“Never let a crisis go to waste.” This is a quote you have probably heard many times by now. It seems we careen from one crisis to the next these days. Sometimes it seems the ones eager to capitalize on a crisis are the ones creating the crisis.
In part one, I laid out how Loudoun County Schools had a racial incident (crisis). Then they implemented radical racial and sexual ideology into the curriculum as a response to the crisis. I also showed how the organizations and people who created the foundations that caused the racial incident ( crisis), profited to the tune of more than $400,000 to solve the crisis. Now we will look at Grand Haven Area Public Schools and where they are on the crisis timeline, and how it compares to Loudoun County, Virginia.
Has Grand Haven already had its crisis? In 1996, a cross was burned in the yard of a Grand Haven family. In response, Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance (LEDA) was created. GHAPS also began the first iteration of their Diversity, Inclusion, Equity committee, and simply called it the Diversity Committee. In 2011, this committee combined with the Capturing Kids Hearts Committee and the Behavior Committee and changed its name to the Climate Committee.
The 2012 Bridgeforth Incident was another GHAPS crisis that resulted in the implementation of radical ideology. LEDA led a “parent forum” and GHAPS was investigated by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in response to this incident. The end result was further implementation or embedding of curriculum with antiracism and CRT.
To be clear, what happened back in 1996 and 2012 were awful for the families and children involved. Nobody should go through any type of abuse, bullying, or be subjected to racist insults. All of these things should be punished appropriately.
What is counterproductive is creating a hyper focus on race, and teaching antiracism or Critical Race Theory as a way to combat these issues. Combating racism and prejudice with racism and prejudice is the tactic of antiracism. It is not the answer. The link above states the victim’s mom was involved in the formation of Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance, and the victim, Katie Bridgeforth, was involved in Calling All Colors.
As an ideal, LEDA sounds fine. The practice and implementation of those ideals, however, are in line with the destructive principles of antiracism and CRT. LEDA recently held a Summit on Race and Inclusion. One of the speakers, Dr. Jennifer Harvey, writes and teaches antiracism, pushes for equity as opposed to equality, and advocates for “race-consciousness” in place of colorblindness. She offers a course titled “Raising Antiracist White Kids”.
LEDA is also heavily involved in GHAPS through the club Calling All Colors. Here is a sample of some of their teachings.
Some of those slides may look familiar from the article Who is Caryn Johnson?.
Calling All Colors is supposed to be a “student-led” club. However, these slides, and others like them, are using definitions straight out of Ibram X. Kendi “antiracism” teachings, and CRT definitions of race and racism. If these are truly the thoughts and beliefs learned by these students, who taught them the tenets of CRT and antiracism? How much influence does LEDA have with this group?
So according to the above screenshots from LEDA’s website, the organization, which may have begun as a noble idea, has bought in wholesale to the racial essentialism currently permeating our institutions. It is also heavily influencing our students, and providing “antiracist” and CRT-embedded lessons.
Now let’s turn our attention to Design Group International. Their contract and connection with GHAPS is documented here. As a refresher, “Design Group International, Inc was paid $34,500. The contract spanned one year, ended June 30, 2022, and included five Professional Development training sessions. Key GHAPS participants in this contract are the Director of Instructional Services Mary Jane Evink, former Superintendent Andy Ingall, Superintendent Scott Grimes, and former Assistant Superintendent Brian Wheeler. Two of the key GHAPS participants no longer work for GHAPS.”
Here is what Mary Jane Evink, the curriculum director, and Superintendent Scott Grimes sent out about Professional Development and Design Group International.
If you read part one, there is a key phrase in this email that should stand out. The next to last bullet point says their professional development days are used to learn important skills as: “creating a brave space to have courageous conversations”. Where have we heard “Courageous Conversations” before? That is the name of Glenn Singleton’s book, from part one. To further show what our educators are being taught by Design Group International, see these slides from a Design Group International presentation:
At the bottom of the second slide, you can see the source is Courageous Conversations About Race, by Singleton and Linton. In part three, I will tie this to Loudoun County Schools. I will address the question, “Where is GHAPS in the “process”?