Civil rights attorney Leo Terrell said Thursday that “it’s a lie” for a teachers union president to suggest that reopening schools will promote “structural racism.”
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“I know what [the] term [structural racism] means. She doesn’t,” Terrell continued, referring to Cecily Myart-Cruz, the president of United Teachers Los Angeles who said that reopening schools propagates “structural racism.”
“If you condition funding on the reopening of schools, that money will only go to white and wealthier schools,” Myart-Cruz said on Monday. “This is the recipe for propagating structural racism. We have to call out the privilege behind the largely white wealthy parents driving the push for a rushed return.”
Terrell fired back against Myart-Cruz’s recent statements on Fox News and said the union president was “using that argument to attack white parents in the community who want their schools open.” Moreover, billions in funding, Terrell said, was available to children, regardless of their race. (RELATED: ‘That’s Sociopathic’: NY Post Columnist Blasts Teachers For Dance Video, Refusing To Work ‘When Children Are Committing Suicide’)
Terrell urged the host of America’s Newsroom, Bill Hemmer, to “get that woman on this program: let’s debate [Myart-Cruz].”
Myart-Cruz’s union as well as others such as the National Education Association (NEA) remain against opening schools to in-person learning. Doctors affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a study indicating that in-person instruction does not “meaningfully [lead to] increased community transmission.” (RELATED: Unions Move The Goalposts On School Reopenings To The Detriment Of Children)
“There has been little evidence that schools have contributed meaningfully to increased community transmission,” the doctors wrote.
An empty classroom is seen at Hollywood High School on Aug. 13, 2020 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images)
Following his inauguration, President Joe Biden issued an executive order which directed the Department of Education on “evidence-based guidance” to allow schools to reopen. Additionally, on Tuesday Biden agreed to move teachers up in the vaccine priority line.
In the past, Myart-Cruz demanded that school re-openings should be contingent upon the passage of Medicare for All legislation and defunding the police.