From a decision earlier this month in Byrd v. Middletown Bd. of Ed., by Connecticut trial court Judge Sheila Ozalis; Byrd was a teacher who "was teaching a lesson on 'recognizing racial epithets' as a part of the Cultural Diversity Curriculum at Beman Middle School":
The plaintiff alleges that from 1997–2021, she taught eighth grade students about the District's Cultural Diversity Curriculum, along with other units in the eighth grade Health Curriculum, including internet safety, self-esteem, romantic relationships, drug education, and career education. The plaintiff alleges that Equity Training in recent years for the teachers included the idea that teachers should be challenging students about uncomfortable topics because if people stay in their comfort zone, there is no new growth.
The plaintiff alleges that while employed by the Middletown School District for over twenty years, she presented the same Cultural Diversity Curriculum at Beman Middle School to eighth graders without complaint. She also alleges that this curriculum has been used by the District for nearly ten years, was posted on its website, approved by the Defendant, and was reviewed by the District in the summer of 2021 without any changes made. As a part of the Cultural Diversity Curriculum, the Plaintiff spoke to students about the diversity within their own community. "Lesson #3" of the published and approved curriculum describes the concept of the lesson as "recognizing racial epithets" and notes the discussion of racial epithets as part of the lesson plan.
The plaintiff alleges that during this lesson, she would introduce vocabulary and examples of attitudes towards distinct groups, including language demonstrating stereotypical thinking and hostility to a specific group or prejudices about particular groups and their alleged predilections and behaviors. She alleges that her open discussion of racial and ethnic stereotypes and slurs had been an established part of the posted Cultural Diversity Curriculum for over ten years and that it was the Plaintiff's practice to verbalize and specifically name the racial slurs that would be discussed during the lesson and ask her students if they had heard that specific slur before.
The plaintiff alleges that she would discuss each word's meaning and history and ask students why racial slurs were used to put people down and why people enjoy making jokes about and ridiculing minority groups. The Plaintiff would focus on the group targeted by the words and how the words hurt members of that group to assist in helping students make better decisions in life, including in their use of language, by providing a better understanding of the words, their origins, and society's pernicious use of them. The Plaintiff also alleges that she sought to make the students better citizens in a multicultural world.
