Floodgates Opening? Student sues over Critical Race Training at Nevada public charter school
Plaintiff alleges he was “compelled … 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”
During the Legal Insurrection Foundation’s online event How Critical Race Training Is Harming Higher Education, I mentioned that lawsuits challenging mandatory training that singled people out by race (e.g., “white privilege” training) would be the new frontier in college-related litigation.
Jodi Shaw, one of the panelists, described such training at Smith College:
This race shaming is bound to result in litigation.
I used the analogy of how student lawsuits challenging lack of due process in campus sexual assault/harassment ‘kangaroo courts’ had reshaped the landscape of campus prosecutions. Of course, it was the regulatory reforms, passed through the formal rulemaking process, by Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration that helped reinstate a measure of due process, but that regulatory process was in the context of years of civil litigation. (See also our online event, Due Process on Campus, What’s Next?)
A lawsuit was filed recently that may be the first of the litigations to open the floodgates, though it’s in the context of elementary school Critical Race Training. It involves Democracy Prep, which has multiple locations, including one in Nevada.
The case first gained attention in a tweet thread from Colin Wright:
1/ ?BREAKING: Lawsuit filed today against educational agencies, teachers, principal, & CEO responsible for hosting workshops requiring children to make public professions about their racial, sexual, gender & religious identities, some of which were singled out for interrogation. pic.twitter.com/bwyd7lV8An
— Colin Wright (@SwipeWright) December 23, 2020
Greg Piper at The College Fix has more on the lawsuit:
A Nevada mother has followed through on her threat to file a civil rights lawsuit against her son’s charter school for refusing to let him opt out of a mandatory class that promotes hostility toward whites as a race.
Democracy Prep at the Agassi Campus forced William Clark “to make professions about his racial, sexual, gender and religious identities in verbal class exercises and in graded, written homework assignments,” creating a hostile environment, the biracial high school student and Gabrielle Clark allege in their federal lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The senior’s statements were “subject to the scrutiny, interrogation and derogatory labeling of students, teachers and school administrators,” who are “still are coercing him to accept and affirm politicized and discriminatory principles and statements that he cannot in conscience affirm.”
The suit also names Democracy Prep Public Schools, the New York-based charter network, and several officials in the local school and network as defendants.
Both the Wright thread and College Fix article have more of the allegations and evidence submitted as part of the court filing.
Here are the introductory paragraphs of the Complaint, indicating the legal theories pursued:
1. Plaintiff, William Clark, brings suit for 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.” West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624. 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
2. 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. See Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 66 (2000) (O’Connor, J., plurality); see also Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 401-02 (1923) (upholding the “power of parents to control the education of their own.”)
3. Defendants, who include a state funded and sponsored charter school, teachers and senior administrators, have deliberately created a hostile educational environment for Plaintiff William Clark, who, unlike his classmates appears to be and is regarded by his peers as white. Defendants thus discriminated on the basis of race and color, in addition to sex, gender and religion, in violation of Title VI and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681 et seq. As Gabrielle Clark told Defendants in a meeting seeking accommodation, “you put a bullseye on my son’s back.” The following illustration is copied directly from Defendant school’s mandatory class material annexed hereto as Exhibit A and exemplifies the glib discriminatory tone of the compulsory instruction:
Exhibit A (pdf.) to the Complaint is a compilation of what it calls Class Materials. It’s pretty shocking, but also pretty standard for CRT being pushed in education.
Here are a few examples of slides:
Democracy Prep provided the following statement in response to a request for comment and response to the lawsuit:
Hi William,
We strongly disagree with how the class has been characterized. In addition we have yet to be served with the lawsuit.
Thank you,
Princess Lyles
This case is very fact specific as to alleged conduct towards the plaintiff, conduct which we can assume will be disputed at least in part. While such a fact specific case may not serve as a role model for others, it does illustrate a point about the legal issues surrounding CRT.
We will continue to follow the case.
[Featured Image: Democracy Prep Video YouTube]
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Comments
Good…higher and harder. The same for Birx, Fauci, Strzok, Brennan, …. damn, there are a lot who need it….
To quote Oprah, “Higher and harder for EVERYONE”
3 little words….
“Sue baby sue!!!!!!!!”
I hope that damages from this pay for college or whatever other path he takes to find his way in society.
In my twenties I had a friend, a Jamaican immigrant, and his German wife. They had 7 children and owned a catering business. They were sort of in limbo socially at that time, with many people rejecting them, blacks and whites alike. They were hard workers, industrious, and raised their children well.
They were legal immigrants who earned their way from the start.
OH!!!!!!!!!!!
The exact opposite of Barrack and his “smiling” “happy” husband.
Let’s see … tonight I have a stolen vehicle report here on my desk.
A 14-year-old boy stole the car. He did not comply with officers’ commands and resisted arrest. Yes, he is black.
Any slide there that explains why the overwhelming majority of black children are born out of wedlock? There are no roving bands of white people preventing blacks from getting married or staying married.
Any slide there that explains why people who advocate Critical Race Theory don’t see any connection between disproportionate incarceration and disproportionate crime rates?
Any slide there that explains why Critical Race Theory advocates see no connection between boys without fathers, who are steeped in a subculture that glorifies violence and bad behavior, and the likelihood to engage in anti-social, criminal, and often violent behavior?
I was looking for the arrest face sheet, but there isn’t one.
He’ll be in a “diversion program” where he agrees to counseling.
That’ll do the trick. Better than having a father.
Its the slide the Democrats stole because it explains them colluding with Communists to destroy the Black Family structure as well as the Black Middle Class.
“If I Were the devil” by Paul Harvey
https://youtu.be/ZaGVCO6CByQ
I heard that a long time ago. Unfortunately, the “devil” is running our media, schools and infesting our government.
That “devil” is the likes of Soros and Communist China. (The torch was handed to them by the Soviets.)
But the “devil” is here, and in high office. Again.
You are 100% correct. As a society, we subsidize the production of an alarming number of feral children, and then we are shocked when they grow up to be animals.
ADC has been a horrible disaster, it enabled generation after generation to have children to the the ADC aid, but they welched on actually raising children well. Then they blame everyone except themselves for the poor, really piss poor outcome.
We need to mandate implantable birth control for both young mothers and their children, I cannot see any other way of breaking this cycle of poverty, of squandered lives.
The truth is that blacks Arabs squatting in Palestine have much in common. Both destroy their children’s future, and both refuse to face the reality of their existence.
Cut off the AFDC and the rest of the freebies. Their legs will close, and, forced to get jobs, will be cleaners, janatrixes, and the other jobs they used to hold before LBJ stepped in with the goodies.
“There are no roving bands of white people preventing blacks from getting married or staying married.”
Yes there are. They are SNAP/TANF program solicitors.
A child raised by a single mother has a 20 times greater risk of going to prison during their lifetime compared to a child raised by a mother and a father. That is true regardless of the race of the child.
Well, it doesn’t. There is no such thing as “reverse racism”. There is only racism and not-racism. The opposite of racism is complete blindness to all matters of race, treating people exactly according to their characters. That’s not “reverse racism”, it’s not racism of any kind.
When people use the term “reverse racism” what they mean is plain, ordinary, good-old-fashioned racism, but they’re stuck in such a narrow ideological viewpoint that they expect racism to come in only one flavor, and when it comes in other flavors they think of it as somehow “reversed”. But it isn’t. It’s like someone who’s never seen any dog except a poodle, trying to describe some other breed of dog, not understanding that dogs come in many different colors, sizes, etc.
Exactly. A color judgment is a color judgment is a color judgment is a prejudice, nay a bigotry.
That said, diversity of individuals, minority of one.
Er, not quite. What they’ve done is knowingly redefined racism to mean “discrimination plus power”. Basic Marxism; the proles are oppressed by the bourgeois, so it is impossible for the proles to meaningfully discriminate against the bourgeois as they have no power to hurt the bourgeois through their actions.
Much as economic Marxism fell apart because it was obvious that the proles had a pretty good living and an annoying tendency to get richer over time, cultural Marxism is facing the crisis that people are starting to notice that all these “oppressed” biological groups have an awful lot of power and privilege.
Close. To them, discrimination *is* power. A particular racial group with more money and political power is defacto discriminating against any other racial (or gender) group they care to mention. The *only* reason that particular group is ‘in charge’ is because they used their supposed power to discriminate against all other groups (and in particular certain specific groups who they will list off in a heartbeat). No other explanation is permitted, because to attempt to explain such differences in outcomes as individual decisions is also discrimination, and to point out groups where said supposed discrimination does not exist is also discrimination.
Kafka would weep. Again.
‘Cultural’ Marxism is thinly disguised economic Marxism with the sam eobjectivs and goals. Government control of all economic activity and all human behavior, communication, and thought. For the alleged purpose of creating an economically and socially just utopia.
It’s Marxism all the way down.
“When people use the term “reverse racism” what they mean is plain, ordinary, good-old-fashioned racism, but they’re stuck in such a narrow ideological viewpoint that they expect racism to come in only one flavor”
Oddly, this contradicts our direct life experience.
Race hustlers are the first to insist that whites can be racist against POC, but the other direction is impossible.
They are also the first to insist that there is no such thing as “reverse racism,” so they don’t use the term.
“Normal” Americans use the term to mean “racism in a direction opposite to that which race hustlers insist is the only valid direction of racism.”
… and just like Antifa, which really means the fascists of the ANTI-s, anti-racism is the racism of the ANTI-s.
White privilege, yes. Before that was Jew privilege. Also, let’s not forget Tutsi privilege, and Hutu privilege in turn.
Then, as we follow the progressive path, the privilege of the littlest ones of all, an unprecedented millions of lives denied life annually for social progress, medical progress, in abortion chambers… “burdens” sequestered in darkness in the Tomb of the Unknown Baby… Fetal-“nationality”. Mistress Feminist, tear down the walls.
That said, the forward-looking irony of the Rainbow inclusion infamous for exclusion of black, brown, and featuring a gay pride in the shredded remains of white. Transgender spectrum bands, tear down the Rainbow.
Transgender spectrum bands, deconstruct the political congruences (“=”).
Finally, for those in the Progressive Church/Synagogue/Mosque/Temple/Chamber/Office/Hole… whore (h/t NAACP) lose your Pro-Choice, selective, opportunistic, relativistic (“ethics”) quasi-religion, and discover principles.
“Princess Lyles.” “Dr. Dre.” “Grand Master Flash.” “Queen Latifah.” “Charlamagne Tha God.”
What is it with people using grandiose titles as their names? When they used to prefer “authentic” names, at least it wasn’t utterly foolish.
Just call me “Grand Imperial Star Destroyer Dantzig.”
Princess may be her actual name, that her parents gave her. No different than Queenie. Or King (as in Martin Luther).
Simple minded uneducated people are impressed by simple things.
That and things that glitter.
This is good. What the lawsuits will do over time is dry up the market for this ‘training’. Make no mistake, this is a market, with various speakers and groups hustling to grab their share. It pays well and it leads to other opportunities. A few successful lawsuits and public schools and universities will stop engaging these speakers.
Martin was originally Michael….
https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/why-martin-luther-king-father-changed-their-names/5ClNJ60MUtgsAZyCB4A4IN/%3foutputType=amp
Sorry. Try this link:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ajc.com/lifestyles/why-martin-luther-king-father-changed-their-names/5ClNJ60MUtgsAZyCB4A4IN/%3foutputType=amp
This vile, Dhimmi-crat-promoted racist rot and tribal Balkanization have been festering in academia, for decades. They are long overdue for a legal reckoning. Bravo to the student, his mother and their legal team.
I have completely lost all faith in our courts/legal system. They are are in on the fraud to keep Biden in and they will do the bidding of their masters to make sure this crap is forced down our children’s throats.
Meanwhile, those crazy Jews are at it again!
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/tel-aviv-research-999-percent-of-covid-19-germs-dead-in-30-seconds-with-uv-leds-653315
You can bet the MSM is all over this spreading the word. Probably just another hydroxychloroquine hoax. Anything simple and inexpensive can’t possibly work. How did we every survive as a species?
CRT is a dangerous, intellectually vacuous, and in many aspects, demonstrably false theory that is being shoved down Americans’ throats as an irrefutable truth that can never be questioned or challenged.
One of the tenets of CRT is that blacks can’t be racist because they don’t have any power in this society. That is demonstrably untrue, as the circumstances of this lawsuit demonstrate. The student is a mixed-race kid who appears to be white, while the school principal who is making the rules for the student is a dark-skinned black man. The black man has the power, and he is using it to discriminate against the white-appearing student.
We live in a country where blacks are cops, teachers, judges, governors, congresspersons, sheriffs, police chiefs, Supreme Court justices, presidents, etc. To insist that blacks have no power in our society is ludicrous on its face. And in an era when all our major corporations are tripping over themselves to extend special courtesies and privileges to blacks, not to mention paying millions of dollars to shake-down organizations like BLM, the notion that blacks as a group are oppressed and powerless is just downright nonsensical.
CRT is dangerous, divisive, and wrong. It should not be taught in our schools, and it should not be shoved down the throats of whites in our workplaces. Good for this student’s mom for taking a stand against this destructive brain-washing. Hopefully more Americans will follow her example.
The fact that Teacher X or Administrator Y can try to force students or staff to sit through Critical Race Theory training is prima facie evidence that X and Y have “enough power in society” to be guilty of racism.
When you read or hear about ‘oppression’ from the Left you know you are dealing with a neo-Marxist.
Classic Marxism addresses alleged economic ‘oppression’ of one socio-econimic class by another.
Neo-Marxism simply exchanges Marx’s socio-economic classes for groups defined by skin color and ‘sexual identity’. In Neo-Marxism the bad guys, the groups oppressing the others are, in order of descending despicability are, white males, all other males, and whites in general. All other people belong to one or more groups akkegedly ‘oppressed’ by one or more of these three groups. The more ‘oppressed’ groups one belongs to – ‘intersectionailty’ – the more ‘opporessed’ one allegedly is by the bad guys.
And so on and so forth.
Neo-Marxism is repackaged rebranded Marxism with the same end goal — totalitarian government control of all economic activity and all human behavior, communication, and thought. For the alleged purpose of advancing social justice. That is, creating an allegedly economically and socially just utopia.