A Mason Public Schools special education teacher resigned Friday after the school district refused to allow her to indoctrinate students with a radical Black Lives Matter and social justice curriculum.
Katelyne Thomas was a first through fifth grade teacher in the school system near Lansing, who in January suggested to her superiors that the school should implement the Black Lives Matter at School learning program during the first week of February, which is Black History Month, according to The Detroit Free Press.
Her suggestion was denied by the school’s superintendent, who said the curriculum had not been properly vetted by the school district – a requirement for all curricula taught at the school.
Thomas, who said Black Lives Matter is a cause that is important to her because her husband is Black, quit in protest after the school denied her request.
But even a cursory glance of the Black Lives Matter at School curriculum shows just how radical it is.
One of the demands for BLM in School’s “Week of Action” is called “Fund Counselors, Not Cops.”
That section claims, without evidence, that “each week we hear of Black people having the police called on them for simply existing while Black.” It also says that “[t]he amount of racial trauma and adverse childhood experiences Black students experience continues to increase,” and thus, schools should do away with funding police, and employ counselors instead.
The curriculum also peddles intersectionality, including some topics that have nothing to do with race.
The “guiding principles” of the Black Lives Matter at School curriculum includes the following:
- Transgender Affirming is the commitment to continue to make space for our trans brothers and sisters by encouraging leadership and recognizing trans-antagonistic violence.
- Queer Affirming is working towards a queer-affirming network where heteronormative thinking no longer exists
Another “guiding principle” is the disruption of the nuclear family.
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Black Villages is the disruption of Western nuclear family dynamics and a return to the“collective village” that takes care of each other. Black Women is the building of women-centered spaces free from sexism, misogyny, and male-centeredness.
Thomas wanted to teach this curriculum to students aged roughly six to 11.
According to The Detroit Free Press, Mason Public Schools have a policy for deciding what curriculum is implemented for students.
Learning material must be “related to the instructional goals of the course of study and level of maturity of the students,” and cannot “tend to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.”
Mason Public Schools Superintendent Ronald Drzewicki emphasized that the school has approved Black History Month curriculum, and that denying Thomas’ request was not meant to discourage teaching about diversity.
“All classroom teachers were encouraged to use the resources to supplement curriculum as appropriate,” he reportedly said. “No staff member was denied or told not to use these district-provided materials to teach about Black History Month, or diversity, equity and inclusion.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Michigan Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
