The Poway Unified School District in California canceled a meeting about critical race theory after an article I wrote last month exposed the school’s faculty was using the theory. In a leaked email shared with the Washington Examiner, Carol Osborne, the Poway Unified School District’s associate superintendent, confirmed that the meeting was being scrapped. She highlighted my article as a reason why.
“The continued discussion has been misconstrued by many including the Washington Examiner article, we are canceling the meeting,” Osborne wrote. “What started out as a simple question to understand terms used in the media has now been taken out of context.”
Except nothing was taken out of context. The school gave a presentation about critical race theory. It didn’t give a presentation about Thomas Sowell’s The Vision of the Anointed or Shelby Steele’s White Guilt. It specifically chose the toxic, radical, left-wing critical race theory. Then, it denied ever using critical race theory. But, as I discovered in leaked emails from Shawntanet Jara, the district’s director of equity and improvement, there was no truth to the denial.
The original presentation happened in March. The now-canceled May meeting was “to discuss the topic of CRT as a follow-up to the presentation.” School district employees organized both meetings. But my article brought unwanted attention to their agenda. That is the real reason why they canceled this meeting.
Moreover, my original article revealed the list of resources the school district was using. It read like a radical left-wing indoctrination guide. Among the suggested resources included multiple articles and videos by Kimberle Crenshaw and Gloria Ladson-Billings, two noted critical race theory enthusiasts.
Yet, the school insisted it was still not doing anything wrong. Instead, Osborne justified using critical race theory as if the school was doing some noble deed to satisfy the innocent curiosity of a parent and committee member. As a result, it scheduled a speaker to discuss the controversial topic. Clearly, this speaker only presented one perspective. It was not an objective discussion about critical race theory but rather an indoctrination session. In case anyone forgot, that is not what schools are supposed to be doing.
“A member of the equity advisory committee had requested to understand what CRT is and related to the curriculum and accusations that PUSD is teaching CRT,” Osborne said.
And while that might technically be true, Poway was all too eager to hold the meeting. It had little to do with the request itself and more to do with the faculty’s desire to have critical race theory in the school district. And while Poway insisted all the school did was answer a request, that’s hogwash. It’s safe to say that these very same people would not be equally enthusiastic or compliant if a committee member instead requested Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Glenn Loury, or 1776 Unites.
School faculties frequently deny the presence of critical race theory in schools. Yet, time and time again, evidence shows the contrary. Poway’s explanation for using critical race theory is nonsense. They were trying to justify their radical, left-wing propaganda sessions. Suffice to say, if anyone in the Poway School District wants to know about critical race theory, the school shouldn’t waste taxpayer dollars on presentations. Instead, it should refer them to a fascinating resource they can use to do so on their own time: the internet.
Anything else is just a bogus excuse being used to validate the presence of critical race theory in schools so it can be used to brainwash students.
