Manatee County School Board Must Remove CRT/DEI from Strategic Plan

Our letter to the Manatee County (Florida) School Board: (you should check what YOUR school has in their strategic plan regarding DEI and CRT) 

June 10, 2022

Re: Manatee County School System Strategic Plan 2022-2024

Summary: The current Manatee County School System strategic plan contains unacceptable references to DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) that prioritize “race and gender” over performance and character in the selection of new employees (page 11). Additionally, the plan states that the school district should “develop/facilitate diversity, equity, and inclusion training” (page 12). DEI - and all of its accompanying curriculum, training, and professional development – must be eliminated from the Manatee County School system.

Points:

1.        1. Black, female political science professor Carol Swain has stated:

·         “The greatest threat to American Society today, I would argue, is coming from the Diversity/Equity/Inclusion industry” 

·         “We don’t need divisiveness training…Diversity, Equity & Inclusiveness trainers indoctrinate a captive audience with critical theory which comes out of the Marxist playbook”

2.        2. Black, female director of BLEXIT-FL, Tania Gorman, has stated:

·         “If your child is in a school where they are doing DEI/CRT – please pull your children out!”

·         “DEI is CRT [Critical Race Theory] in action” (from “BLEXIT’s Guide Against Critical Race Theory”)

3.      3. Adopting a policy that favors or disfavors one person or group over another violates the Equal Protection provision of the US Constitution and the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

4.     4. Federal civil rights laws prohibit the use of race and gender as discriminating factors within government organizations.

5.     5.  Current Florida law, Ch. 2022-72 states that as a condition of employment, no individual may be subjected to any activity that “espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individual to believe” in moral superiority or inferiority based on race or gender.

6.     6. Taxpayer money should never be spent on the illegal and unconstitutional activities described above.

Therefore, I petition the Manatee County School Board to do the following:

1.  ✅   Remove all references to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) from the strategic plan for 2022-2024,

2.  ✅   Eliminate any employment positions related to DEI, and

3.  ✅   Ensure that the hiring and the evaluation of all persons in the Manatee County school system, both employees and students, be based solely on performance and character without any reference to race or gender.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”  -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The time is now  for the Manatee County School Board to fulfill Reverend King’s dream, rather than continue with destructive DEI-oriented racial and gender identity programs, training, and curriculum.

The time is now  to uphold your oath to support and defend the US Constitution, which requires that you not consider race or gender in the execution of their duties.