An alleged “racist incident” occurred in January at Brentwood’s Sunset Middle School, according to Friday’s Tennessean, five months after the Williamson County School System launched a system-wide “Cultural Competency Series” of In-Service training days for teachers.
Allegedly, some students at the school linked arms in between classes, formed a human chain, and then barred non-white students from passing as a play on U.S. President Donald Trump’s border wall.
As The Tennessee Star reported, the In-service training for teachers included several videos the school system created that focused on “white privilege.”
The Tennessean offered rather thin evidence to support their assertion that a racist incident had, in fact, occurred Jan. 18. The paper’s evidence included on-the-record statements from two members of the WCS cultural competency committee. Neither of the two women quoted apparently witnessed the alleged incident.
Williamson County Schools addressed the details of the alleged incident in a way that was unusual. A Tennessean reporter emailed school system officials to confirm the event. But rather than respond to The Tennessean reporter, WCS officials printed out the email and someone hand wrote “Yes it happened,” on it and included that document — unsolicited —in a package to The Tennessee Star, along with other items it obtained from an open records request. As a part of that open records request, the WCS provided two DVDs of the “Cultural Competency Series.”
All the above has piqued The Tennessee Star’s curiosity.
What really happened at Sunset Middle School on Jan 18, 2019?
The Tennessean characterized it as a “racist incident.”
But did events take place exactly as the paper described?
Whatever happened, was there actual racist intent behind it?
Or were matters grossly exaggerated?
If you are a parent, teacher, or student who can provide a first-hand eyewitness account then we at The Tennessee Star want to hear from you.
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‘White Privilege’
As The Star reported, Williamson County School System officials recently made teachers watch a video that tried to indoctrinate them on how to teach students about “white privilege.”
People who appeared in the video discussed social justice causes, the perks white males supposedly have that others do not, America’s supposed dysfunctional history, and how unfair it all is.
As reported, Williamson County Schools officials had the ultimate power to approve an In-service “white privilege” training curriculum for their teachers last month, said a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education.
But that’s inconsistent with the TDOE’s standards and practices on In-service teacher training, as specified on that department’s website.
The Williamson County School System is evidently serious about prioritizing their In-Service teacher training, so much so they spent 22 percent more on it for this 2018-19 school year versus the prior one.
According to the school system’s budget, the school system spent $689,989 on their In-Service/Staff Development training this year.
For the 2017-18 school year administrators budgeted $564,508.
This is a 57 percent increase over what got budgeted in the 2013-14 school year, $439,847.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
I never heard about it but I’ll be posting it on facebook. (Originally from Nashville but now live in Lebanon).. Yeah better late than never with the cultural marxism on the down-low, under the radar at this school -that I’ve never heard of. It’s a big set-up to cause trouble to try to prove a point. I hope more people speak up about it.