Biden Administration Election Games

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RECORDS REVEAL COORDINATED EFFORT TO ADVANCE CRT INITIATIVES IN
LOUDOUN COUNTY

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Loudoun County in Virginia is the center of the storm on Critical Race
Theory. School district officials there are obsessed with pushing,
often dishonestly, the CRT agenda.

We learned this from 3,597 pages
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of records
we received from the county. They reveal a coordinated effort to
advance CRT initiatives despite widespread public opposition.

We received the records after two Virginia Freedom of Information Act
(VFOIA) requests to Loudoun County Public Schools. In March and April
2021 requests, we asked for communications between Loudoun County
Superintendents Eric Williams and/or Scott Ziegler with school board
members, teachers and parents regarding anti-racism initiatives,
including a proposed speech code.

Here’s what we learned.

On March 27 at 2:19 a.m., Minority Student Achievement Advisory
Committee
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(MSAAC) Chair Keaira
Jennings writes
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to
former Director of Equity Lottie Spurlock
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and others that she tweeted “we
will silence the opposition … without realizing the firestorm my
words would cause … My intention was and is to have the voices in
support of equity in education be heard and supported, and I was
actually thinking ‘hopefully those voice will eventually ring louder
and drown out those against equity.’”

On March 29, 2021, Jennings writes
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about
distributing a MSAAC a “call to action” in hopes the Loudoun NAACP
will join in taking steps against the “false narratives” of “the
opposition:”

As you are aware there is a lot of negativity and false narratives
being circulated in the community and news regarding equity within
LCPS. I think it best to not engage the opposition but rather counter
them and drown out their hateful rhetoric. I am attaching a copy of
the call to action that MSAAC put out this morning in hopes that the
NAACP will join us in taking these or similar steps. Later this
afternoon, I plan to also submit a letter formally to the school board
asking that they take specific actions items, recognizing that the
censure of [School Board Member
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John Beatty is not legal for them currently.
On January 11, 2021, Loudoun County School Board Member Atoosa Reaser
writes Ziegler
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an email
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about
legislation moving in the Virginia legislature under the subject line,
“Bill Tracking> HB1904 > 2021 session” (H.B. 1904 passed
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and was
signed into law by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam. The new law
requires cultural competency for teacher licenses.):

This is the bill that's going to encompass one of our program’s
asks. It will be carried by someone outside of Loudoun, and is more
comprehensive. I believe it encompasses what we were asking for and am
OK with that path forward. Please let me know this morning if you have
other thoughts.
Ziegler responds:

That looks good. Once the bill is passed, it will be interesting to
see how the training and rubrics are built and promulgated around the
[cultural competency] requirement. That will be where the real work
starts.
On March 18, 2021, the African American Superintendent's Advisory
Council issued “Recommendations on Equity
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which includes among numerous other recommendations:

Establishment [of] a single indicator or composite score related to
school climate that includes indicators related to antiracism and
culturally responsive and inclusive learning environments

[A] requirement for educator preparation programs to include programs
of study and experiences that prepare teachers to be culturally
responsive educators.
Karen Dawson, executive assistant to the superintendent’s office
asks a several public school officials to distribute the
recommendations to their staff members.

Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Ashley F. Ellis
responds: “We already have a head start with so many of these
things.”

Ziegler responds to Slevin and Director of Communications and
Community Engagement Joan Sahgren: “I wonder if and how this
information can be included in our communications.”

On December 7, 2020, in an email chain
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regarding
a memorandum of understanding
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between
the school board and the sheriff’s office, Spurlock writes to school
and law enforcement officials about an upcoming panel discussion
regarding “rules of engagement for the community conversation.”

On December 11, Katrecia Nolen
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principal and owner of
KAPAX Solutions, a management and IT consulting services company,
writes:

Data shows that our children are disproportionately referred to law
enforcement in Loudoun County and these factors should inform the MOU
[memorandum of understanding] review process.

I understand that there were a number of community comments and
questions submitted, when will we have access to this
community-derived information?
In a March 19, 2021, message
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to
the public school community Ziegler attempts to address concerns
regarding “Rumors Concerning LCPS Equity Work” by attempting
to draw a distinction between Critical Race Theory (CRT) and
Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT):

The professional development offered to LCPS employees explores issues
that have traditionally been ignored in professional development. It
asks employees to examine their own personal biases and how they might
affect student instruction and interactions with the community.
Concepts such as white supremacy and systemic racism are discussed
during professional development. LCPS has not adopted Critical Race
Theory as a framework for staff to adhere to.
On March 23, Ellis writes
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about
Ziegler’s distinction between Critical Race Theory and Culturally
Responsive Teaching:

As we've stated in committee meetings and messages to the community,
LCPS is not teaching CRT (Critical Race Theory), nor have our staff
been trained in Critical Race Theory …

***

Information related to countywide training for equity was shared with
the LCPS School board on September 22…. Additionally, the Department
of Instruction has created a frequently-asked-questions document
related to Equity and Culturally Responsive Instruction.

The acronym “CRT” might sometimes be confused with Culturally
Responsive Teaching. As you know from C&I meetings this year, we do
have a Culturally Responsive Framework that was developed this past
year and is being utilized in our schools. Again, this is not Critical
Race Theory.
In a March 2, 2021, email
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Ziegler invites senior staff to a Zoom meeting facilitated by Virginia
Commonwealth University: “Topic: Equity and Culturally Responsive
Leadership: Racial Equity: What's Race Got to Do With It? Dr. Cole and
Dr Stanley.” Drs. Cole
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and Stanley
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work
in the Office of Strategic Engagement for VCU.

In early April 2021, Public Information Officer Wayde B. Byard engages
in a conversation with _Loudoun Now_ editor Norman Styer, whom Byard
characterizes in an April 5 email
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to
Zeigler, Ellis and Spurlock as “friendly.” Byard writes, “This
editor has been friendly to us in the past. In our phone conversation,
he said he wanted to ‘cut through the crazy’ and give an honest
account of what LCPS is doing.”

In a January 26, 2020, email
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Beth Barts writes to then-Superintendent Williams and other school
officials informing them about a closed meeting by the Equity
Committee, after it was leaked the Committee was considering a rule
that would require parents to take equity training before they would
be allowed to access their child’s “parentvue,” a mobile
application
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designed
to help parents monitor their child’s academic activity. Barts
writes:

I would lie [sic] to draw your attention to the social media rumors
that the equity committee is going to require parents to take equity
training before they are allowed to access their child’s parentvue.
There is some outrage building.

I realize this is not exactly accurate and was just a suggestion, but
I wanted to make sure you all were aware.
Loudon County parents are not alone in confronting CRT abuse of
their children.

We recently made public a training document
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it
received from a whistleblower in the Westerly School District of Rhode
Island, which details how Westerly Public Schools are using teachers
to push critical race theory in classrooms. The training course was
assembled by the left-leaning Highlander Institute
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and cites quotes from Bettina
Love
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from whom the Biden administration
distanced itself publicly after her statements equating
“whiteness” to oppression
[[link removed]].

In May, we obtained heavily redacted records
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from
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) including documents related to
their “Anti-racist system audit” and critical race theory classes.
The documents, obtained under the Maryland Public Information Act,
reveal that students of “Maryland’s Largest School District” who
attended Thomas Pyle Middle School’s social justice class were
taught that the phrase “Make America Great Again” was an example
of “covert white supremacy.” The phrase is ranked on a pyramid
just below “lynching,” “hate crimes,” “the N-word” and
“racial slurs.” They were also taught that “white privilege”
means being favored by school authorities and having a positive
relationship with the police.

In June, we uncovered records
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from
Wellesley Public Schools in Massachusetts that confirm the use of
“affinity spaces” that divided students and staff based on race as
a priority and objective of the school district’s “diversity,
equity and inclusion” plan. The school district also admitted
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that
between September 1, 2020 and May 17, 2021, it created “five
distinct” segregated spaces.

CRT is the true pandemic in our schools and Judicial Watch is doing
its best to combat it!

JUDICIAL WATCH SUES ASHEVILLE OVER RACIALLY DISCRIMINATORY SCHOLARSHIP
PROGRAM

Oxymoronic anti-racist racism is the new agenda for the extremist
Left. As part of our effort to combat this assault on the rule of
law, Judicial Watch filed a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of a North
Carolina citizens group whose members include high school students
ineligible for a City of Asheville-funded scholarship only because
they are not black.

The plaintiff, WNC Citizens for Equality, Inc., is suing the City of
Asheville, City Manager Debra Campbell, and the Asheville City Schools
Foundation (ACSF) and its director regarding the city’s
establishment of a racially discriminatory scholarship program.

(The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western
District of North Carolina (_WNC Citizens for Equality, Inc., v. City
of Asheville et al._
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(No.
1:21-cv-00310))).

On May 5, 2021, the City of Asheville entered into an agreement with
Asheville City Schools Foundation to establish and administer the City
of Asheville Scholarship Fund. According to the agreement, the City of
Asheville Scholarship is “awarded in perpetuity to Black high school
students within Asheville City Schools, with special consideration
given for Black students pursuing a career in education.”

Our lawsuit argues that the scholarship is a violation of the Equal
Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
and a violation of the members of WNC Citizens for Equality’s rights
to equal protection under the law and freedom from racial
discrimination under the North Carolina Constitution.

The funds provided by the City of Asheville for the City of Asheville
Scholarship came from the settlement of an unrelated lawsuit. On April
13, 2021, the Asheville City Council directed City Manager Debra
Campbell and City Attorney Brad Branham to effectuate a “donation”
of $474,592.56 to ACSF. The City Council stated that it expected the
funds would be used “in such a way as to provide the public benefit
of advancing racial equity within the community.” A later, smaller
donation also was made by the City of Asheville to ACSF for the same
purpose.

According to ACSF’s website
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the first City
of Asheville Scholarship was awarded in May 2021. ACSF will begin
accepting applications on November 1, 2021, and through January 31,
2022, for the next City of Asheville Scholarship to be awarded.

Our lawsuit asks the court to declare the discriminatory scholarship
scheme is in violation of both the U.S. Constitution and the North
Carolina Constitution.

It is illegal to discriminate on the basis of race and setting up a
‘blacks only’ scholarship is wildly unconstitutional. This civil
rights lawsuit seeks to ensure that no student in Asheville is denied
educational scholarship opportunities on account of race.

FEDERAL AGENCIES UNVEIL PLANS TO COMBAT “ANTI-VOTER BURDENS” OF
PEOPLE OF COLOR

The Biden administration has engaged in a thinly-disguised “get out
the vote” operation – using your tax dollars. Our _Corruption
Chronicles_ blog has the latest details
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In response to President Joe Biden’s government-wide directive to
eliminate “anti-voter burdens” and “significant obstacles”
that prevent people of color from voting, more than a dozen federal
agencies have announced unprecedented initiatives that could
conveniently result in more votes for Democrats. The agencies
concocted their unconventional voter outreach plan after Biden issued
an Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting
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in
early March. It directs the federal government to leverage its vast
resources to increase access to voter registration services and
information about voting. Under the mandate all agencies must submit a
strategic plan outlining ways to promote voter registration and
participation to White House Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice, who
served as National Security Advisor and U.S. Ambassador to the United
Nations under Barack Obama.

“The right to vote is the foundation of American democracy,”
Biden’s March executive order states. “Free and fair elections
that reflect the will of the American people must be protected and
defended. But many Americans, especially people of color, confront
significant obstacles to exercising that fundamental right. These
obstacles include difficulties with voter registration, lack of
election information, and barriers to access at polling places. For
generations, Black voters and other voters of color have faced
discriminatory policies and other obstacles that disproportionally
affect their communities. These voters remain more likely to face long
lines at the polls and are disproportionately burdened by voter
identification laws and limited opportunities to vote by mail. Limited
access to language assistance remains a barrier for many voters.”
The order also mentions barriers faced by people with disabilities who
are denied legally required accommodations and military personnel
serving overseas.

In a preview of what is coming, 14 agencies recently disclosed the
steps they are taking in response to the president’s call for “an
all-of-government action to promote voting access and to further the
ability of all eligible Americans to participate in our democracy.”
In a lengthy announcement
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the White House claims the “strategic plans” are just the
beginning of each agency’s commitment and that the agencies will
further build out their capacity to help voters better understand
“opportunities for engagement” as well as “facilitate
participation in the electoral process” in the months to come. Much
of the planning will center on the findings of Vice President Kamala
Harris’ months-long engagement with voting populations “that have
been historically marginalized” as well as civil and voting rights
advocacy groups. The administration has also partnered with civil
rights organizations, according to the White House release, and has
appointed “strong civil rights leadership at the Department of
Justice.”

Here is a preview of the preliminary steps government agencies are
taking to combat so-called “anti-voter burdens.” The Department of
Justice will provide voting information and facilitate voting for
federal inmates and educate ex-cons before reentry about voting rules
and rights in their state. The Department of Housing and Urban
Development will furnish voter registration information and services
to around 1.2 million public housing units nationwide and improve
voting registration and voting access to the homeless. The Department
of Labor plans to designate thousands of employment training centers
in every state as voter registration agencies and require the centers
to enroll voters and serve as polling precincts. The Education
Department is going to prepare a tool kit of resources and strategies
for civic engagement for the nation’s elementary and high schools as
well as colleges so more than 67 million students and their families
learn about “civic opportunities and responsibilities.” The
Treasury Department will include voter registration and participation
materials in direct deposit campaigns for Americans who receive
federal benefits such as Social Security. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service is having its offices, borrowers
and guaranteed lenders push voter information. Federal transportation
officials want to place voter registration materials in high-transit
stations and the Department of Defense (DOD) is going to develop
voting materials in “additional languages.” This is just the
beginning.

CRITICAL RACE THEORY ROILS VIRGINIA GOVERNOR RACE

Micah Morrison, our chief investigative reporter, provides a look
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at CRT battles which are coming to a head in Virginia in our
_Investigative Bulletin_:

Virginia is shaping up as ground zero in the battle over schools and
Critical Race Theory. The “theory” is pure poison, a hard-edged
identity politics from the radical Left teaching that America is an
irredeemably racist country suffused by white supremacy. Students
must—must—acknowledge this, or pay the price. Dissent will not be
tolerated. Parents are in an uproar, particularly in Virginia, where
CRT has become a major issue in the gubernatorial contest between
Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin. Polls show
a tight race
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The CRT fight in Virginia has been brewing all year. “Perhaps
nowhere has the debate over critical race theory grown so heated as
in Loudoun County” in Northern Virginia, the Washington Post
reported
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in
May. Loudoun put nearly half a million dollars into a consulting firm
for teacher training and raising “racial consciousness.” Parents
grew alarmed and tensions increased. CRT “is teaching kids to see
other kids through a strictly identity group lens as opposed to seeing
each other as individuals with their own stories to tell that are not
dependent on their skin color or their ethnicity,” a Loudoun County
parent told the Post.

In July, in Fairfax County’s Thomas Jefferson High School—rated as
one of the top public schools in the nation—newly elected anti-CRT
members of the parent-teacher association were threatened with
removal
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of
their charter by the state’s governing PTA association. In
September, chaos broke out
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at
a Prince William County School Board Meeting when parents started
shouting at each other. Cops had to clear the room.

Sparked by parent passions, CRT appears to be gaining traction with
Virginia voters. A recent Emerson Poll
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showed
that a big majority of Virginians, 86%, were familiar with the CRT
debate. 47% said they would support a state ban on teaching CRT in the
schools.

Youngkin, the GOP candidate, says he will ban CRT in the schools “on
day one” of his administration. He has made CRT a top issue in the
race and hammers McAuliffe on it at “Parents Matter” events around
the state. CRT “teaches our children to view everything through a
lens of race to divide our children up into buckets and then pit them
against one another and steal their dreams,” Youngkin told a Parents
Matter rally last week.

McAuliffe has stumbled over CRT and education. “I don’t think
parents should be telling schools what they should
teach,” McAuliffe said
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at a September
debate—a remark that immediately went viral. He dismisses concerns
over CRT
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as
“racist” and a “dog whistle.” On the campaign trail,
McAuliffe’s education pitch focuses on a $2 billion proposal to
raise teacher pay, improve online access, and expand preschool
programs.

Judicial Watch has been a national leader in the CRT fight and we’ll
be watching Virginia closely. Read more from us on the background of
CRT here
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on CRT in Maryland here
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on CRT at West Point here
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on CRT in Rhode Island here
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And if you’re interested in using the Freedom of Information Act and
public records requests to explore CRT in your community, this
episode of JW TV
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will tell
you everything you need to know.

Until next week...


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