A recent discussion regarding a potential ban on the teaching of “critical race theory” in Paso Robles schools ended on a cliffhanger after board of education members failed to come to a consensus on whether they should look into the issue or how to define critical race theory.
After dozens of public comments at a meeting on June 22 regarding critical race theory and the possibility of its presence—or lack thereof—in Paso’s schools, the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District board of education decided to discuss the issue again at an unspecified later date. Maybe.
“We’ll keep you informed,” Board President Chris Arend told the audience at the end of the lengthy meeting, which ran until about 11 p.m.
Critical race theory is a decades old academic concept that emerged out of efforts in the ’70s to understand how legal policies and systems in the U.S. differently impact people of differing ethnicities, according to EducationWeek, an online resource for K-12 educators. Critical race theorists argue that racism is not just the product of prejudice between individuals, but that it’s pervasive in our society and deeply embedded in the culture and institutions, and that people who exist in such a society often unknowingly pick up racial biases.
In recent months, some states, including Idaho, Oklahoma, and Texas, have passed legislation banning critical race theory in schools, according to NBC News.
At Paso’s June 22 meeting, Superintendent Curt Dubost said that while critical race theory is not a part of the district’s formal curriculum, administrators wanted to discuss the topic after they were flooded with parent inquiries about the district’s stance on critical race theory.
Board President Arend drafted a resolution that would, if passed, ban the teaching of critical race theory in Paso’s schools, calling it a “divisive ideology that assigns moral fault to individuals solely on the basis of an individual’s race and, therefore, is itself a racist ideology.”
Although several community members said at the meeting that such a prohibition would be unnecessary and authoritarian and could prevent kids from learning about America’s dark history of racism, Arend told New Times that “whitewashing” history is not his intent.
He pointed to the last paragraph of the proposed resolution.
“Notwithstanding the above restrictions, social science courses can include instruction about critical race theory,” it reads, “provided that such instruction plays only a subordinate role in the overall course and provided further that such instruction focuses on the flaws in critical race theory.”
“There’s a difference between teaching critical race theory and teaching about critical race theory,” Arend said. “I think our students should know what the subject is, what critical race theory is, they should know what its main doctrines are, but I don’t think that critical race theory should be the basis of a class, for instance.”
Some parents who spoke at the June 22 meeting agreed, calling critical race theory “Marxism” and saying that it would unnecessarily pit children of different ethnicities against each other. Several Paso parents described the concept itself as racist, saying it teaches white children to feel ashamed of their skin color and heritage, and that it gives children of color a victim mentality.
“Anyone that supports this, in my opinion, you are a predator going after the innocence of my children,” parent Heidi Holliday said at the meeting. “The past year and a half has damaged all of us in ways that we aren’t fully even aware of yet. This does not help, in fact it will deepen the chasm.”
But several other attendees shared their personal experiences with systemic racism in Paso Robles, and said the sudden hysteria over critical race theory is based on a misunderstanding of the term and its relation to other terms like systemic racism and white privilege.
Courtney Haile, the executive director of R.A.C.E. Matters SLO County, suggested that critical race theory is only now becoming controversial as part of a campaign to rev up identity politics before the next election. Still, she argued, systemic racism is real.
“Race is socially constructed, and I acknowledge that it was indeed made up, just as whiteness is a construction and also made up,” she said. “It was made up to keep people of color, especially Black people, on the bottom. And the oppressive policies that have stemmed from this construction continue to have material impacts on people of color.”
During further discussion among board members over whether to schedule another meeting on the topic, Deputy Superintendent Jen Gaviola suddenly jumped in, saying she was “embarrassed” for the community. As a person from a mixed-race family, Gaviola said she had no interest in drafting ordinances regarding critical race theory and that the board should trust its teachers.
“I just can’t believe this is what our focus is,” she said to some mild applause from the audience. “Our kids have been out of school for a year, and this is our focus now? We should be coming together as a community, and the board made great strides to do that the last three meetings. And now we’re back at this.”
This article appears in Winning Images 2021.
The fact that Paso Robles school board president Chris Arend and his often repeated philosophy of bigotry and denial of systemic racism is now embedded in a local school system is sad and disturbing and the antithesis of what we should be teaching our children.
Evidence of Arends racist, anti-truth proselytizing can be found repeatedly in archived recording from Dave Congaltons KVEC radio talk show where Arend has been a frequent guest, publicly insisting that there has been no systemic racism in the United States since the 1970s, while simultaneously working to embed racist rules and teacher intimidation and teaching restrictions in the fabric of our local school systems.
If the parents of our school children do not stand up to purge our system of this blatant bigotry and denial of basic historical facts, the children will sooner or later have to take up the cause in order to preserve peace, order and racial equality on the central coast. Bottom line: systemic racism is real. Just look at the Paso Robles school board and try not to throw up.
Banning CRT demonstrates CRT.
Perhaps it is time for parents to have greater power over our public education system. Universal school vouchers, which would give parents the power to move their children to other schools, would encourage administrators and teachers to focus on meeting the goals of parents, rather than those of politicians. If would make schools compete for students, which couldn’t be a bad idea.
Unfortunately a universal school voucher system will further weaken public schools, negatively impact students in poor communities, and prove divisive throughout our nation. Rather than having numerous competing school systems, how about we unify and focus on improving the most pervasive school systems we currently have in place? There’s no good reason that the typical public schools we have throughout the United States should not rank among the very best in the world. The only reason they rank so low is because of a lack of unity among our people and an unwillingness to focus on the goals of improving public education for all. It is shameful that to this day our nation tolerates the fact that considerably more money is poured into the public schools of the wealthy than what is provided to the public schools of the poor. School vouchers will never change that reprehensible fact. We should be providing opportunities for quality public education equally to all. It’s a simple concept based on common sense and fairness.
It is possible to teach the historical facts of race in the US without indoctrination, or the currently trendy conjecture of how it supposedly manifests itself in all aspects of life and public policy. The facts of slavery, lynchings, Tulsa, segregation, etc speak for themselves – kids don’t need to be taught the “right way” to think about them, or to divide our society into victim and oppressor classes.
John Donegan: What you call “indoctrination” is not Inherent in teaching critical race theory, so you need not worry about that or promote unfounded fears based on that mischaracterization.
I have never known of any student who has been harmed from being exposed to critical race theory. If you know otherwise, please be reasonable and explain who, when and where. Thank you.
Paso Robles School Board President Chris Arend fails to mention that his resolution is based on a imagined hypothetical situation in Paso Robles school district. In other words, his entire argument is what is known in the legal field as a straw man argument, a pejorative term for a defense of actions that is not based on logic and the reality of the situation at hand. It is simply ham fisted rhetorical trickery in support of a personal agenda.
Nobody is teaching critical race theory in the Paso Robles school district.
Prior to Arend presenting his resolution, I was not aware of any formal proposal to offer instruction of critical race theory in the Paso Robles school district.
Arend is building up the controversy to be his political soapbox from which to issue unprecedented rules limiting educational opportunities for our youth, at the expense of expanding them. Thats not what a competent educational leader should be doing. Obviously.
Arend has in essence created a problem that did not exist in the school district previously.
Considering the timing and the effort he put into this, it is logical to conclude Arend is doing this for political reasons. Its an insensitive and diabolical ploy to inject a fresh level of racial bias into the school system.
It is certainly causing more controversy and causing more division in our community.
This coming from a central coast school board president who has spent considerable time and effort publicly insisting that there has been no systemic racism in the United States since the 1970s. Arend has made these racially charged and absurd claims on the radio many times, evidence of which can be accessed via the KVEC Dave Congalton radio show archives. Equally concerning is that many of Arends public comments are terribly condescending and disrespectful toward students in his district The antithesis of The kind of attitude that would inspire and elevate young minds.
There is no wholesome reason for Arend to be doing this, Although we can expect he will claim moral superiority backed by convoluted legalese, a tactic he has employed throughout his career to decidedly mixed and rarely wholesome results. Now hes forcing his tactics on school children and parents. Not good.
Students and voters in the Paso Robles school district should be well aware that their school district is being led by an insensitive bigot who is going out of his way to create controversy and racial division for his own personal political benefit. Please consider that the next time there is an election of school board members. Thank you
If Arends resolution passes teacherd in the Paso Robles school system who give a lesson about the Civil War or slavery will be walking on egg shells, fearing that someone will accuse him or her of teaching critical race theory. In essence, teachers will be hesitant to teach anything about slavery and other racially-based atrocities for fear of being reprimanded or fired for doing so. This is not a healthy scenario for teachers or students.
Mr. Donegan said, ” kids don’t need to be taught the “right way” to think about them, or to divide our society into victim and oppressor classes”
I wonder if Mr. Donegan realizes that until the 1980’s in many southern schools, the Civil War was referred to as the “War of Northern Aggression.” Slavery was often by passed with lessons on the cotton gin or how the southern states benefited from robust trade with Great Britain who turned the cotton picked by slaves into clothing. After all, the blacks were just part of the economic cog which made America great. The war, itself was taught as an attempt by the North to steal southern wealth..
In recent years, 2017, a Civil War reenactment by a Georgia school teacher had children dress up as characters from that era. A white student assumed the role of plantation owner, while a black student played the slave.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mother-outrag…
So, Mr. Donegan, exactly how should students think about history?