One local public school principal’s efforts to kowtow to students backfired badly, which might help serve as a warning that students don’t always know best.
Diversity teaching at Douglas Anderson was to be done in segregated student meetings – one for white, one for black.
When parents learned that, there was a huge reaction and the meetings were canceled.
The consultant hired to speak to students at Douglas Anderson Middle School is Dr. Tammy L. Hodo, president of All Things Diverse LLC, an educational consulting company that says it is “working with organizations to optimize employee productivity through recognizing the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Hodo’s bio says she received a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in urban studies, with a minor in sociology and specializations in race, class, gender, and ethnicity.
One of the areas she specializes in is Critical Race Theory.
On Jan. 27, she was on News4Jax, joining News Anchor Bruce Hamilton to celebrate Joe Biden’s election and discuss “what we could expect from President Biden when it comes to tackling racism.”
The principal who had hired Hodo, Melanie Hammer, apologized to parents and students.
This incident highlights problems that can arise from the public school system’s obsession with race, which emphasizes differences among students.
Children don’t learn hate. In nurseries and kindergartens, children hug and play together naturally. It isn’t until they are taught that skin color makes a difference that their behavior changes.
Whether they learn it at school, at home or from the liberal media, or all three, it is divisive and harmful.
Hodo’s specialty in critical race theory should have been a red flag to the school principal. It is the latest, and most dangerous, tactic of the Far Left — promoting a theory that proclaims all people with white skin are racists and all people with black skin are victims of an invisible force called “systemic racism.”
It is another twist on black supremacy and is no better than white supremacy. It also is a far cry from the teachings of civil rights leaders of the 1960s.
The reaction from one former Anderson student highlights the absurdity.
“A lot of students like myself, if I were still at school, felt like what pantsuit do I wear? I have a white mom and a black dad,” Beatriz Rodrigues told First Coast News.
Indeed, in such a family is one parent a hero and the other a villain?
Only fools and those on the Far Left would think so.
It appears the higher echelon killed the planned meetings.
“District staff have been very involved with Douglas Anderson, and together with students, they have taken many positive steps at the school,” school system spokesman Tracy Pierce said in a statement to a small local newspaper. “… when district leaders became aware of what was communicated, we took the step of deciding that the event as planned could not go on.”
Media reports indicate the rift may be traced to an email students at the school sent last month, which alleged the school disproportionately punishes black and brown students, that students of color are silenced, that racial slurs are spoken freely, and that there is a lack of diversity, all standard themes of victimization.
The students demanded the school acknowledge the allegations and take other actions — including the remarkable demand that it establish a Black Student Union. In other words, segregate students!
That’s a solution you might expect from a 14-year-old with little education.
But students at other public schools have learned lately that if they make protests and demands adults will genuflect to their wishes, so it probably will increase.
The principal in this case might have investigated the complaints to see if they had any validity before the knee-jerk reaction to schedule diversity training.
Meanwhile, parents might be asking, what are the students learning that will help them in college and in the workplace – and in life?
