Critical race theory permeates North Carolina schools, task force says

Critical race theory is more widespread across North Carolina schools than leaders had initially expected, according to a task force report .

The Fairness and Accountability in the Classroom for Teachers and Students task force, formed by Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson in March, found 506 examples of political bias and teachings associated with critical race theory in schools. These examples were submitted by teachers, students, and parents who said they witnessed bias in their local school systems through an online portal that opened in March and appears to remain operational.

The report’s summary detailed incidents of bias that fell into six key categories: fear of retaliation, sexualization of children, critical race theory, white-shaming, biased news media or lesson plans, and the shaming of certain political beliefs.

The report contained several alleged incidents of bias in North Carolina’s schools. One school employee said his or her school’s “teacher of the year” had Black Lives Matter decorations on her door and once wore a shirt that read, “Blue lives murder,” while the complainant was reportedly not allowed to wear political apparel supporting Republicans.

Another teacher, who has been an educator for 15 years, said she no longer trusts the values being taught in school.

“As a parent and a grandmother, I don’t want my family attending public school now, and that is really saying something because my mother was a teacher, and my sister is a teacher in public school,” the teacher said in the report. “I don’t trust the values being taught all because of the political views. … I pray you can do something to fix what is going on so I can continue to believe in what I do.”

Parents also alleged bias in the school system, with one parent saying his or her daughters “quickly learned to just write papers (assignments) from the teacher’s point of view to get an A.”

“While they should have been learning math, science, history, etc., they were learning how to play the game to get a good grade,” the parent added.

On Wednesday, state Senate leader Phil Berger, a Republican, joined Robinson to present the findings of the 766-page report, reading aloud several examples regarding critical race theory that were found in the school systems.

“Don’t tell me this doctrine doesn’t exist. Don’t tell me that all these teachers and parents are just making this stuff up,” Berger said during Wednesday’s press conference in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The findings were later presented to the state Senate’s Education/Higher Education Standing Committee. On Thursday, the chamber passed the House’s “Ensuring Dignity and Nondiscrimination in Schools ” Act, which prohibits the teachings of certain concepts, including critical race theory, which (along with other closely related ideologies) holds that America is inherently racist and that skin color is used to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between white and nonwhite people.

Teachers are gathering across 115 cities (including the President’s House in Philadelphia where George Washington, who was a slave owner, resided) this weekend to “teach truth” in protest of anti-critical race theory legislation being proposed across the country.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, has not commented on the report, and the governor’s office did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.

LATEST VIDEO