Submit Your Open Letter to Jefferson County Public School District Board and Administrators
The Squallis Puppeteers has a new puppet show out and it’s super timely. And if you’re one of the lucky winners, you could host an in-person screening at your school or venue. See our entire 1-hour interview or watch the 1-minute preview below, then click the link to find out how to enter:
What they’re saying: “At this time, we do not recommend or endorse a test-to-stay program,” the CDC told the Times. “However, we are working with multiple jurisdictions who have chosen to use these approaches to gather more information.”
LOUISVILLE, KY – There were over 30 individuals signed up as guest speakers at Tuesday night’s school board meeting, but only about six were able to be heard before the chaos erupted after a white women, who had come at the invitation of Beanie Geohegan, a known right-wing radical, changed her seat in order to more easily confront and ultimately threaten a Black mother. One of the speakers with their group, Dr. Frank Simon, spoke about his concerns for Black students, yet ironically, they not only refused to listen to what the Black parents and students had to say, they instead threatened and attempted to silence them. Further frustrations were expressed when one of the officers, who was Black, took the side of and protected the white woman who had instigated and escalated the situation, instead of the parents and children who were being berated by a racist.
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A top story out in today’s Courier-Journal reveals a sordid history of abuse, misconduct and denial, inside and outside of the classroom for William Bennett, the Science teacher at Moore High School who was recently involved in an altercation with a student after telling him he was just going to be “another Black boy shot.” The trail of dirty laundry and terminations runs from Etown, to Hardin, to Bullitt County, before Bennett finally landed a teaching job in a high minority population district. It turns out Bennett was fired from his hometown school system, Elizabethtown Independent Schools, in 2001 after he was arrested for breaking into an apartment “to see if his then-girlfriend was cheating on him,” according to the article by Olivia Krauth.
This incident, while one of the most egregious in recent memory, is not all that unique. In fact, I was just about to release my latest blog post entitled, “Our Schools are Not Safe for Black and Brown Kids,” when I became aware of this latest update on William Bennett and decided to lead with it and some intel of our own. Please check out my latest blog, which also details two other incidents of violence toward Black JCPS students since the start of the school year. The post will be updated.
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During a recent press conference, hosted by the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, a heckler began talking loudly to the crowd while one of our local community leaders, Vincent Gonzalez, was speaking. The press conference, which was held at Central High School ahead of the July 27, 2021 JCPS School Board Meeting, focused on our community’s unapologetic support for the teaching of accurate history and the practicing of equity, diversity and inclusion, as well as halting recently proposed legislation that would make doing so illegal. This interruption went on for quite some time, as several individuals from the crowd went over to try to kindly ask the belligerent woman to be respectful, to no avail. My latest blog post, entitled, “Listen to the Black People!,” details the events and dynamics that took place during those tense moments. Thank you for taking a moment to check it out.
After individuals carrying symbols suggesting they were affiliated with neo-Nazi hate groups and insurrectionists stormed the June 29 JCPS Work Session, some of these same folks were spotted at the Oldham County School Board meeting the following Monday night. These bad actors are not the “stakeholders” they pretend to be.
Many of the grassroots organizations and individuals who are closest to the challenges faced in a large urban district like JCPS have been waiting for nearly a year and a half, BEFORE the pandemic and BEFORE the murder of JCPS graduate Breonna Taylor, to have their voices heard. And they’ve waited even longer and more patiently to see the structural racism that’s baked into our systems, student assignment plan and resource distribution, addressed. Yet out of nowhere, these mostly white parents and “concerned stakeholders” show up and start making demands and even threatening our leaders over things like mask mandates? How privileged must one be to think their “right” to expose others to a deadly virus trumps the safety and education of our most vulnerable students? To folks who never bothered to show up constructively to work with district and community leaders to find solutions, and to others who are coming from outside counties and states to disrupt meetings with their misinformed positions, I say, “get in line.”
Other right-wing radicals from the meeting have been spotted taking the lead in organizing around irrational and unnecessary “pro-life” legislation, dangerous constitutional amendment changes, and even demanding reinstatement of a cop who showed up in uniform, driving a patrol car, to protest against women’s legal right to access abortion. We believe these are likely the same “great people” who think Trump won the election and could be disingenuously using the CRT issue to sow discord in order to recruit for their next coup as early as next month. They were seen with the 111%ers who are linked to those in attendance at the JCPS meeting, some of whom bear a “We The People” tattoo, and wear distinctive facial hair, clothing and jewelry. They may also be associated with the Patriot Front hate group that left their signature on murals they recently defaced. They even went so far as to have left their hate group’s calling card on a local Black reporter’s windshield.
Signs Protesters left on our @WLKY car and signs around the property pic.twitter.com/BbhH3DvL0j
— JoshThePhotog (@_JAGaines) June 22, 2021
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A coalition is forming! Join us as we band together to fight the latest attacks on public education and our people as lawmakers nationwide attempt to deny the right of every student to learn an accurate and comprehensive US History. Sign up for our email list to get updates on meetings, strategies and other ways you can support our students, teachers and public schools during this historical time.
Be on the look out for those claiming that “Critical Race Theory” is divisive and teaches hate. These people may be in your child’s school’s parent teacher group, on your Facebook feed, attend the same church, or even be in your own family. If they make this intellectually lazy claim, prod them for details. You will learn that their claims can be easily debunked. They have likely not done any research, but instead are simply repeating divisive and hateful messaging they’ve heard elsewhere, perhaps from people they trust. The originators of this untruth are usually those who want to keep others under their feet. People at the head of an organization, a committee, a parish or a household. Usually, white men.
It’s almost as if they WANT public schools to fail so they can bring in charter schools and profit off our tax dollars while simultaneously denying quality education to those who don’t have the means.
These claims have nothing to do with what Critical Race Theory actually is or what it does. But since CRT is a college-level course, and none of us has the spare time or funds required to master that curriculum just to figure out who to believe, let’s cut to the chase.
What you need to know:
Here are some additional links you may find helpful:
Link to KY’s Proposed Bill (LRC)
Statement from JCPS Chief Equity Officer Dr. John Marshall (Courier-Journal)
Metro Council Discusses Critical Race Theory (WHAS11)
Debating Critical Race Theory with Joe Fischer and Gerald Neal (KET Tonight)
Statement from Save Our Schools Kentucky
Black History Matters
Does Academic Freedom Shield Teachers as States Take Aim at Critical Race Theory? (EdWeek)
This week’s Forward Radio program, That Racist Anti-CRT Bill
Dear JCPS is publishing this piece as part of a series dedicated to identifying patterns or practices of discrimination in JCPS. To sign our petition to encourage the US Department of Justice to investigate JCPS and its outside entities, please click here.
At this moment, JCTA PR’s (Professional Representatives, also known as “building representatives”) are expected to be voting to approve proposed bylaws changes that will make it possible for a handful of their officers to discriminate against members who advocate for minority populations, and even remove them from their elected roles on the organizations’ board.
Think it can’t happen here? It already has.
Recent controversy, including betrayals from endorsed elected officials, a botched political action committee (PAC) election and a challenge to JCTA’s General Election, and other things they’re not telling you, the incumbent JCTA officers have been feeling the heat more than usual. Having personally experienced a similar series of events when I was serving as a Vice President for the 15th District PTA in 2017, I recognized this latest maneuver to modify the bylaws as a means to force out anyone who the establishment leadership disagrees with as something similar that happened to me and several other JCPS moms who stood up for schools in West Louisville. In fact, in March of 2017, the 15th District PTA Board voted to remove me for speaking up for parents and students at Maupin Elementary, a high-poverty, high-minority population school in the district’s highly segregated “West End.” And in 2019, they conducted a closed-door emergency bylaws meeting in order to prevent me from serving, had I been elected when I and five other parents “ran from the floor” to serve on the 15th District PTA Board.
As you can hear from the short audiotape I made from that Emergency Board meeting that night, “duty of obedience” was cited as grounds for the motion for my removal. It will be interesting to watch as JCTA looks for ways to target anyone who is disloyal to their organization. The entire recording of the 2017 meeting, as well as follow-up meetings, can be found on our website under the Audio Archives tab. More will continue to be added.
