An Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) administrator says he was fired Monday after leaking documents and videos showing that IPS is teaching students Critical Race Theory (CRT) in mandatory “racial justice sessions” — something district officials told principals to deny.
Then-District Science Coordinator Tony Kinnett, who also co-founded the education-commentary website Chalkboard Review, raised school officials’ ire in November when he posted a video on Twitter challenging the official IPS position that CRT is not taught in any of its schools because “all IPS curriculum is aligned with” state standards.
“When we tell you that schools aren’t teaching Critical Race Theory, that it’s nowhere in our standards, that’s misdirection,” Kinnett said in the video. “We don’t have the quotes and theories as state standards per se. We do have Critical Race Theory in how we teach.”
“We tell our teachers to treat students differently based on color,” he continued. “We tell our students that every problem is a result of ‘white men’ and that everything Western civilization built is racist, capitalism is a tool of white supremacy” — concepts taken directly from Kimberle Crenshaw’s 1996 book Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement.
Kinnett also pointed to the teachings of Gloria Ladson-Billings, author of Critical Race Theory in Education: A Scholar’s Journey, who was invited to speak at a districtwide professional-development event just two months after officials denied CRT was being taught. Kinnett quoted Ladson-Billings’ writing that “all teaching is political,” and it’s not hard to guess what type of politics she wants teachers to advocate.
Thanks to Kinnett, the public now knows that IPS has a four-page section in its bylaws and policies titled “Racial Equity Mindset, Commitment, & Action,” which, of course, is straight out of CRT.
Also, thanks to video leaked by Kinnett, the public is aware of what students have been told in some of their “racial justice sessions.”
In January, for example, students were treated to a talk by IPS Racial Equity Office Director Patricia Payne on racism in all its supposed varieties: “systemic,” “environmental,” and “human.” Students were told that “black and brown people” have suffered the most from COVID-19 “because of systemic racism”; that unborn babies, whom the Left would otherwise just as soon exterminate, are also victims of racism because their mothers get inferior healthcare; and that “very few students of color” get into gifted classes because of — you guessed it — racism.
“I’m telling you, this racism is something, and it shapes the outcomes, even, of everything, see?” she said.
Students were also forced to endure a lecture by four Black Lives Matter (BLM) activists on the usual bogeymen of “white supremacy” and “capitalism.” One BLM activist told the kids that she and many other black people commit crimes — which she said are “made up” — because of “harms” they’ve experienced, not because they are bad people. Another informed students that they live “in this misogynistic, masculine society” that tells women they “should cook and clean” and “stay at home.”
Kinnett was placed on non-disciplinary leave with pay after he began blowing the whistle on IPS’ CRT indoctrination. At the time, he told the Daily Caller that “he doesn’t know how the district won’t fire him, because he definitely violated his contract without a doubt.”
“But I knew that going in,” he said. “It’s worth it because if there’s a parent who was lied to this year, and so they left their kid at IPS, now they know what’s going on and they can take their kid out and they can put them in a school that the parent chooses.”
Since that time, he told the Daily Caller, “the HR team pulled him into several meetings that they repeatedly said were non-disciplinary, but he said at the meetings he was not allowed to speak freely, initially bring an attorney or record anything.”
Kinnett said “his legal team is exploring options,” reported the Daily Caller.
“We’re taking a look at what is not only best for me and my family in this situation, but also the community as well,” he said. “We’ve been in touch with the attorney general’s office in Indianapolis. Let’s just say that Indianapolis is not out of the woods yet.”
