In a move with national implications, a Nevada family is striking back against the leftist machine pushing the “critical race theory” (CRT) on our youth. William Clark, a mixed-race student, and his black mother, Gabrielle, along with the Illinois-based group Schoolhouse Rights, filed a civil-rights lawsuit in federal court against the publicly funded charter school Democracy Preparatory Academy at Agassi Campus (DPAC), along with one of William’s teachers, Kathryn Bass.
The Clarks brought the suit after they worked for several months to have William excused from the required class “Sociology of Change,” which the plaintiffs claim violated his Constitutional rights.
The suit, Clark v. State Public Charter School Authority, filed on Dec. 22, seeks
injunctive relief and damages against Defendants for repeatedly compelling his speech involving intimate matters of race, gender, sexuality, and religion. Defendants compelled Plaintiff William Clark to make professions about his racial, sexual, gender, and religious identities in verbal class exercises and in graded, written homework assignments, which were subject to the scrutiny, interrogation, and derogatory labeling of students, teachers, and school administrators. By directing Plaintiff William Clark to reveal his identities in a controlled, yet non-private setting, to scrutiny and official labeling, Defendants were and still are coercing him to accept and affirm politicized and discriminatory principles and statements that he cannot in conscience affirm. Defendants “invade the sphere of intellect and spirit which it is the purpose of the First Amendment to our Constitution to reserve from all official control.”…
Plaintiff, Gabrielle Clark, a black woman, is William Clark’s mother and only living parent guardian. William’s father, now deceased, was a white man and an attorney. Plaintiff Gabrielle Clark brings suit on her own behalf and asserts her Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process right to family integrity and autonomy, which the Defendants deliberately threatened and undermined in word and deed, directing her son in class to “unlearn” the basic Judeo-Christian principles she imparted to him, and then retaliated against her son with a failing grade and threats of non-graduation when he declined to participate. Parents possess a right and covenant to guide and direct the upbringing of their children, and courts have repeatedly honored and upheld this right.
The lawsuit further points out:
With green eyes and blondish hair, Plaintiff William Clark is generally regarded as white by his peers, and despite having a black mother, is so light-skinned that he is usually presumed “white” by all others. He is the only apparent white boy in his class, in fact, and is regularly reminded of it….
The tendentious terms in which DPAC’s mandatory “Sociology of Change” class was presented to Plaintiff William Clark and his classmates made rational classroom discussion virtually impossible, thus ensuring a hostile educational environment.
In an interview with Fox News this week, Gabrielle claims the curriculum put “a target on her son’s back” and put him “in danger.” Fox News also quoted her as saying: “I was really worried about his physical safety.”
According to the suit, Kathryn Bass, the “Sociology of Change” instructor, not only greeted her students with “hello my wonderful social justice warriors,” but:
Defendant Kathryn Bass terminated class discussion when Plaintiff William Clark and other students sought to engage critically with Defendants’ class material and programming that assigned character attributes on the basis of race, sex, and gender. She also failed Plaintiff William Clark for the class at issue, and penalized him for not completing graded identity confession assignments.
The lawsuit further contends that:
Parents have a right to guide and direct the upbringing of their children, and courts have honored and upheld this right…. Defendants Kathryn Bass and Adam Johnson personally coerced Plaintiff Gabrielle Clark’s son to change the fundamental beliefs imparted to him by his family in order to convert those beliefs to a preapproved set of beliefs by methods that make clear that in certain areas of ideology and belief, dissent or deviance is not acceptable.
Fox News also quoted Gabrielle as saying, “I tried to instill in all of my children that you need to respect everyone and treat everyone the same … and do what Martin Luther King said. You don’t judge people on the color of their skin. You judge them on the content of their character.”
The Clarks felt compelled to file a lawsuit after
Defendants repeatedly threatened William Clark with material harm, including a failing grade and non-graduation if he failed to comply with their requirements. When he declined to participate in these confessional exercises and assignments, Defendants rejected his requests for reasonable accommodation and acted on their threats. Defendants’ coercive and intrusive behavior compelled William Clark’s protected speech and invaded his privacy, violating his constitutional rights under the First Amendment and his due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Managing editor of Quillette, a self-described platform for free thought, broke the lawsuit’s news in a series of tweets. Another notable person commenting on the case was Megyn Kelly:
There is a growing effort to stand against CRT. President Trump signed an executive order in late September to “ensure that Federal agencies cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars to fund these divisive, un-American propaganda training sessions.” And Governor Greg Abbott of Texas announced that the University of Texas at Austin has agreed to end its “Campus Climate Response Team,” which restricted free speech on campus.
Should Biden succeed in occupying the White House, however, he will ensure CRT is taught in schools throughout the land via his selection of Miguel Cardona, the overseer of Connecticut’s CRT program, as his Secretary of Education.
Every American needs to be concerned about CRT and become educated on how it seeks to completely overturn society.
