After numerous parents and board members expressed concerns that the event might include components of critical race theory, an Ohio school board chose to cancel a local high school’s scheduled “Diversity Day.”
The Forest Hills School Public’s board of trustees decided on Sunday afternoon to prohibit Turpin High School from having its scheduled “Racial Diversity Awareness Day” during school hours or using district funding, citing parental concerns.
According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, the school board unilaterally postponed the event the day before it was intended to take place in late March to allow for “parent review.”
The Forest Hill School Board was one of many throughout the country when conservative candidates defeated more liberal incumbents as part of a national grassroots push for parental rights in the classroom. The conservative majority on the board is currently 4-1.
Here’s what one parent said in a letter read at the Sunday meeting:
“Voters made it very plain in the November election that we do not want to sponsor social justice and political programming that is fundamentally divisive.”
For the past seven years, Turpin High School has celebrated a “Racial Diversity Awareness Day.” While kids were required to get parental permission forms for the event, Hausfeld claims that teachers at the school offered extra class credit for attending.
An anonymous survey asking students questions about their socioeconomic and ethnic origins, such as whether they had more than 50 books in their home, had been racially profiled by police or went to the dentist on a regular basis, was one of the scheduled events.
Sara Jonas, a 2021 conservative school board member, said she “understands how this is the business of students, employees, or leaders in this exercise.”
“How is this not political and indoctrination to the students?” she said.
The board’s 4-0 decision to cancel the program (the lone opponent refused to vote) exemplifies the impact that newly elected anti-critical race theory school board members are having across the country. Critical race theory, which claims that American institutions and society are systemically racist and oppressive to racial minorities, has been a major source of debate in public schools for over a year.
Watch it here: Reddit
Sources: Westernjournal, Cincinnati, Grovelandbuzz