Ohio School District Trains Teachers To Become ‘Anti-Racist’ ‘Co-Conspirators’ To Subvert ‘Curriculum Rooted In Whiteness’

Kendall Tietz

A school district instructed teachers on becoming “anti-racist” “co-conspirators” while teaching a “curriculum rooted in whiteness,” according to the presentation provided by a concerned community member to Parents Defending Education (PDE).

Mentor Public Schools in Mentor, Ohio, told teachers in a training titled “Curriculum for Social Justice: Examining What We Teach and How to Critique it” that they could apply “social and racial justice lenses” to their jobs, according to a report from PDE, which appears to have been taken from the BetterLesson website.

In a presentation slide titled “Today’s Sessions,” the training asked teachers to consider “How can I be a co-conspirator while using a curriculum rooted in whiteness?,” according to the PDE report.

A “co-conspirator” is defined as “a person whose actions combat racism through direct challenge to or subversion of racist structures and institutions,” according to the presentation, PDE reported. Teachers should be “agent[s] of change” who are willing “to unlearn, in order to relearn” and use “an auditing tool to evaluate and challenge content.”

Teachers were told to re-evaluate the curriculum they are teaching their students because “it’s important to remember that our education system has been founded on historically racist practices, including silencing those from disenfranchised communities,” the PDE report said.

PDE Director of Outreach Erika Sanzi criticized the district as “a textbook definition of a hostile work environment,” according to a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Considering the sources used in this presentation, none of it is surprising but this is a quintessential example of how teachers are being bombarded by critical race theory during professional development,” she said.

Another slide shows a diagram labeled “Becoming Anti-Racist” which divides individuals into a “fear zone,” a “learning zone” and a “growth zone,” according to PDE. Teachers are asked to assess where they see themselves on the anti-racism scale.

“Anti-racism” is a term popularized by prominent Critical Race Theorist (CRT) Ibram X. Kendi, who has written books such as “How to Be an Antiracist” and “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You.” 

Critical Race Theory (CRT) holds that America is fundamentally racist, yet it teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race. Its adherents pursue “antiracism” through the end of merit, objective truth and the adoption of race-based policies.

“There is no such thing as a nonracist or race-neutral policy,” Kendi purports in his book, “How To Be An Antiracist.” “Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups.”

“The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination,” Kendi writes. “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”

In a slide titled, “Self Examination” the training states everyone has the potential “to be implicit or complicit in the systems we navigate which further perpetuates racism” and instructs educators to question the role they play to sharpen their “anti-bias lens” as they “continue becoming a co-conspirator and anti-racist,” according to PDE.

In the “Explaining HOW to Critique” slide, teachers are provided with instructions to evaluate and alter curriculum, which includes examining “the effects of capitalism on the environment and biological systems” and “the oppressive nature behind enforcing ‘Standard English,’” PDE reported.

The slide obtained by PDE also links to an organization called “RadicalMath” which “empowers educators to address issues of social and racial justice in math classrooms through curriculum, lesson planning resources, and professional development opportunities,” according to its website.

Mentor Public Schools did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

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