• Parents and advocates in Utah are calling on lawmakers to codify a resolution that would ban Critical Race Theory (CRT) from the classroom and punish educators who gave such lessons, parents told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
• The push comes after educators were shown on video admitting to using “loopholes” to get CRT lessons in the classroom, according to Accuracy in Media.
• “We are asking that they put accountability measures and penalties in the law, so that when teachers like the ones that spoke on this video are reported, that there will be action immediately to get a teacher that flagrantly and blatantly ignores the laws of the state,” Corrine Johnson, public relations director of Utah Parents United, a group of conservative parents focused on transparency in education, told the DCNF.

Parents and advocates are making a push for legislators to ban Critical Race Theory (CRT) from the classroom after a video showed Utah educators admitting to using “loopholes” to push social justice lessons, parents told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

CRT and activism lessons are being taught in the classroom despite parents being told by educators that they are not in the curriculum, educators of Jordan School District said, according to a video by Accuracy in Media, an investigative outlet. Following the video, parents and advocates in Utah are calling on legislators to enact an anti-CRT law to punish educators who teach such lessons, parents and advocates told the DCNF. (RELATED: ‘Complacency’: Red State Utah Embraces Gender Identity And CRT In Schools Despite Parental Pushback)

“Legislators can sense our frustration because we’re being told that it’s not being taught,” Nichole Mason, a Utah parent, told the DCNF. “I have made the plea to legislators to codify the resolution that Utah passed in the extraordinary session, roughly two years ago, in May, where they said that [schools] can’t teach that one group is superior or inferior to another, they can’t teach that individuals’ moral character is determined by the color of their skin, and they can’t teach that individuals are responsible for the actions of others throughout history.”

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, objective truth and the adoption of race-based policies.

In 2021, the Utah State Board of Education approved a set of standards, which schools were encouraged to adopt, that prohibit educators from giving lessons that teach one race is “inherently superior or inferior” to another. In 2022, rather than passing an anti-CRT law, the Utah State Legislature passed a law that created an Ethnic Studies Commission which was tasked with providing the Utah Board of Education recommendations on how to “study the contributions of Utahns of diverse ethnicities” and other cultural histories.

Michelle Love-Day, Jordan School District director of culture and diversity and member of the Ethnic Studies Commission, said the school district has “gone around” the state board of education measures that give “loopholes” for educators to discuss tenets of CRT such as “microaggressions,” the video by Accuracy in Media showed.

While the Utah house and senate passed a resolution that would prohibit CRT from the classroom in 2021, the resolution was not made a law and therefore did not make the teaching of such lessons punishable.

Utah Parents United, a group of conservative parents focused on transparency in education, is working with Heritage Action, an organization that creates conservative policies, to push for an anti-CRT law that punishes teachers who teach that one race is superior to another, Corrine Johnson, Utah Parents United public relations director, told the DCNF.

“We have called on our state legislature to codify the resolution that was passed, to put into law that we will not teach these devices and theories in our schools,” Johnson told the DCNF. “We are asking that they put accountability measures and penalties in the law, so that when teachers like the ones that spoke on this video are reported, that there will be action immediately to get a teacher that flagrantly and blatantly ignores the laws of the state.”

Utah Parents United has partnered with several state lawmakers to gather support for such legislation in the 2023 session, the organization told the DCNF. The video was the push needed to take action, Utah state Sen. John Johnson told the DCNF.

“As a Senator, I have a record of standing up for parental rights while valuing and supporting our hardworking teachers across the state to help our students succeed,” Johnson told the DCNF. “We are committed to prioritizing parents’ concerns to keep education focused on learning and not political agendas. These videos are deeply concerning and we are looking into the situation and how to address this moving forward.”

Jordan School District and Love-Day did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.

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