Critical Race Theory Discussion Sparked At Chatham School Meeting

CHATHAM, NJ - After a parent inquiry at the June Board of Education meeting for the School District of the Chathams requesting more information about the district’s stance on teaching Critical Race Theory, Superintendent Dr. Michael LaSusa told meeting attendees at Monday’s board meeting the district doesn’t “teach or indoctrinate students in Critical Race Theory.”

Rez Estevez, a Chatham mother, asked more about where the district stands with it on June 21, describing Critical Race Theory as one viewed exclusively through race and “anti-liberal, opposing equality under the law and lacking rationalism and Constitutional principles.”

She said CRT teaches children from a young age that the United States is an “oppressive, racist system.”

Estevez additionally called it anti-merit and said it treats children of different races differently.

To oppose it, on the contrary, she said, “is pro-human and pro-individual.”

Estevez was concerned there were overt or implied CRT elements that her children had experienced and some classes within the district.

Response From The Board

In response to Estevez’s request, Board Member Lata Kenney spoke on behalf of the Curriculum Committee, saying the committee engaged in a “good dialogue” on the topic, but then deferred to LaSusa.

While the district doesn’t teach Critical Race Theory, LaSusa said the district instead teaches about issues concerning race.

There were two presentations in the fall with how race is addressed throughout the district’s curriculum, LaSusa said, especially in Social Studies and ELA.

All of it is anchored in the New Jersey Student Learning Standards, he said, with different expectations for districts to address race.

New Jersey also has the Amistad Mandate, which focuses on teaching about slavery and its legacy.

Another law in New Jersey hones in on teaching about equity and unconscious bias, pertaining to disability, religion, race, gender expression and the like, LaSusa said.

“Those topics can be sensitive, complicated and complex and they appear at different points in our curriculum,” LaSusa added, even in health and physical education classes.

“We try to be thoughtful throughout our disciplines,” LaSusa added, about how we guide students through those discussions and develop better understandings of them.

“In the year 2021, it’s probably never been more difficult to be a teacher than it is right now,” LaSusa said.

He said the constant social media presence, mental health concerns, strife within the country and living in a pandemic environment, were a few of the factors.

Teachers, he said, often feel “put on the spot” with questions from students, because of all the elements students see outside of school.

“They do the best they can to center the discussions on either the texts that we’re reading or the current events that we’re discussing,” LaSusa also said.

He suggested there should be more time and training for teachers to foster a learning environment that feels safe for all students.

Jill Critchley Weber said, the board’s president, said it’s important to look at the entire curriculum, after the district faced a past lawsuit in federal court with accusations that the school district was indoctrinating students, when the district was following curriculum to teach about all world religions.

Critchley Weber and LaSusa both said the district is preparing children for some of the circumstances they may face in the world.

Board Member Sal Arnuk commended the district’s teachers for teaching children to be "excellent people," with parents - rather than students or teachers perhaps - becoming indoctrinated instead by social media.

Feedback From Parents After School Comments

Estevez returned to the microphone at Monday’s meeting with follow-up information.

She said she’d previously discussed her concerns with LaSusa and was grateful that Critical Race Theory wasn’t being pushed, with the National Education Association having recently adopted item 39, vowing to spend more membership monies to fight for Critical Race Theory.

“To think that some of these ideologies and politicization are not coming in, crawling in, into our high schools and grammar schools now, I think we’d all have our heads buried in the sand,” said Bill Heap, another Chatham resident who spoke in the public session on Monday.

He also talked about the National Education Association, reading from an article, about schooling starting at the pre-K level and focusing on various terms, like “power and oppression.”

“Reading this made me think of my worst nightmare,” he added, which was being trapped in a faculty lounge with “morally-insecure college professors, who are spewing this drivel out.”

“That’s what it is, it’s drivel,” he added. “I’m sure they would tell you it’s scholarship, but it’s not; and this is how it ends up in the platform of the National Education Association.”

Heap told the Board Members their crucial role is to “make sure that our children are taught how to think, not what to think.”

“That means a curriculum that’s balanced and you have to make it clear that teachers need to check their politics at the door,” he said.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at jennifer.miller@patch.com.