Do Better FCPS School Board Testimony - June 24, 2021
Watch live testimony here. For full remarks, as time as cut off, please read the transcript below.
Below is the full transcript of Do Better FCPS Founder’s School Board Testimony at the June 24, 2021 Fairfax Public County Schools School Board Meeting.
Do you recognize this document? It’s the study guide that comes with the book Stamped, which is the assigned summer professional development for Chantilly High School teachers.
For the many parents in the community who say, “FCPS does not teach Critical Race Theory,” I want to read from this guide:
Racist ideas were embedded in the formation of the US government by the founding fathers
Racist ideas, along with economic greed, are central to the formation of this nation.
Meritocracy and the American Dream narrative are rooted in whiteness.
Ladies and gentlemen, greed, for lack of a better word, is good. But I digress.
This is what this comes down to.
Do you, as leaders of our school system, believe in America? Do you believe in meritocracy?
Do you Dr. Brabrand? Do you believe you were the best person for this job?
Do you, the School Board, believe you were fairly elected based on your merits for this job? Because if you don’t, you should resign. Because you cannot at once denounce meritocracy as racist while living under the very outcome meritocracy provides.
This is the danger of the lies and distraction the people gathering outside these meetings are allowed to tell. The ones some of you encourage and are financially benefiting from. What’s the harm of letting your supporters call us racists and call us the KKK as a way to protect CRT?
Well for one thing, you’ll notice I arrived here with private security. I don’t feel safe in my own County because of you. When you post about making this a safe community for all, does it include me? Your actions and words seem to say the opposite. I asked you specifically denounce what was going to take place last week, you didn’t.
When talking inclusivity, does it include Asians who deserve to be at Thomas Jefferson? I just saw a teacher post on a Facebook Group this week, “AAP students tend to be white males and Asians.” These are the kind of comments your staff thinks are, okay? That comes from the leadership.
When you passed along this boilerplate email in response to the racial equity survey to parents it said, well so much bull (we will post this on our website), but it said:
FCPS Social Studies has engaged in curriculum revision to ensure historical integrity and cultural responsiveness, such as the work of the Virginia Inquiry Collaborative
This sounds great, because it seems to match exactly the requests in this June 21st letter, sent by the largest organization in the US fighting anti-Semitism:
Fulfill your state’s requirement to educate your students about the Holocaust.
Some Holocaust assignments have trivialized the Holocaust and been hurtful and offensive to Jews.
But unfortunately, when you visit the Virginia Inquiry Collaborative, you’ll find that in the suggested lesson about the Holocaust, it asks that students pivot from thinking about the harm done to Jews to focusing on the Trail of Tears as a more relevant example of genocide. Only half the lesson on the Holocaust is about actual Jewish people.
Do you care or will you just continue to pay lip service to the Asians (20% of us) and the Jews and any other group that happens to not align with CRT. The CRT program you are installing is racist.