An advisory panel to a northern Virginia public school system that’s been accused of harassment stated in now-deleted social media posts that opponents of the inclusion of critical race theory (CRT) in the school system’s curriculum “can and will” be silenced.
The Loudoun County Public Schools Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee (LCPSMSAAC) posted the declaration on Twitter and Facebook, less than two weeks after a secret Facebook group known as Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County that targeted opponents of CRT was revealed, triggering a recall campaign.
“There is strength in numbers & we believe wholeheartedly, that united, we can & will silence the opposition. We ask that you please support our call to action by engaging in these 5 small, but impactful actions to help us in our mission of Advancing Equity Through Action!” the tweet read.
The tweet was deleted, and LCPSMSAAC posted a new thread on Saturday with an apology.
“We would like to sincerely apologize to anyone who may have felt as though your voice would be silenced or who has been offended by our post as that is not now, nor has it ever been our goal or intention,” the apology said in part.
equity in education have their voices heard. We would like to sincerely apologize to anyone who may have felt as though your voice would be silenced or who has been offended by our post as that is not now, nor has it ever been our goal or intention.
— LCPS MSAAC (@LCPSMSAAC) March 27, 2021
Ian Prior of Loudoun Parents for Education said in a press release the apology comes “too little, too late.”
“Loudoun County Public Schools, which isn’t even open full time, is spending its time and taxpayer resources on a curriculum parents don’t want, and then pushing out calls to action to silence anyone that opposes that curriculum,” Prior said.
In an earlier release, the group labeled the original post as an “official state action to harass and intimidate Loudoun County students and parents in the free exercise of their First Amendment rights.”
CRT holds that America is fundamentally racist, yet it teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race. Its adherents pursue “antiracism” through the end of merit and the adoption of race-based policies. (RELATED: USA Today Fires ‘Race And Inclusion Editor’ After Falsely Blaming Boulder Shooting To White Supremacy)
Attached to both the original post and the replacement was a graphic that called for various actions, with one step asking that people “refrain from opening/clicking or sharing” social media posts or news articles from those the committee claimed sought to “sow seeds of untruths, hate, and distrust.” Beth Barts, a school board member who has been closely tied to the Facebook group, shared the Facebook post. Barts is among those facing a recall campaign.
On Twitter, the Virginia Project, a political action committee, posted a screenshot, saying, “This policy is right off @LCPSMSAAC’s own complaint form. We demand its immediate enforcement.”
This policy is right off @LCPSMSAAC‘s own complaint form.
We demand its immediate enforcement. pic.twitter.com/rRGib6ZSk8
— The Virginia Project (@ProjectVirginia) March 27, 2021
“This being a compounding and authorization of the ‘enemies list’ activity and an official act by LCPS explicitly seeking to deny our First Amendment rights and outrageously calling citizens an ‘opposition’, we will be suing LCPS for billions,” David Gordon of the Virginia Project told the Daily Caller when asked for comment on the posts.
And in case anyone forgot why this case is so bad from a 1A standpoint, people affiliated with a government used the public record of citizens petitioning for redress as the SOURCE material for composing the enemies’ list.
There can be no more direct an attack on this right.
— The Virginia Project (@ProjectVirginia) March 28, 2021
While the controversy over the enemies list has erupted in the past month, a whistleblower told the Caller that things have been building up for a while, revealing that conservative students, parents, teachers, and other employees are facing a hostile climate inside Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS). That hostile climate has persisted for almost a decade before the blacklisting controversy arose, a LCPS teacher familiar with the conditions in the school system told the Caller.
“I never knew a person’s political affiliation until the last 10 years or so,” the teacher, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, said, revealing incidents that predate LCPS embracing CRT. Six members of the Loudoun County school board are facing recall campaigns.
“It changed during Obama’s administration,” the teacher said.
The LCPS teacher familiar with the conditions and climate told the Caller that administrators were doing nothing about the hostility over political viewpoints, and that they had been “blocked and removed” from a social media site over her conservative viewpoints.
Similar blacklisting has prompted the Virginia Project to threaten legal action.
The odds that we will have to sue LCPS are already substantial and rises with each day that the issue is not faced with a requisite sense of responsibility.
If perps wore blackface they’d get more penalty than they’re getting for the most extreme 1A offense you’ll ever see.
— The Virginia Project (@ProjectVirginia) March 26, 2021
“Our administration is VERY liberal and have verbally ostrasized [sic] POTUS Trump, and anyone who supported him. I have heard our Assistant Principals call Trump terrible names,” including labeling him as a ‘racist’ and ‘xenophobe,'” the teacher told the Caller. “Liberal teachers get away with anything they want to do. They are indoctrinating our students!”
Many students and parents remain afraid to speak out, citing fears of retaliation that have been expressed to the anonymous teacher and other conservative teachers. The LCPS teacher related how one pupil wrote his teacher a letter about efforts to indoctrinate him, but never sent it to the teacher. The anonymous teacher was shown the letter by the student’s parents.
The LCPS teacher also noted that parents would screenshot outrageous social media posts but would only share them with teachers they were comfortable with. “Same ole story…the libs are protected and we could lose our job,” the teacher said.
A request for comment from a member of the Loudoun County School Board was not immediately returned.