COLUMBIA, S.C. — A group of ultra conservative South Carolina lawmakers is suing a local school district and its superintendent alleging the district violated a one-year state law that seeks to prohibit schools from teaching concepts associated with "critical race theory."
The South Carolina Freedom Caucus filed suit Wednesday against Lexington 1 School District and Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait claiming the district uses curricula that promotes the indoctrination of students with “critical race theory-derived ideas” and mandates that teachers and staff be trained in “racist” concepts.
Lexington 1 did not respond to a request for comment on the suit by press deadline.
The allegations stem from an audio recording of an employee with EL Education, a New York-based nonprofit that provides curriculum support and professional development to K-12 schools across the country, including several in Lexington 1.
The recording, which a former Lexington 1 student teacher surreptitiously recorded and shared with the Freedom Caucus, captures a professional development specialist for EL Education discussing the company’s practices and philosophies, including its emphasis on “culturally relevant teaching” and “equity.”
“Some of the topics that we explore are going to be topics that kind of go against mainstream teaching,” she says in a condensed and edited version of the recording the caucus released last month.
Freedom Caucus Chairman Adam Morgan, R-Greenville, said Wednesday the recording clearly illustrates that ideologies associated with critical race theory are being taught in South Carolina schools, despite repeated denials by Democrats and the “education establishment.”
“There are in fact people coming into South Carolina, being paid by districts to teach teachers how to incorporate the very things that violate state standards and that violate state law and incorporate them into their classrooms,” he said. “In fact, the person on video clearly states that she is here to find ‘co-conspirators’ who are willing to cause trouble and break state law in order to teach things that they’re not supposed to, that are both violating state standards and clearly violate state law.”
Lexington 1 high school teacher Mike Burgess said, however, that EL Education’s methods have had a profoundly positive impact on the district and don’t constitute critical race theory.
“What’s really frustrating for a lot of us,” said Burgess, a history teacher at River Bluff High School, “is that we know what we’re doing and how we’ve done it, and we know we’ve done what is in the best interest of our students. And yet here is this legislator using our school, our teachers and our students as a pinata.”
While a critical race theory ban introduced earlier this year failed to become law, conservative state lawmakers succeeded at inserting a one-year law, or proviso, into the budget that prohibits state dollars from being used to teach concepts allegedly associated with critical race theory.
Such prohibited concepts include the belief that one race or gender is inherently superior to another; that people, by virtue of their race or gender, are inherently racist, sexist or oppressive; that people bear responsibility for past actions taken by members of their race or gender; and that people should feel discomfort or guilt on account of their race or gender.
Freedom Caucus members, who sported stickers with the phrase “Stop woke indoctrination,” argued Wednesday that Lexington 1’s partnership with EL Education violates the law and the state Constitution.
Freedom Caucus Vice Chair R.J. May, R-Lexington, said in the coming month the group plans to sue at least two other districts that also partner with EL Education for curriculum and professional development.
When asked whether the caucus had uncovered any direct evidence of critical race theory being taught in Lexington 1 classrooms, he deferred, saying that members hear everyday from parents, students and teachers about the concerning material being taught in their schools.
“A lot of people in Lexington County, particularly parents and teachers, feel that that school district is broke,” May said. “They do not listen to parents, they don’t listen to students, they don’t listen to teachers. Instead, they listen to woke administrators, third-party vendors who seek to teach critical race theory and implement it in the classroom, and they want something done about it. And the South Carolina Freedom Caucus is going to do something about it.”
He said specific examples of critical race theory seeping into lessons would come out in the legal discovery process.
Lexington 1 history teacher defends district partnership
Burgess, a former vice chairman of the Lexington County Republican Party, said he supported the district’s decade-long partnership with EL Education and spoke highly of how the nonprofit’s methods had helped students, including his own children.
The school’s history and English curricula are guided by state standards, not EL Education, he said. Rather, the nonprofit’s concepts are used to help mold the school’s collaborative and innovative culture. Students from all walks of life and demographic backgrounds are randomly assigned to “crews” that stick together over a two-year cycle and work on projects.
Burgess said that while he and other teachers at River Bluff were initially skeptical of EL Education’s methods, they eventually came to realize just how much they enhanced student achievement and impacted student growth and maturity.
“I think everyone who is at River Bluff would at least admit that, yeah, maybe there are some things I don’t like, but on the whole this has been beneficial to our students,” he said.
The methods promoted by EL Education teach students to think critically, take personal responsibility and discuss different viewpoints civilly as they come to take ownership over their own education, Burgess said.
He said he fears false accusations about the district’s curriculum and partnership with EL Education could deprive future students the ability to learn using the nonprofit’s interactive, student-centered approach.
“You potentially are making it so that this type of innovative program that has been great for our school for 10 years goes away and you lose so much of our culture with it,” he said. “You lose so many opportunities that our students have had over the past decade.”
