Despite Republican State Senator Sandra O’Brien (R-Ashtabula) re-introducing the Parental Education Freedom Act to empower parents to be the primary decision-makers regarding where and what type of education their children receive, an undercover investigation revealed that school administrators in Dayton, Ohio are misleading parents and teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) into classroom.
As part of Accuracy in Media’s investigation, numerous school administrators admitted that teachers are sneakily and covertly introducing CRT to their students unbeknownst to their parents and that they don’t plan to stop even if lawmakers pass legislation prohibiting this.
CRT in classrooms would have been forbidden under legislation sponsored by Ohio’s Republican lawmakers last year.
According to House Bill 616, schools would have been prohibited from “teaching or providing training that promotes or endorses divisive or inherently racist concepts.”
The bill, which was disparaged as a “don’t say gay” law and juxtaposed with Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act, failed to pass Ohio’s Assembly.
The state’s activist educators are adamant that even if the bill had become law, it would not have prevented them from continuing their work.
Betsy Gann (pictured above in video screenshot), director of curriculum at Bellbrook-Sugarcreek, Ohio schools, said that regardless of whatever prospective laws there may be, they will continue to teach what they see fit.
“It’s good stuff it’s just you know I mean labels are just getting attacked and really we’ve always tried to be culturally responsive,” Gann said.
She continued by saying that their district is careful not to use “triggering kinds of words” when talking about CRT such as saying culturally responsive or anti-racism. However, she claimed that the district still teaches students to be “antiracist.”
“We don’t formally use that. But that’s just because… It’s just individual choice. Like, I just don’t want to trigger someone to think that… I mean, that’s not putting you down, Caucasian man. It’s, you know, it’s being an advocate and not just… more than saying I’m an ally, but how can I turn this into being anti-racist instead of I don’t see color,” Gann said.
Rick Earley, student services supervisor at Kettering, Ohio schools shared Gann’s sentiment and said there are ways to be able to teach CRT in the classroom despite any prospective laws. They just change the label and phrase it differently.
“Yeah I mean there’s a way around anything. Again, it all depends, it all goes back to how you dress the window. You can do a lot of shopping without anybody even knowing your shopping. There’s all sorts of ways around it you just have to be very careful how you phrase whatever your going to say. That’s unfortunate, but it’s the case. What are they going to know unless somebody turns you in to the state. That’s the way that I look at it. it’s easier to beg for forgiveness than permission,” Earley said.
In addition to brainwashing students with CRT Gann admitted that teachers in her district read the liberal book White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo which claims that all white people are intractably, hopelessly racist as part of a book study to promote professional development. She also noted that she purchased the books with school funding.
“So other book studies we did. We did White Fragility. There were some others that smaller groups have done. It’s voluntary. We did not require, you know, 100 percent of our teachers to do any of the book studies. But, a lot of them did and I did buy those out of funds, you know. So, it was a professional development opportunity,” Gann said.
According to Earley, his district is totally accepting of students using a stated gender identity rather than their biological sex. He said that if a student prefers that the district call them by different pronouns, the school accommodates that without informing the parents.
“We totally respect that confidentiality even if the kid comes to us and tells us they’re trans. We have some (students) that don’t want to be identified as he or she so we use the term they,” Earley said.
He continued to say that “The only time that we really have to get a parent involved is when it becomes a bathroom issue.”
Earley admitted that there are young boys in the district who abuse the bathroom policies intended for students to use bathroom facilities according to their gender identity just so they can get a “free show.”
“There is no doubt. There is no doubt in my mind. Some don’t care you know. I get a free show, I’m going,” Early said.
Ohioans are using their tax dollars to pay these radicals who are deceiving them. These public school administrators are outspokenly committed to advancing social justice in the classroom; they are committed to teaching kids that capitalism is inherently racist and that America is systemically racist. When parents speak out against these practices, the schools dismiss them as dramatic or committing a slippery slope fallacy. However, the comments by the school administrators validate Ohio parents’ concerns.
Republican lawmakers are pushing for the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 11 to allow parents to make educational decisions that are best for their children and to help end the political games played by the public education system.
Under SB 11, the current EdChoice Scholarship Program would expand to all Ohio students for either a $5,500 scholarship (for grades K-8) or a $7,500 scholarship (for grades 9-12) to attend a private school. Families choosing to home-school would be eligible for a non-refundable state tax credit of up to $2,000 for reimbursement of educational expenses for their children.
According to Ohio’s largest Christian public policy organization, the Center for Christian Virtue‘s President Aaron Baer, “Ohio must no longer allow any student to be trapped in underperforming and radically progressive schools that undermine parental rights and authority.”
This is the third undercover investigation Accuracy in Media has conducted in the state of Ohio where administrators have made admission of such indoctrination behind parents’ backs. Like their counterparts in Columbus and Cincinnati, educators in Dayton are prepared to go above and above to bring CRT into the classroom. They’re ready to give their lessons new names so they can keep incorporating social justice into them.
Watch the Accuracy in Media video:
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Hannah Poling is a lead reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Hannah on Twitter @HannahPoling1. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Teacher and Students” by Thirdman.
