An Ohio school district won’t be having Diversity Day this year after school board members said enough “political indoctrination” was enough.
The Forest Hills School District board voted 4-0 Sunday with one abstention to ban Turpin High School from having the event during school hours or in any shape if school or taxpayer resources were being tapped, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer.
During the meeting, School Board President Linda Hausfeld read from parent emails that indicated opposition to the event, which has gone on for the past five years.
Some parents said they did not want students taught critical race theory, which was opposed by several of the current board members in last year’s elections.
“Voters made it very clear in the November election that we do not want to fund social justice and political programming that is inherently divisive,” Hausfeld read at one point.
She read a letter from a black parent that read, “Maybe their hearts are in the right place, and I respect that, but the implementation is completely off-base, biased, and offensive.”
Part of the day was an activity in which students were asked questions including whether they were embarrassed about their clothes, or whether their doctor was of the same race as they were.
“To me, I don’t understand how this is the business of students, staff or leaders in this exercise,” board member Sara Jonas said. “How is this not political and indoctrination to the students?”
Jonas noted that the event’s speakers bring an agenda to the event.
“It’s also important to note one of the guest speakers. On their mission statement, it states ‘unite and ignite people for racial justice,’” she said, according to WCPO-TV.
Jonas has said after being elected in November that fighting critical race theory was important.
“There was critical race theory ideology sprinkled all into the program. What the teachers are taught in professional development is then practiced on our students,” Jonas said, according to Fox News.
Although the school insisted that critical race theory as a distinct element was not taught, the progressive agenda in public schools has gotten a good deal of attention recently.
A video posted several months ago, unconnected to the Ohio case, illustrates why. In it, a woman who describes herself as a teacher captured much of the “woke” attitude parents are fighting,
“Teaching is political,” the woke teacher proclaimed in a video posted to a Reddit forum.
Turpin High School’s diversity event was originally scheduled for April, then postponed until May 18.
Speakers from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Back2Back Ministries Cincinnati and Cincinnati’s Citizen Complaint Authority had been scheduled to attend the now-canceled event.
Via The Western Journal.