School Teacher Confirms On Camera That CRT Is Still Being Taught In Tennessee Schools
Image Credit: Kelli Phillips for District 4 / Facebook
The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
In a video posted by Kelli Phillips, who is running for Metro Nashville School Board District 4, a school teacher came forward to express that Critical Race Theory (CRT) is still being taught in Tennessee Schools.
Phillips said, “CRT is very very involved in our school system, yet we hear time and time again that it’s not. CRT comes in many forms.”
Phillips introduced a school teacher, only identified as ‘Mandy’ to express the “reality of what really is going on in our schools, because it’s more than you think.”
Mandy said, “So, when they (the General Assembly) passed the original bill (banning the teaching of critical race theory in May 2021), they were not specific and they were not specific for a particular reason. They would not call out a specific curriculum. ”
House Bill 0580, sponsored by Representative John Ragan (R-Oak Ridge-District 33) and Senate Bill 0623, sponsored by Senator Mike Bell (R-Riceville-District 9) in summary, deleted several obsolete provisions and made various substantive changes to education laws; and established parameters for the teaching of certain concepts related to race and sex.
The accepted curriculum being taught in Metro Nashville Public Schools is called Wit & Wisdom.
Mandy said that prior to the Wit & Wisdom curriculum being accepted, books were sent home to parents for review. However, many of the books were sent back to the school because parents found them offensive. One cited complaint was that one of the books pushed biases against one of our Nation’s founding fathers, George Washington, placing an extreme emphasis on the color of his skin and hair.
“It (CRT) is there. It’s very subtle. I have described it as an insidious creep. And that’s what it’s doing, it’s creeping in little by little,” Mandy said.
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Mandy also said that teachers will be required to take Diversity and Equity training over the summer.
“It offends me to do it because it’s asking what your biases are, what your prejudices are…I do this because I love kids. I don’t care what color their skin is. I don’t care where they come from. I’ve been doing it for 24 years now. I wouldn’t keep doing it (if I didn’t love kids). I’m not getting rich,” Mandy said.
Phillips stated that teachers like Mandy are not alone in the Tennessee school system. “But if you listen to mainstream media, if you listen to the news outlets locally here in Nashville, they want to make teachers like her feel alone. They want to make her think that her voice (doesn’t matter)… She is not the only one.”
Phillips said, “What we need to do is not only protect our children from this but we need to protect people like Mandy. She’s having to do something that brings up personal things about her. My job as a parent is not to know what teacher’s politics are, what their religion is. That’s not my job. It’s not a teacher’s responsibility to tell me that.”
Mandy said, “And it’s not my responsibility (as a teacher) to bring those things of mine into the classroom.”
Phillips said, “We have to stop this. Let her go teach. Let her be a teacher. A good teacher should be able to go and teach our children and not have to give their background, their personal things. That’s what makes a great teacher a great teacher.”
Regarding the upcoming election, Phillips said “The election is going to be August 4th…there is a primary that is going to take place on May 3rd. Voting for me means getting your voice back.”
Text Kelli to 801801 to support her.
Several bills were introduced in this session that would have strengthened existing Critical Race Theory law by increasing the rights of parents, but the majority of the legislation was struck down before reaching the House or Senate floor for a vote.
House Bill 1723, sponsored by Representative Glen Casada (R-Franklin-District 63), aimed to require an LEA’s policy on the inspection of school instructional materials by parents and legal guardians of students enrolled in the LEA to allow a student’s parent or legal guardian to check out from the student’s school one set of the instructional materials used in the student’s classroom for a period of no less than 48 hours to allow the parent or legal guardian time to inspect the materials.
Casada told the Tennessee Conservative the bill was taken off notice due to the fiscal note for the bill being $1.7 million dollars.
“I could have gotten it out of education but it would have died in finance (committee),” Casada said.
House Bill 2451, also known as ‘The Parent Bill of Rights,’ among other things would have required Local Education Agencies to permit parents to have access to certain information, including the names of instructors, titles available in the school library, teacher manuals, and curriculum.
This bill was dealt the killing blow when it failed to receive a second to be heard in the House Health Subcommittee.
Senate Bill 1944, sponsored by Senator Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald-District 28), would have set up a process for parents that identify questionable materials in their child’s school libraries to inform their school superintendents, who will then be required to remove the materials for thirty days. At the next scheduled meeting, the local school board would be required to review the flagged materials and make the decision as to whether it is age appropriate or pornographic, obscene in nature. If found to be in violation, the elected officials of the local school board would make the final decision as to whether the materials should be removed or returned to the school.
SB1944 was deferred to summer study.
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
Who in the state is requiring teachers to take Diversity and Equity training? How is it state dollars can be used for that? While the are some state legislators that truly want to end CRT in Tennessee it is obvious many don’t care or they would not allow or require the indoctrination of our teachers. It’s obvious the Governor doesn’t really care or he would have fired not worth a Penny Schwinn by now. This can be stopped if our state government really wants to stop it. Apparently only a few really want it stopped and the rest are complicit just like everything else that our state government goes along with that’s pushed by the left.
All involved should be fired.
Please list names of the Republican legislators who are blocking legislation to keep CRT out of schools.
An example of how sneaky the Liberals are > In March 2021 a bi-racial couple (White and Asian) filed a complaint that a Williamson County school taught their 7 year old son that White people are evil racists who want to harm Black people. You can watch the Mom talk about it on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ivOQXDcL9A (on YouTube titled Parent Testimony – Mother of WCS 2nd Grader) As a result, their son said he didn’t want to be an American (minute 7:10) and he said “He is ashamed to be half-white” (minute 14:20).
It was the “Wit and Wisdom” curriculum, like Davidson
The teacher used a book about Dr. King (clever, because when people complain they say that the people complaining don’t want the schools to teach about Dr. King). In the book are shocking photos from the 1963 protest in Birmingham AL – white police having huge dogs attack Black people and white firemen spraying small Black kids with high-pressure fire hoses. The teacher said something like > “Look at that photo. What do you see?” and kept asking until the child finally said the “right” answer , which is that White people are evil and want to harm Black people. It was a brainwashing technique.
I totally agree with Doug E – “All involved should be fired.” CRT has no place in our schools; honestly, it has no place anywhere. CRT is highly bigoted and racist. I am so sick and tired of the same old thing. When are we going to stop putting up with all this crap. I blame all of this on one very vital thing – the dumbing down of America. Instead of trying to build our children up with education, we lowered education’s standards in order to let them get degrees in college. Everyone doesn’t need to go to college, but we seemed to forget that. I just knew in my heart that unqualified people would become rampant in prestigious positions in our country and now we are witnessing the results. Always remember, the person who graduates last in his class in medical school is still called a doctor.
Like I’ve always said , the State of Tennessee is just full of RINOS . Look at our Governor Lee . Anti Southern Culture ( bowed to the Marxists concerning Confederate Statues and artifacts ) , encouraged illegals to come here by not really doing anything about the flood of third world trash coming to our State . He certainly isn’t a Ron DeSantis that’s for sure .