A teacher made a big statement at a recent meeting of the Loudoun County school board by quitting and arguing that the district was overly focused on Critical Race Theory.
Laura Morris, a teacher at Lucketts Elementary School, informed the board why she was leaving with a lot of excitement. She said she was quitting because the school put too much emphasis on “equity trainings” and political agendas.
Morris gave a heated speech in which she stated she was unhappy with the way the district was running things. She claimed she couldn’t support a group that pushes ideas that go against what she believes as a Christian. She replied that even though the district had a lot of money and resources, she didn’t think she could work there.
Morris also stated she was worried that the division didn’t care about those who were scared. She commented about how rigid the rules were for anyone who wished to speak at board meetings. She was furious about letters from the superintendent telling staff not to dissent and the pressure to tell on coworkers who didn’t agree with the school board’s rules.
The instructor talked about her experiences with equity trainings, where she learnt that “white, Christian, able-bodied females” like her held influence in the education system and that this needed to change. Morris said she couldn’t stand being part of a system that encourages kids who are already weak to follow certain political beliefs.
She ended her resignation by speaking directly to the school board. She claimed she was abandoning their training and policies, as well as her role in carrying out what she considers are bad goals. Morris told parents and workers to look into other ways to teach their kids, such private schools.
Loudoun County didn’t want to talk about Morris’s retirement, even though the district has been in the news a lot lately because people are disputing about whether or not to teach Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools. Some parents and teachers say that CRT is unpatriotic and causes problems, while others think it’s important to look back at America’s racial history.
People have been talking about the school board in a horrible way, like when they suspended physical education instructor Byron “Tanner” Cross for not using the pronouns that students asked him to. Even though a court told the district to repair, they plan to appeal. The board also debated about letting transgender youngsters use bathrooms and other spaces that are only for boys or girls. This notion sparked hours of public debate and was placed on hold so that further thought could be given to it.
Morris’s departure shows that the fight over CRT and other controversial topics in education is still going on. Her choice to leave shows how tense things are in the school system as a whole and how hard it is to find a common ground between different ideas and points of view in public institutions.