Tag: Mike Looney

The Williamson County School System has allegedly taken a left turn politically, and that has prompted one county resident to appeal to conservatives to seek office to try to replace members of the school board.

Williamson County School Board members will assemble for their April meeting Tuesday night, but, according to that meeting’s agenda sheet, no one plans to discuss a subject that has generated controversy in the community. As The Tennessee Star reported, Superintendent Mike Looney implemented a Cultural Competency curriculum that includes “white privilege” training for teachers. School board members thus far won’t say if they plan to address these matters. But members of a group that want more information said they plan to send a representative to Tuesday’s meeting. Members of this group, WCS TN Parents Wants Facts, say it’s time for Looney and other school system representatives to show greater transparency. As reported, the group already has a Facebook page. “We hope to have transparency on the entire curriculum that is being rolled out. Our overall goal is to have political persuasions and parties not influencing our teachers or the curriculum,” said Stefanie Rose Miles, one of the page’s creators, Monday. “It is quite interesting that we have around 200 or so followers, but on the other side we get several thousand views per post. Our private messages, well, we can’t answer them all in a timely manner, but we are…

One day a Williamson County School Board member says she was caught off guard to learn school teachers had to watch videos preaching “white privilege” and America’s supposed dysfunctional history. On another day, another school board member, when pressed for answers about these videos, referred all questions to Superintendent Mike Looney, who thought up the idea in the first place. Later that week, at a gathering in Franklin, Looney told parents they were never supposed to see these videos and even publicly scolded a County Commissioner for asking questions about this curriculum. Many parents have told The Tennessee Star they don’t believe Looney has shown enough transparency with board members, the public, or the media. Many parents wonder if transparency is the order of the day when it comes to how the Williamson County School System does business — and they say the problem starts at the top, with Looney. ‘Blindsided’ At last week’s Williamson County School board meeting, Looney told board members that, yes, they approved the in-service training program for academic year 2018-2019 when they approved the top line budget. But board member Candy Emerson said she had no idea she voted for such a thing as in-service…

FRANKLIN, Tennessee — Williamson County parents and members of the public were never supposed to see the Cultural Competency videos that preached white privilege, School Superintendent Mike Looney told a group of about 20 people Thursday evening. Only teachers were supposed to see the videos, Looney said. Taxpayer paid for those videos. The Tennessee Star obtained the videos through a public records request and posted them on its website this month. “We have not shared these videos. They were not meant for public consumption,” Looney said, adding students were not supposed to see them either. Later, Looney told about 20 parents “the video was not meant for you, and you should not have seen the video, in my opinion.” Some parents opposed the videos. Other parents supported them. Looney held the meeting at the school system’s Professional Development Center in Franklin. Looney also told parents his decision to create a Cultural Competency Committee began after some parents complained about the school system’s choice of field trips where slavery was a topic. The people giving the tour — and not the teachers —said insensitive things about slaves that upset African-American parents, Looney said. ‘Gobbledygook’ A woman named Anna, who did not…

People involved in the Williamson County School System’s Cultural Competency Committee and people who support those efforts sent emails about the need for social justice and how to handle teachers who resist change. Emails also reveal Cultural Competency Committee members did not want publicity or for members of the media to attend their meetings. Committee members and other people who support their efforts sent these emails to one other earlier this month, and Superintendent Mike Looney received some of them. The Tennessee Star obtained these emails through an open records request to the county school system. In a March 6 email, a woman named Sara Melamed gave a rundown to Looney about the prior Cultural Competency meeting based on notes she took. A woman by the same name ran for the Williamson County Commission last year, according to The Tennessean, and she also served on the Williamson County Democratic Party’s Executive Committee. “They discussed ‘what to do about teachers who are resistant to change,’” Melamed wrote Looney. “For some teachers it has been considered life-changing and given them new perspective.” Melamed’s notes also included the following as it pertains to publicizing the committee’s work: “Why is the committee not being…

Brentwood resident Frank Wegerson was unhappy reading about the reported white privilege “Cultural Competency” series Williamson County teachers are having to watch. Wegerson said he was also worried about the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center holding a workshop in Franklin that county teachers will attend. So Wegerson emailed Superintendent Mike Looney Wednesday morning – and, much to his surprise, he got an almost immediate response. Only minutes after pressing the ‘send’ button, the Brentwood resident said Looney read the email and called to tell him that he wanted the conference to go “straight down the middle,” without “bias toward the left or right.” Looney told Wegerson he doesn’t watch CNN or FOX News because he believes both networks push an agenda. “He didn’t commit to anything,” Wegerson said of Looney. “He simply said that he was going to look at it some more.” Wegerson also sent Looney an article FOX News personality Tucker Carlson wrote warning people about the SPLC’s leftist politics. “He [Looney] just thanked me for sending him the article and said he wanted to hit it down the middle, wanted to be straight, not going too far left or right and I thought, well, that’s interesting because…