Massachusetts Teacher Fired Over Opposition To CRT, LGBTQ Agenda In Schools

Massachusetts Teacher Fired Over Opposition To CRT, LGBTQ Agenda In Schools

A math and business teacher at Hanover High School received a termination letter over social media posts she made that expressed her opposition to Critical Race Theory (CRT), as well as the LGBTQ agenda in public schools. The teacher, Kari MacRae, says she has sought out a lawyer and will consider her options. Elected to the Bourne School Board in May 2021, MacRae made TikTok videos for her campaign in which she said she would make sure CRT wouldn’t be taught in Bourne schools, and expressed her opposition to schools teaching that students “can choose whether or not they can be a girl or a boy.” She has refused calls to resign from the school board position.

The Cape Cod Times reports:

“So pretty much the reason I ran for school board and the reason I’m taking on this responsibility is to ensure that students, at least in our town, are not being taught critical race theory. That they’re not being taught that the country was built on racism,” MacRae said in the TikTok video viewed by the Times.

“So,” she added, “they’re not being taught that they can choose whether or not they want to be a girl or a boy.”

MacRae, who also took video of herself filling in a ballot, said in the video, “It’s one thing to include and it’s one thing to be inclusive. And it’s one thing to educate everybody about everything. It’s completely another thing to push your agenda.”

“With me on the school board, that won’t happen in our town.”

The Bourne Enterprise reported:

This video, along with other posts on her account, has led the Bourne Educators Association, district administrators and some members of the community to call for her resignation from the school board.

As she was elected to her position in Bourne, Ms. MacRae can only be removed from the school committee by her own resignation or by a recall vote. She has stated that she will not resign from the committee.

However, in Hanover, Ms. MacRae was terminated from her full-time position as a math and business teacher.

She received a letter of termination from Hanover High School principal, Matthew Mattos, on September 29, she said.

“Having considered your input, I have determined that continuing your employment in light of your social media posts would have a significant negative impact on student learning at Hanover High School. Therefore, the district is hereby exercising its option to terminate your employment as a teacher,” she read aloud from the letter in a telephone interview with the Enterprise.

MacRae had just started as a new teacher. The principal believed he was within his rights to terminate her, under existing statute, as she was still within her first 90 days of employment.

MacRae’s TikTok account is no longer public, but Boston.com received screen shots and recordings of the videos prior to the account going dark. They report:

In the first video, MacRae says she ran for office to ensure students are not being taught critical race theory — and that the country was built on racism — or that they can choose their gender.

“It’s one thing to include and it’s one thing to be inclusive. And it’s one thing to educate everybody about everything,” she says. “It’s completely another thing to push your agenda. With me on the school board, that won’t happen in our town.”

In the second, she says she won’t use they/them pronouns to refer to someone, only their name, because she’s not going to be a liar and say someone is plural when they’re not.

School Committee President Emily Berry told Boston.com the committee and superintendent learned about the posts from a Bourne graduate and met in executive session on Sept. 1 to discuss the issue. That’s when the union heard about it: AnnMarie Strode, BEA president, and Bourne High School history teacher, told Boston.com union members met shortly after and voted unanimously to call for MacRae’s resignation.

The teachers union has made the claim they opposed her statements about LGBTQ students, not CRT. In public statements, they’ve used the common dodge that the state curriculum doesn’t include CRT. Again from Boston.com:

“First and foremost it’s about our students, and we have a number of students that are in the LGBTQ+ community,” Strode said. “As educators, it’s important we stand for our students. They are in a vulnerable position at this age in trying to figure out who they are, and where they’re going, and what they’re doing. The memes that were posted were really anti-transgender — there was a pattern of that — and as a union, we had to stand for our students.”

The union and district are focusing on MacRae’s comments about gender, and not her comments on critical race theory, because the state curriculum doesn’t include critical race theory. Also, Strode said the members had initially only seen the posts regarding gender, not race, but stand for an inclusive school community across the board.

This common disclaimer–we don’t teach CRT, and anyway, why do you want to stop our free speech?–is belied by the Bourne Public Schools website, which proudly promotes the work of its Inclusion and Equity Committee:

The work of the BPS Inclusion and Equity committee is to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion across our school community. We will consider systemic biases in policies and practices and ensure that inclusion and equity is a central part of our school community. We will determine actionable steps to bring our vision forward.

The concept of systemic biases, to use the parlance of those who promote CRT, intersects snugly with the lens through which critical race theory sees America.

Back to MacRae for a moment. It’s curious that these videos, available for months on TikTok during the time in which she ran unopposed for the school board, suddenly touched off controversy. The principal reportedly became aware of them after an alum of Hanover High sent them to him.

The Massachusetts Republican Party issued a statement of support for MacRae on October 7. In that statement, the note the double standard of those calling for her resignation, in light of United States Attorney General Merrick Garland’s memo claiming violent protests against school board members (apparently, only as long as they agree with his and his boss’s politics):

Funny, haven't heard anything from @MASCSchoolComm about this, as the woke mob successfully put a duly-elected Bourne School Committee member out of a teaching job. #mapoli https://t.co/tugrcrZ2Et pic.twitter.com/6vVg11sUeX

— MassGOP (@massgop) October 8, 2021

MacRae issued a statement to the Cape Cod News:

“I decided to run for the school committee to give back to my community that I love and have been a citizen of my whole life,” MacRae said. “Since being sworn in on May 19th, I have been engaged, excited and have learned so much. I now feel that I have let some down. The mere thought of any member of our community feeling anything less than safe and heard saddens me deeply. As a mother, grandmother, and woman, I have always been someone that family, friends and colleagues could reach out to for support when dealing with life struggles. I am also a proud lifelong Bourne resident and I love my community and this includes EVERYONE! I love our schools and staff which I have known for many years after having three children go through our public school system.”

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Jeff Reynolds is the author of the book, “Behind the Curtain: Inside the Network of Progressive Billionaires and Their Campaign to Undermine Democracy,” available at www.WhoOwnsTheDems.com. Jeff hosts a podcast at anchor.fm/BehindTheCurtain. You can follow him on Twitter @ChargerJeff, on Parler at @RealJeffReynolds, and on Gab at @RealJeffReynolds.

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