down on the racial ideology that likely led to the segregation in the first place. “Thank you for your support as we seek to strengthen our shared core values of inclusivity and respect.”
Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.
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