Schools

[caption id="attachment_170753" align="alignright" width="150"] Jones[/caption]

This week, the Stafford County Board of Supervisors put its public schools in the spotlight, pressing its top administrator on Critical Race Theory.

In July, Hartwood District Supervisor Gary Snellings had planned to question officials from the county school division about CRT -- a decades-old academic framework examining how race and racism influence politics, culture, and law -- wanting to know if children are being taught the concepts in schools.

After receiving multiple emails from concerned constituents, Snellings took the floor and questioned Interim County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Stanley B. Jones on Tuesday.

Jones said that the schools do not teach the theory in his opening statement, and they never have. Jones also stated that the Virginia Department of Education crafts the school's curriculum and that the theory is not part of that lesson plan.

Jones also expressed that the school board has better things to do than worry about Critical Race Theory. "Quite frankly, we're trying to recover from a pandemic. So most of our focus is on unfinished learning. We've had 18 months without kids in school. That's our focus," said Jones. 

Jones referenced a now-deleted video on the Virginia Department of Education's YouTube page. Teachers were encouraged to develop lesson plans on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that focused on racism, not terrorism or the masterminds who carried out the attacks.

Jones distanced the county school divisions from the state's August 18 webinar aimed at teachers across the state, testifying the teacher orientation video didn't contain any mentions of race or the concepts of white privilege.

Potomac Local News reported on the content of the video, where the keynote speaker Dr. Amaarah DeCuir, from the American University School of Education, focused on matters of social justice.

When the word "terrorist" is used, it's most often used to describe people from the Middle East, said DeCuir in the video.

On August 13, the Department of Homeland Security issued a heightened terrorism watch. Anyone who disagrees with the Federal Government's coronavirus mitigation efforts, those who question the results of the 2020 Presidential Election, and those who celebrate religious holidays are now considered a terror threat, NBC News reported.

Rock Hill District Supervisor Crystal Vanuch asked about the schools' equity policy, stating, "the school division will work collaboratively with educators and other key stakeholders to build awareness, solutions, and leadership for social justice."

The division cited the National Equity Project, a California-based education reform organization that works with "oppressive" and "dehumanizing" systems and aims to radically transform them into more liberated institutions, as a resource it used to formulate the statement. 

The link showed on the page August but has since been removed from the school division website. The link is one of many resources that could be found on the page, Jones told Vanuch.

Snellings cited a report from a parent of a Brooke Point High School student who claimed that a teacher asked their child to state their preferred pronouns. Over the summer, a teacher in Loudoun County was suspended after declining to adhere to a new policy that requires public schools teachers to refer to children using their preferred pronouns and the bathroom of their choice.

Pointing out the prevalence of identifying pronouns, Snellings reminded Jones that his personal email signature contains a list of personal pronouns he and him. Jones said he did not know Stafford County teachers asking students to identify their pronouns.

Jones warned that any further questions teachers about CRT being taught in the classroom would distract from the division's focus of making up for lost time after test scores fell statewide last year during virtual learning.

School systems in our area and across the country have been dealing with the potential of Critical Race Theory being taught in schools.

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will discuss the issues of Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project. Elected leaders on the top governing body want to know if either is being taught in the county's public schools.

The issue was originally placed on the agenda by Hartwood District Supervisor Gary Snellings on August 17, who asked outgoing schools Dr. Scott Kizner to attend the meeting to answer questions from Board members. Kizner had a previous engagement and couldn't attend, County Administrator Fred Pressley emailed Board members.

"This is totally unacceptable!" replied Snellings in an email on August 10, when he learned Kizner declined the request to appear. "The school division has known for almost two months that CRT was going to be on our agenda." 

Rock Hill District Supervisor Crystal Vanuch, the Board Chairman, also replied to Pressley's email, noting Kizner's decision to pass up the Board's invitation "doesn't look good for our schools." 

CRT is a decades-old academic framework examining how race and racism influence politics, culture, and law. Over the summer, parents not only in our area but across the country have packed local school board meetings protesting the practice they say paints all whites as "oppressors" and people of all other skin tones victims.'

Since he began talking about the issue in July, multiple Stafford County residents have emailed Snellings, who represents the Hartwood District. 

A representative from the School Division will attend the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, September 7, at 2 p.m. to answer the supervisors' questions. The meeting will be held at the county's government center, at 1300 Courthouse Road.

During a Board of Supervisors meeting last month, Snellings recounted how he had contacted members of the County School Board to ask about plans to teach the 1619 Project-- a long-form journalism project with topics like "America wasn't a democracy until black Americans made it one," and "American Capitalism is brutal. You can trace that to the plantation."

Historians have called the writing into question, questioning its accuracy. It was published in August 2019, on the 4ooth anniversary of the arrival of slaves in Virginia.

Snellings says he also asked School Board members if the division is teaching critical race theory, college-level material that works injects race into every facet of U.S. culture. 

"What really concerns me is that the School Board should already know what's being taught in their schools. They should already know what is being taught and what is not being taught. That's a real concern now," said Snellings, who'll be retiring from the Board of Supervisors on December 31. 

Also, during that meeting, Falmouth District Supervisor Meg Bohmke said that she had talked to teachers in the Stafford School system who say that, while the name is not being used, there have been lessons being taught that fit the description of Critical Race Theory.

A total of 21 states have banned the teaching of critical race theory in public schools, including neighboring states such as West Virginia and North Carolina. This past week in neighboring Prince William County, parents blasted the county School Board for an Equity Statement the Board approved in May, calling to hire teachers based on skin color to reflect the minority student population better.

Critical Race Theory believes that structural racism is embedded in many U.S. institutions, which runs contrary to long-held beliefs such as equal opportunity. Opponents of the theory believe that it creates division by asking adherents to judge people based on skin color rather than character content.

Another issue is that of the 1619 Project, a series of essays published by the New York Times that attempts to reframe the story of the country's founding by establishing from when the first African-American slave stepped foot in what would become the U.S. in the year 1619. The project, spearheaded by then Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, has come under fire by historians across the political spectrum who dispute many of the project's assertions.

One such assertion that the American Revolution was fought to maintain the country's culture of slavery was disputed by Northwestern University historian Leslie Harris. Harris was a fact-checker with the 1619 Project who recounted in an article with Politico disputed that claim saying that the Revolution was actually a disruptor of slavery in America. According to Harris, Jones went with her version for the project despite Harris' claim to the contrary.