Tag: Parents Defending Education

Minnesota Public School System in Hot Water over DEI, Social Justice Trainings Kept Secret from Parents

Peter D'Abrosca
Teacher in Class

One Minnesota school system has found itself at the center of controversy over staff trainings regarding Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), along with social justice. 

“Rochester Public Schools provides training that has staff participate in a “Social Justice Stretch” [and] staff are taught to embrace LGBTQ ideology with the ‘Genderbread Person,’ [and] staff are told not to tell parents about their children’s gender identity,” according to a watchdog group called Parents Defending Education (PDE). 

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Commentary: States Lead a Happy Title IX Revolt

Minnesota Sun Staff
Our Bodies Our Sports rally

American federalism is alive and well after all. On April 19, the Biden Education Department announced its disastrous new Title IX rule that guts due process and imposes gender ideology in educational institutions. Within days, however, officials from eight states publicly instructed their schools to ignore it. Then, within a week, 16 states sued the administration alongside nonprofit groups such as Parents Defending Education and several Louisiana school districts. Since then, the number of states suing has climbed to 26—more than half the states in the nation. Their court filings say the rule violates not only the United States Constitution and the federal Administrative Procedures Act but also Title IX itself. Game on!

While feminists weaponized Title IX to their hearts’ content in the Obama years, alleging a phony campus rape crisis to rationalize their kangaroo courts and to silence those questioning their power, the world is a different place under Biden. Feminists have met their match in American parents and and in red states—especially their education officials.

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Complaint: Minnesota High School Restricts Student Group Entry by Race

The Center Square
Burnsville High School

Parents Defending Education filed a federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education against Burnsville High School in Minnesota based on race and national origin in programs that receive federal financial assistance.

Burnsville High School offers programming to affinity groups only open to some students.

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Commentary: Notorious Southern Poverty Law Center Tries to Blacklist Turning Point USA, Project Veritas from Donor-Advised Funds

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Tyler O’Neil   The Southern Poverty Law Center routinely attempts to shame charities into blacklisting conservative nonprofits to defund the SPLC’s ideological opponents, whom it brands as hateful. This week, the SPLC released a report condemning six donor-advised funds for directing money to “extremist finance.” The report aims to shame the charity…

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Education Secretary Says He Doesn’t ‘Respect’ Parents Thinking ‘They Know What’s Right for Kids’

Minnesota Sun Staff

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona took a jab at certain parents who are standing up for their children’s education by stating that he does not “respect” people who are “misbehaving in public and acting as if they know what’s right for kids.”

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Parental Rights Group: 1,000 School Districts Support Hiding Kids’ Gender Issue from Parents

Just the News

An education group that supports parents’ rights released a comprehensive list this month of over 1,000 school districts that support children keeping their gender identity hidden from their parents.

Parents Defending Education published a list last updated on September 11, which showed that there are 1,044 school districts across the U.S. that “openly state that district personnel can or should keep a student’s transgender status hidden from parents.”

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Tennessee School Trains Staff on White Christian Privilege, Says People of Color, LGBT Are Oppressed

Just the News

A Tennessee school district offered voluntary Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training for staff that included a section about how people who are white, male, cisgender, heterosexual or Christian are considered privileged while people of color and those who are nonbinary, polyamorous or pagan are oppressed.

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Colorado Health Clinic Promoted Drag Story Hour to Kids with Autism

Minnesota Sun Staff

A Colorado health clinic that works with children who have autism promoted a Drag Story Hour event featuring adult drag queens performing for children, according to documents obtained by a parental rights’ group.

Seven Dimensions Behavioral Health uses Applied Behavior Analysis, a therapy used primarily with those who have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), to work with patients of “all ages and diagnoses serving the Colorado front range.” The organization sent a May 16 email to parents advertising a Drag Story Hour for their children and promising that it would include a “mix of stories/activities and age appropriate performances by 5 drag artists.”

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Parental Rights Groups Added to Southern Poverty Law Center’s ‘Hate and Extremist’ List

Minnesota Sun Staff

Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) added two prominent parental rights in education groups to its 2022 hate and extremist list on Tuesday.

The group lists 1,225 groups or organizations that Southern Poverty Law Center deemed hateful and against the government. Moms for Liberty, a coalition of parents fighting for transparency in education and Parents Defending Education (PDE) were noted as hateful and/or extremist.

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School Districts Celebrate Pride Month with Drag Shows, LGBTQ Assemblies

Admin

School districts across the country are using drag shows, parades, assemblies and proclamations to celebrate LGBTQ Pride month.

Some school districts that are promoting the events throughout the month of June are located in Washington, Oregon, California and New Hampshire. The Pride celebrations are a part of the growing push to expand lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation into the classroom, education advocates told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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School District Pays Thousands for Controversial Emotional Survey Program with Ties to Merrick Garland

Admin

A Massachusetts school district has spent more than $30,000 to conduct “social-emotional learning” (SEL) surveys on students and staff led by an educational organization founded by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s son-in-law, according to a public records request by Parents Defending Education (PDE), a parental rights in education group.

From 2018 to 2023, Old Rochester Regional School District spent $30,620.25 to partner with Panorama Education through January 2024 to conduct SEL surveys and trainings, a learning concept that has been accused of laying the foundation for Critical Race Theory (CRT), according to a public records obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Panorama Education has previously come under fire by parents for its connections to Garland, who directed the FBI in 2021 to “use its authority” on parents who protested at school board meetings.

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Parent Groups ‘Fed Up’ with Striking Los Angeles Unions ‘Using Kids as Pawns’

Susan Berry, PhD

Parent groups in California and those specifically in Los Angeles are enraged that tens of thousands of staff and teachers of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) went out on strike Tuesday, demanding higher pay and increased staffing in district schools.

“Parents are fed up with LAUSD unions using kids as pawns in contract negotiations,” tweeted Parent Union (CPC), a coalition of parents, parent groups, education reform advocates and community leaders dedicated to advancing meaningful education policies, accountability and choice in California’s K-12 education system.” 

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Parents Organization Reports Nearly 6,000 U.S. Public Schools Support Keeping Child’s Gender Identity Hidden from Parents

Susan Berry, PhD

A Parents Defending Education (PDE) report revealed that 5,904 government schools in the United States maintain transgender or “gender nonconforming” policies that openly assert school staff can or should keep a child’s preferred gender identity hidden from parents.

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Teachers’ Union Boss Randi Weingarten’s Rant About Student Loan Forgiveness at SCOTUS Draws Fire

Susan Berry, PhD

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten, who was unhinged as she ranted and raved on the steps of the Supreme Court over the prospect that Joe Biden’s student loan handout could be declared unconstitutional, is drawing rebukes for being the height of hypocrisy.

Weingarten, joined by other far-left proponents of student debt relief, screamed on the steps of the Supreme Court Tuesday as oral arguments were heard in challenges to Joe Biden’s plan to cancel student loan payments, claiming the move is essential to “make good with the students of America.”

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Black Lives Matter at School ‘Week of Action’ Gives Leftist Teachers Free Rein to Push Social Justice Activism in K-12 Schools

Susan Berry, PhD

Radical Marxist teachers are celebrating Black Lives Matter at School’s (BLM at School) “Week of Action” February 6-10 in thousands of K-12 government schools. The national BLM at School movement spends the first week of February – named as Black History Month – “organizing for racial justice in education,” its website touts.

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The Country’s Biggest School Districts Are Explicitly Hiding Kids’ Gender Transitions from Parents

Admin

The nation’s largest school districts are implementing policies that require educators to keep students’ gender transitions a secret from their parents.

Los Angeles Unified School District, Chicago Public Schools and New York Public Schools are promoting practices and policies that hide a student’s transgender status from their parents. The policies have become a cultural flashpoint amid a battle over the role parents should play in their child’s education, and the extent to which gender ideology has infiltrated K-12 classrooms.

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Biden Education Department Abruptly Disbands Parent Council Under Threat of Lawsuit Arguing Its Membership Consisted of Leftist Activists

Susan Berry, PhD

The Biden education department has abruptly scrapped its National Parents and Families Engagement Council following a lawsuit against Education Secretary Miguel Cardona by parental rights organizations who argued the council’s membership consisted of leftist activists and Democrat donors.

A statement reported by The74 said the education department “has decided to not move forward with the National Parents and Families Engagement Council.”

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Parent Leaders Rebuke ‘Teachers’ Unions’ and ‘Fear Mongering Influencers’ for National Assessment Results Exposing Unprecedented Losses During Pandemic

Susan Berry, PhD

The director of outreach for Parents Defending Education says results published Monday from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) that revealed significant declines in math and reading scores nationwide were “predictable because people in positions of power allowed teachers unions and other fear mongering influencers to put children last.”

“We knew prolonged school closures and masking would have catastrophic effects on children,” Erika Sanzi said. “And now we have more evidence that they did.”  

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Parent Group Reveals States’ Trans Policies Involve Keeping Students’ Gender Identities Secret from Parents and Inviting Students to Turn to LGBTQ Activists for Help

Susan Berry, PhD

Parents Defending Education’s (PDE) new resource for parents seeks to inform them of their state education agencies’ policies about gender identity and reveals multiple states instruct teachers to keep their students’ gender identities a secret from parents.

As it continues to add information from more states, the national grassroots organization’s resource for parents currently provides links to the websites of 29 state education departments across the country along with their policies regarding transgender students and gender identity.

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Biden Administration Awards over $7 Million to ‘Elevate Parent Voices in Education’ After Smearing Vocal Parents as Potential ‘Domestic Terrorists’

Susan Berry, PhD

The Biden education department announced Thursday it was awarding more than $7 million in competitive grants to eight organizations that have worked to achieve what the department calls “the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing efforts to enhance and increase parent and family engagement in local education.”

Grants from the Statewide Family Engagement Centers (SFEC) program, the announcement states, “provide financial support to organizations that offer technical assistance and training to state educational agencies and school districts that effectively engage families over policies, programs, and activities that lead to improvements in student development and academic achievement.”

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Groups from the Left and Right Agree on Opposition to Biden’s Title IX Reform as Comment Period Ends

Just the News

From the feminist Women’s Liberation Front to the conservative Child & Parental Rights Campaign and Parents Defending Education, groups opposing the Biden administration’s proposal to redefine sex as “gender identity” are urging supporters to file comments in the Title IX regulatory proceeding before it closes Monday.

An 18-month-old nonprofit unexpectedly joined their ranks last week: the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), cofounded by black intellectuals including Columbia University’s John McWhorter and Brown University’s Glenn Loury, which fights identity politics in education and government and has focused mainly on race.

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Top Biden Officials Huddle with School Group That Supported the FBI Targeting Parents

Minnesota Sun Staff

Leaders from President Joe Biden’s Department of Education (DOE) met with an education group that supported the FBI targeting parents Monday.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Deputy Secretary Cindy Marten met with representatives from the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) to discuss “how they are addressing students’ academic needs, tackling the social-emotional needs of students and staff, and using funds from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) to help with recovery efforts,” according to a DOE press release. The NASSP has previously called on federal authorities to intervene in conflicts between school administrators and concerned parents, lauding the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) when it announced plans to “use its authority” against parents.

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14 States Sue Biden to Divulge Secret Contacts About School Board ‘Domestic Terrorism’ Letter

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden administration is stonewalling 14 states seeking documents preceding Attorney General Merrick Garland’s controversial Oct. 4 memo directing the FBI to prosecute threats against school boards, according to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed Friday.

Garland acted in response to a Sept. 29 letter to President Biden from the National School Boards Association (NSBA), widely perceived as equating parental activism with “domestic terrorism.”

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Connecticut Parents Enraged by Eighth-Grade Assignment Using Pizza Toppings as Metaphor for Sexual Likes and Dislikes

Susan Berry, PhD

A health class assignment to eighth-grade students in Enfield, Connecticut asked them to list their sexual likes and dislikes, using pizza toppings as a metaphor.

Parents of eighth grade students in a sex ed class at the John F. Kennedy Middle School in the Enfield Public Schools (EPS) district reported their children received an assignment that asked them to list their sexual likes and dislikes – and likened that to ordering toppings on a pizza.

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School District in Washington State Holding Racially Segregated Superintendent Search Meetings for Parents

Susan Berry, PhD

A Washington school district plans to hold racially segregated meetings for parents and guardians who wish to participate in the search for a new superintendent.

As afternoon radio host Jason Rantz reported at MYNorthwest Wednesday, the Issaquah School District’s (ISD) weekly bulletin for February 7 listed its “upcoming events,” including separate meetings for “Parents/Guardians of Color.”

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Black Lives Matter at School ‘Week of Action’ Teaches Kindergartners to Replace Nuclear Families with ‘Villages’

Susan Berry, PhD

Elementary and high schools throughout the country this week are having children participate in Black Lives Matter at School’s “Week of Action,” using lesson plan “resources” based on the activist organization’s core principles that seek to disrupt Western family structure, and teach children to affirm the “transgender” and “queer” lifestyles.

Black Lives Matter (BLM) at School has provided a toolkit for schools and teachers with a curriculum that features a movie for different grade bands matched to “the 13 guiding principles of the BLM movement.”

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Denver Elementary School to Hold BLM Event Teaching Kindergarteners, First Graders to Disrupt the ‘Nuclear Family,’ Recognize ‘Trans-Antagonistic Violence’

Minnesota Sun Staff
sign that says "families of color playground night Wed. 12/8 4:10 p.m.

A school district in Denver, Colorado, plans to host a Black Lives Matter “Week of Action,” according to a report from Parents Defending Education.

Centennial Elementary School (CES) in Denver Public Schools (DPS) announced its plans to participate in the “Black Lives Matter (BLM) at School Week of Action” from Jan. 31 – Feb. 4, according to a report from Parents Defending Education (PDE). The school said it will instruct kindergarteners and first graders to be “transgender affirming” by “recognizing trans-antagonistic violence” and “queer affirming” so “heteronormative thinking no longer exists.”

Most kindergarteners and first graders are five, six and seven years old, according to PDE.

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Parents Group Claims Saint Paul Public Schools Indoctrinating Preschoolers on Transgender Issues

Admin

A parents group claims that a Minnesota school district is indoctrinating toddlers about pride and other “equity” agenda items.

Saint Paul Public Schools is partnering with two organizations, AMAZE and OutFront Minnesota, to purportedly push materials discussing gender identity on children as young as three, according to a release by Parents Defending Education (PDE).

One document released by PDE from AMAZE included books aimed at preschool-age children, including “When Aidan Became a Brother,” “I Love My Colorful Nails” and “My Princess Boy.”

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School District Openly Promotes Implementation of CRT, High School Presentation Discusses ‘Pyramid of White Supremacy’

Admin
Girl standing up in the middle of classroom

A high school in Oregon gave a presentation featuring a “Pyramid of White Supremacy” that discussed concepts like “white fragility” and “white saviorism,” according to documents obtained by Parents Defending Education.

Grant High School in Portland, Oregon, taught students about equity and racial justice as part of its “Race Forward” project from December of 2021, according to documents obtained by Parents Defending Education (PDE).

The presentation defined “whiteness” in connection with “the belief that white people are the standard in society” and said “white fragility” is demonstrated by white people showing discomfort and defensiveness “when confronted by information about racism,” such as “bringing up having family members or friends who are Black.”

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Parents Group Claims Two Schools Discriminated Against Students Based on Race

Admin

A parents group has filed complaints with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, claiming that two schools are discriminating against students on the basis of race.

Parents Defending Education (PDE) alleges that a monthly playground night reserved for non-white families at Centennial Elementary School in Denver, Colorado, and a field trip advertised to non-white students at Downer’s Grove South High School in Downer’s Grove, Illinois, violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

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National School Boards Association Removes Letter Comparing Parents to Domestic Terrorists from Its Website

Minnesota Sun Staff

The National School Boards Association scrubbed its letter, which compared the actions of concerned parents at school board meetings to those of domestic terrorists, from its website.

The deleted National School Boards Association (NSBA) letter, addressed to President Joe Biden’s administration, sparked outrage and backlash from parents across the country for requesting federal government intervention. The letter suggested the use of statutes, such as the USA PATRIOT Act, to stop threats or violence directed toward school board members over actions that it said could be “the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” according to the Sept. 29. letter.

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National School Boards Association Coordinated with White House on Letter Calling Parents ‘Domestic Terrorists’

Peter D'Abrosca

A new timeline of events in the controversial National School Boards Association (NSBA) letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland shows that the NSBA was in contact with the White House before sending the letter to President Joe Biden.

Emails obtained by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from the group called Parents Defending Education request show that NSBA President Viola Garcia sent a memo to state NSBA chapters on October 12 describing its work against parents who were protesting at school board meetings nationwide. Some of those protests regarded mask mandates and liberal activism within schools.

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New Hampshire School Boards Are Dumping the National School Boards Association After It Called Parents ‘Domestic Terrorists’

Minnesota Sun Staff

The New Hampshire School Boards Association chapter is the latest state-level organization to withdraw its membership from the National School Boards Association.

The New Hampshire School Boards Association (NHSBA) sent out a letter to its members on Thursday that informed them of its plans “to withdraw its membership from the National School Boards Association, effective immediately.” The group cited the National School Boards Association’s (NSBA) actions that “have made our continued membership untenable.”

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Commentary: The Data Mining of America’s Kids Should Be a National Scandal

RealClearWire

As U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland sat down for his first hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, denying a conflict of interest in his decision to investigate parents for “domestic terrorism,” there is a mother in the quiet suburb of Annandale, N.J., who found his answers lacking. And she has questions she wants asked at Garland’s hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee this Wednesday.

On a recent Saturday night, Caroline Licwinko, a mother of three, a law school student and the coach to her daughter’s cheerleading squad, sat in front of her laptop and tapped three words into an internet search engine: “Panorama. Survey. Results.”

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Consultants Are Raking in Millions Promoting Critical Race Theory in Schools, According to Conservative Advocacy Group

Minnesota Sun Staff

Diversity, equity and inclusion consultants are getting paid millions of dollars by public schools “to push divisive ideologies” to transform American schools “from institutions of education to places of woke indoctrination,” according to a conservative education advocacy group. 

Parents Defending Education (PDE) spent four months compiling data for its “Consultant Report Card” released Thursday, which investigates 543 public school districts and agencies across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

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School District Racially Segregates Students, Threatens Them for ‘Biased’ Statements: Lawsuit

Admin

A Massachusetts school district is racially segregating students and threatening to punish them for subjectively “offensive” statements they make, violating their civil and constitutional rights at both the state and federal level, according to a new lawsuit seeking permanent injunctions.

Parents Defending Education is challenging the “affinity groups” and associated spaces created by Wellesley Public Schools’ diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) plan for 2020-2025.

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Parent-Led Organization Sues School for Segregating ‘Affinity Groups’ by Race and Punishing ‘Unconscious Bias’

Minnesota Sun Staff

A national, parent-led organization filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging policies at Wellesley Public Schools, which includes segregated “affinity groups” and a “bias reporting” program.

Parents Defending Education (PDE) filed the complaint against Wellesley Public Schools (WPS) in a Massachusetts federal court “alleging that the district has systemically and repeatedly violated students’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Massachusetts Students’ Freedom of Expression Law through the use of segregated ‘affinity groups’ and an onerous speech code featuring a ‘bias reporting’ program,” according to the press release.

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‘Totalitarian Tyranny’: Parents Groups Slam Attorney General Garland for Turning FBI on Their Activism

Minnesota Sun Staff

Parents who protest public school policies on race, gender and COVID-19 are crying foul after Attorney General Merrick Garland promised to “discourage” and prosecute “harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against school boards, administrators, teachers and staff.

His “mobilization of [the] FBI against parents is consistent with the complete weaponization of the federal government against ideological opponents,” Rhode Island mother Nicole Solas, who is waging a public records battle with her school district over race-related curriculum, told Just the News.

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School District Reportedly Hired a Consultant to Teach the ‘Privilege Pie’ Chart and a ‘Pyramid of White Supremacy’

Minnesota Sun Staff

A Washington state school allegedly required teachers to complete a training where teachers discussed their privilege based on particular attributes, according to an anonymous teacher.

One exercise in the Tumwater, Washington, school district’s “privilege” training included “The Privilege Pie,” where participants were told to color in sections prevalent to them, the teacher told advocacy group Parents Defending Education. The privileged identities included being white, a cisgender male, having an upper/middle class social status, Christian beliefs and a heterosexual sexual orientation.

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Posters on Display in California High School Classroom Display ‘F*** The Police’ and ‘F*** Amerikkka’ Phrases

Admin
outside of Alexander Hamilton High School

A California high school classroom displayed what an anonymous parent called “disgusting brainwashing of students with taxpayer dollars” over photos that show F*** the Police and F*** Amerikkka posters and Pride and Black Lives Matter flags, according to a tip provided by a parent to Parents Defending Education.

The parent of a student at Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) shared photos of the posters and flags in the classroom with Parents Defending Education (PDE), a national grassroots organization working to fight “indoctrination in the classroom.”

Photos show an American flag lying on furniture in the classroom, while the Palestine flag, a transgender flag, a Pride flag and a Black Lives Matter flag hang prominently from the blackboard, according to the photos obtained by PDE.

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University of Minnesota Website Scrubs Reference to China Origin for COVID after Bias Complain

Minnesota Sun Staff
Person in green protective gear in lab with safety glasses and mask on

The University of Minnesota system’s Bias Response and Referral Network asked students to report suspected bias “related to the COVID-19 outbreak.”

As a result, it appears that the School of Public Health removed a reference to COVID-19’s origin in China.

The College Fix filed a public records request with the University of Minnesota system for all COVID bias reports for the past year. This is the first response to the request.

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