Parents of Loudoun County public school students have been asked to sign a type of nondisclosure agreement to view a curriculum connected to a group known to push critical race theory.
The NDA is required to be signed by parents who want to review the “Second Step” curriculum. Parents are required to acknowledge that the presentation of the material is “not a public event” and that “copying, broadcast or recording of any kind is prohibited.”
The “Second Step” curriculum is part of a series of lessons on “Social Emotional Learning” from the Committee for Children, a nonprofit group that advertises free anti-racism and anti-bias resources.
The organization promotes “social emotional learning” as the development of interpersonal skills and self-control, but the Second Step website includes material on anti-racism and anti-bias while saying it is “committed to addressing racial injustice and helping you drive real change in your school communities.” The website says the purpose of the resources is to “implement social-emotional learning in a way that builds on students’ cultural assets, critically examines systems of power, and develops better ways of teaching, learning, and being.” The phrase “anti-racism” has been tied to the propagation of critical race theory, ever since it was popularized by Ibram X. Kendi, a professor at Boston University who wrote a book titled How to Be an Antiracist.
The NDA document is billed as the “terms and conditions” agreement, citing copyright as the reason for requiring the document. But a Loudoun County parent told the Daily Caller that a number of other organizations, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, provide copyrighted material to Loudoun County Public Schools without requiring parents to sign a document to review them.
A tiny snapshot of the curriculum is available on the LCPS website but is limited to only a few slides. The Daily Calleralso reported that the agreement between the school district and Second Step exempts the curriculum from Virginia Freedom of Information Act requests.
LCPS and the Committee for Children did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
