A California school district meeting on critical race theory (CRT) exploded when a woman allegedly told a black man to “get out of the country” after he condemned the district’s recent actions surrounding CRT in education.
The Temecula Valley Unified School District banned the teaching of CRT in December 2022, according to The Press-Enterprise. In March, the district’s reportedly conservative school board paid $15,000 to hire anti-CRT consultant Christopher Arend to give lectures on the history of CRT.
The Wednesday meeting got heated after a black man, reportedly identified as “Deon,” harshly criticized the district’s decision to hire an anti-CRT consultant, a recording shared on YouTube shows. (RELATED: ‘Slaves Built This Country’: Disney Kids’ Show Pushes CRT-Inspired Interpretation Of History)
“It is widely recognized by the vast majority of experts that bringing CRT into the K to 12 classroom is just as outlandish as bringing calculus to the first-grade classroom,” Deon said, according to a shorter clip of the moment shared on Twitter.
“Neither idea is viable or credible. Therefore, it is asinine to ban CRT when it isn’t even taught in any K-12 classroom in the United States of America,” he continued, the video shows.
UPDATE: Temecula Valley Unified School District held their CRT event tonight. After a black community member made a public comment, he was told by a white woman to leave the country if he didn’t like it.
Chaos erupted when a Trustee tried removing the man NOT the racist woman. https://t.co/w150wQIaEq pic.twitter.com/t7dm3vJal8
— InMinivanHell (@inminivanhell) March 23, 2023
“Your continued, blatant, willful ignorance of the black experience in this country is not only shameful but also detrimental to the education and growth of our children,” Deon continued.
After Deon spoke, a woman allegedly told him to “get out” of America, the New York Post reported.
“She said, ‘Get out of the country,'” Deon said. “She told me to get out of the country. My family has been here since August 16, 1619.”
The alleged statement sent the room into a meltdown, resulting in Deon being escorted out by security at the request of board president Joseph Komrosky, according to the NY Post and video clips shared online. Many onlookers present at the meeting also chanted, “Take the woman,” apparently calling for the woman who allegedly made the comment to be removed.
“If that woman said that to him, she needs to be excused,” board member Allison Barclay said, according to Newsweek.
“It was a sad day seeing our community so divided on such a non-issue in our district that was contrived to push forward a political agenda and distract from our true work, which is providing high-quality education and learning in our award-winning schools,” she continued.
The woman was eventually escorted from the meeting by sheriff’s deputies, a video posted to TikTok shows.