The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Figuring out how to talk about this as a school district
[ By Kendra Walker ]
During the October 18 Gunnison Watershed School District school board meeting, concerns of whether Critical Race Theory (CRT) is being taught once again came up in public comment discussion. The topic was also covered in September, and the school board and superintendent Dr. Leslie Nichols have emphasized that Critical Race Theory is not part of the District’s curriculum.
Many parents in attendance at Monday’s meeting expressed concern for CRT and that students are being taught that white people are racist and people of color are victims in America. Many who spoke argued that children are an impressionable audience and CRT is not only skewing their ideology and moral world view, but also hindering their learning of basic skills and their competitiveness for succeeding in the future.
“In general we feel like the things we hold dear – faith, family, patriotism and traditional values – are under attack,” said Michelle Duft. “Teachers are some of the biggest influences in the life of a student. As a sub I’ve been in the classrooms and I empathize with your struggles and I wouldn’t be there if I didn’t share a passion for the well-being of the children. Yet you can see how easy it is to let personal bias affect teaching. The concern among us with many conservative parents is that a political agenda may have entered the classroom and indoctrination may be taking place against many of the our family values.”
Duft continued, “Many of those organizations including BLM promised infiltration of new ideas into our schools in the form of curriculum and teaching training to allegedly fight what they called ‘systemic racism.’ We firmly believe this is a smokescreen for a darker political agenda…Schools are for teaching, not indoctrination or activism.”
“What we are experiencing in America right now is a projection of Marxist ideas and influence through institutions where these ideas are getting reception with a young and impressionable audience, this is our children, said Ben Autrey. “I ask that teachers and administrators in this county renew their partnership with parents by yielding to the ideological and moral teachings of parents and instead focus on teaching core skills that will make our children competitive in a marketplace for generations to come.”
Tomas Gomez is a parent of two CBCS students and also one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the school district regarding its mask mandate. “The board and superintendent have stated that CRT is not being taught in our schools. That’s true,” he said. “CRT is not taught directly in K-12 settings. CRT infiltrates K-12 settings when traditional subjects and curriculum are taught through the lens of CRT… Teachers may unwittingly invoke CRT into lessons because it’s so ingrained in our institutions and woke culture,” he said. “The impacts of CRT are devastating on children…I’ve seen its impacts firsthand. It’s the main reason my family moved from New York City and came back home to Colorado…My children spent their time doing racial and gender deconstruction projects instead of focusing on basic skills.”
He concluded, “Soon parents will introduce draft policy to the board to prohibit teaching of CRT. This policy will hold teachers and administrators accountable…we do not want this racist, divisive and destructive behavior. I look forward to working with all you guys to do this.”
Kelly Jo Clark told the board there were many parents who disagreed with the CRT concerns, and expressed interest in being included in the conversations moving forward. “Many, many parents and teachers that think teaching our kids accurate histories and ways to be more tolerant and inclusive in our world is very important,” she said.
“These people continue to bring up a problem that just doesn’t exist,” said Brian Hughes. “I hope that you won’t be influenced by fringe media sources and suspect national trends…I have discussions with my children each day after school and sometimes I don’t agree with what a staff member or teacher has said…but it gives us healthy discussion at home and allows us to engage with our children,” he said.
CBCS student Nola Hadley spoke over Zoom. “Personally I don’t feel like I have ever been taught CRT in my classrooms so I don’t understand what the panic is over. I don’t think panic is warranted at our school,” she said. “CRT when done right empowers all kids to improve the room around them…We’re just really unfamiliar with this territory so if we have some training it could help all of us to have these discussions in a more productive way. I feel that CBCS has done a good job of teaching students to think independently. We need to be given the information from different points of view…Personally as a child and student myself I really think we should be allowed to speak for ourselves and I’m not troubled by CRT.”
Board president Courtney Fullmer thanked everyone for their thoughts and noted that school board will be discussing the topic during their work session next Monday, October 25, and plans to address the concerns and questions that have been brought to the board thus far.
“We are listening,” said Fullmer. “We are working together to figure out how to talk about this as a school district. We are listening and we will continue to do this work.”
