It seems that the radical left is bringing their own ‘woke’ concepts of behavior and listening to instructions to the classroom. Virginia high school teacher Josh Thompson, who teaches English at Blacksburg High School, stated in a video that was originally posted to his TikTok page that he believes the concept of students sitting quietly and behaving themselves as part of White supremacy.
Thompson was referring to the Montgomery County School District’s Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework, which is used by teachers in Virginia schools to support “positive academic and behavioral outcomes for all students.” While the Montgomery school district emphasized how teachers are entitled to their own personal beliefs regarding the program, the statements made by Thompson do not reflect the PBIS program or expectations that they have of students in schools.
“MCPS has used PBIS in our schools for eight years. We are proud of our PBIS work. This work helps create a standard for social-emotional learning and behavior expectations in the school building,” the school district put in a statement.
In the video, Thompson went on to talk about how the behaviors of “sitting quietly” and “being told what to do” are a part of White culture. He points out how PBIS wants to concern itself with “positive behaviors” and then goes on to ask what positive behaviors really are. He even went on to remind educators that police brutality and the murders of Black and Brown people by police officers are “directly connected to the work that we do.” He said much of the violence is wrapped up in the implicit bias.
“The idea of just sitting quietly and being told stuff and taking things in in a passive stance is not a thing that’s in many cultures. So if we’re positively enforcing these behaviors, we are by extension positively enforcing elements of White culture. Which therefore keeps Whiteness at the center, which is the definition of White supremacy,” Thompson said on TikTok. The video received a ton of backlash, with many school parents insisting on homeschooling their kids and having Thompson fired. One user pointed out how we are at “the most comfortable period in human history” for a teacher to be creating problems with something such as instruction and behavior. The video went viral shortly after another teacher encouraged her students to pledge allegiance to the gay pride flag after removing an American flag from the classroom.
It isn’t a surprise that this is happening in Virginia, especially after county officials have continued to downplay concerns of Critical Race Theory being taught in schools as a “right-wing conspiracy.” Loudoun County, VA experienced one of the most heated school debates over Critical Race Theory after an anti-CRT group in the state obtained an invoice showing the district spent $3,750 on Critical Race Theory Development for LCPS leaders.
The district’s former superintendent Eric Williams even acknowledged that their practices align with CRT. He went on to say that they have encouraged some of the CRT principles through their Action Plan to Combat Systemic Racism learning modules.
Teachers Monica Gill and Jeremy Wright have also accused the county of propagating CRT through its training. School board member Beth Barts acknowledged that portions of the CRT have “probably” influenced the district’s policies, adding that they have tried to make their policies inclusive and non-discriminatory.
“…while we are not teaching critical race theory necessarily in classrooms, I will say probably that there are portions of critical race theory that we may be applying when we give the lens to look at some of our policies,” Barts said.
Parents are seeing the actions of the school district and teachers in a different light now. They see that CRT is highly racist, anti-American, and demands discrimination like Jim Crow. While the left has been paving roads in academia without any pushback, it’s clear they’ve overplayed their hand. Now, it’s vital for the parents to push back against the social justice and race-baiting programs one classroom at a time. Liberals don’t want to fix the problem, they want to create the problem.
