{"id":1570221,"date":"2022-07-25T16:06:18","date_gmt":"2022-07-25T20:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1570221"},"modified":"2022-07-25T16:06:55","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T20:06:55","slug":"lawsuit-claims-tennessee-school-district-is-violating-statewide-crt-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawsuit-claims-tennessee-school-district-is-violating-statewide-crt-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuit Claims Tennessee School District Is Violating Statewide CRT Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Flawsuit-claims-tennessee-school-district-is-violating-statewide-crt-ban%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1570221&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/tennessee\">Tennessee<\/a> parents have filed a lawsuit alleging that a school district in one of the conservative-run state\u2019s most populous counties is ignoring a ban on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/topic\/critical-race-theory\">Critical Race Theory<\/a> (CRT).<\/p>\n<p>The school district, says the lawsuit, is using a Great Minds and Wit &#038; Wisdom curriculum that runs afoul of the ban on Critical Race Theory in the classroom. One book, \u201cRap-a-Tap-Tap,\u201d pairs with a kindergarten teacher lesson manual that \u201cputs the focus of discussion on skin color and racial oppression,\u201d the lawsuit says. One lesson plan calls on teachers to use \u201cEquity Sticks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 177-page suit highlights the difficulty that lawmakers may have in reigning in the curriculum when the onus of implementing the details falls on education bureaucrats, who are often liberal even in conservative areas. In the 2020 election, Williamson County voted for Republican Donald Trump nearly 2-1 over Democratic nominee Joe Biden.<\/p>\n<p>Tennessee passed a <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/tennessee-racial-injustice-race-and-ethnicity-religion-education-9366bceabf309557811eab645c8dad13\">law<\/a> in 2021 barring schools from teaching that anyone is inherently privileged or oppressive based on their race or sex, or should feel guilty because of their race or sex; that a meritocracy is inherently racist or sexist; that the state or country is fundamentally or irredeemably racist; or that character traits can be ascribed on the basis of sex. It also barred teaching that the rule of law \u201cis a series of power relationships and struggles among racial or other groups\u201d and doesn\u2019t actually exist.<\/p>\n<p>Some teachers in Tennessee pledged openly to violate the ban \u2014 even while others claimed that CRT doesn\u2019t exist in schools. \u201cTo be frank, the bill will not make it harder for my personal classroom because I plan to ignore it,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/as-tennessee-bans-critical-race-theory-educators-alternate-between-pledging-to-break-law-and-denying-crt-was-ever-in-schools\">Liz Jarvis<\/a>, a teacher in Memphis, told the education news outlet Chalkbeat as the bill neared passage. \u201cWho\u2019s going to enforce it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Parents Patricia and James Lucente, along with a group called <a href=\"https:\/\/parentschoicetennessee.org\/about\">Parents\u2019 Choice Tennessee<\/a>, allege that in addition to violating that law, education bureaucrats short-circuited a process to get Wit &#038; Wisdom in schools, despite a review panel disapproving of it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe program called Great Minds\u2019 Wit &#038; Wisdom received a failing grade for grades K-2. On re-review, this program again failed based on the same multiple deficiencies,\u201d their lawsuit said. \u201cDespite these findings, the Department nonetheless gave the Wit &#038; Wisdom program a passing grade. \u2026 Additionally, Commissioner [Penny] Schwinn granted a total of 33 waivers to school systems, like Williamson County, as a financial incentive to adopt at no cost the Wit &#038; Wisdom program. This waiver equated to a potential saving for Williamson County Schools particular, of approximately $565,989.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Wit &#038; Wisdom Social Emotional Learning (SEL) framework draws from CASEL, a social-emotional learning group that trains \u201cvulnerable students to become social justice activists,\u201d the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWit &#038; Wisdom has reoccurring emotionally-charged themes which include: suicide ideation, cannibalism, oppressed people of color, oppressive white people, extreme emotion, graphic death, dark imagery, anti-family, anti-American, and anti-church and religion,\u201d said the lawsuit. \u201cWit &#038; Wisdom also has age-inappropriate topics which include: murder, graphic mating, gender fluidity, anti-authority, torture, rape, adultery, scalping\/skinning of humans, stillbirth, excessive gore, excessive violence, drunkenness, and promiscuity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Its racial lessons communicate that \u201cthe racial injustice of the 1960s exists today,\u201d the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n<p>Williamson County Schools declined to comment. Great Minds did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>New York City schools have paid Great Minds $13 million since 2016, Baltimore City Schools have paid it $5 million, and Chicago schools have paid it more than $3 million since 2017, a Daily Wire analysis of school spending records found. Other districts such as Montgomery County, Maryland; Duval, Florida; Clark County, Nevada; and Pinellas, Florida have also paid it. Some, like Baltimore; Pasco, Florida; and Jefferson County, Colorado specifically mentioned Wit &#038; Wisdom in invoices.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. James Lindsay, a prominent academic who studies Critical Race Theory, provided a 37-page affidavit in support of the lawsuit tracing Social Emotional Learning to Critical Race Theory to Paulo Friere, a Marxist whose books, including the \u201cPedagogy of the Oppressed,\u201d have become canon in teacher colleges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have abandoned the idea of educating American children to grow toward becoming successful and prosperous adults in American society because they want to undermine, destroy, and replace American society. Rather than teaching literacy, numeracy, or other educational basics, Freirean schools use subject matter like reading, writing, mathematics, history, social studies, and science lessons to teach Marxist consciousness of one or more forms at a time,\u201d Lindsay\u2019s affidavit said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a result of more than a decade of this practice, American schoolchildren are almost universally failing in basic competency in virtually every subject at virtually every grade level. They are more \u2018politically literate,\u2019 in the Freirean sense, than ever before, though,\u201d Lindsay continued. \u201cFreirean education is Marxist education, and it has no place in any American public school system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFreirean education doesn\u2019t work, and it is easy to understand why it<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 177-page suit highlights the difficulty that lawmakers may have in reigning in curriculum when the implementation of details falls to education bureaucrats, most of whom are liberal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1575499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1570221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1570221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1575499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1570221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1570221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1570221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}