Wild West School Board Meeting

PUSD divisive curriculum
PUSD Peoria Unified Critical Race Theory

Normally school board meetings are pretty tame and tiring but last night in Arizona that was not the case. The school board meeting for Peoria Arizona was wild for the Peoria Unified School District. The turnout of parents was off the charts and there was even a visit from a popular radio talk show host before the meeting began. The sizeable involvement of parents was largely due to the reports of toxic curriculum and Critical Race Theory (CRT).

The school board president, David Sandoval, commented that he intended to cancel the public comment and at that point the temperature in the room elevated. You can watch how things took a turn below.

Why are the parents concerned?

At the previous school board meeting, the superintendent assured the community that there is no CRT being taught in the Peoria schools. He said that they had no plans to implement Critical Race Theory. Since that meeting, the parents uncovered some horrifying items that were being pushed into the Peoria Schools. Some of the items that the parents brought up in the meeting included a website that gave the students possible access to pornography and unfortunately CRT

“Critical race theory (CRT) is a framework used to examine power and oppression dynamics between racialized groups, providing insight on how racism serves to maintain and reinforce inequity…” 

University of Arizona 

The lesson plan on examining oppression has CRT themes. Having children examine how they were born as oppressors of others would soundly fall under the studies of critical theory and intersectionality. These are divisive social mechanisms. 

These latest developments beg the question of whether the superintendent does not know what Critical Race Theory is? Is he not aware of the type of curriculum being pushed within the district? If he knows what CRT is and knew that this curriculum had been pushed in PUSD then he made a bold-faced lie to the community. Either way, it left the parents feeling very uneasy. Another prominent member of the Peoria education community, Trina Berg the President of Peoria Education Association, claimed that “CRT is not a thing.” Trina Berg went on to promote diversity and inclusion in a way that many parents may agree with. Parents have expressed that they want the students to have cultural awareness but not CRT taught to students. It is important to have an understanding of the divisive nature of CRT.

The community voiced many notable concerns. Parents shared stories of just how disastrous the implementation of CRT has been in another district. Parents also expressed concerns that the Arizona School Board Association (ASBA) has recently taken a stance of attacking white students with IEPs.

Peoria Unified School District parents speak out against Critical Race Theory-based curriculum – YouTube

A message from the James T. Harris