I was forced to take action against my school district to halt compelled speech, racist DEI

I am a high school English teacher caught in the middle of the national debate over DEI, gender, pronouns, identity and "transitioning." 

Right here in the center of the country – the Kansas City metro area – the once top-rated Shawnee Mission School District, where I’ve taught for 17 years, has veered drastically left, is hiding political activism, and pushing a radical "woke" ideology in place of fair and balanced education.

Since 2019, when our mandatory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training began, teachers have been subjected to repeated White-shaming sessions that address what the district calls "White identity orientation," and we have been pressured to use psychological manipulation to, in the curriculum’s own words, "overcome resistance."

The $400,000 Corwin DEI Curriculum our district embraces has its roots in radical Marxist extremism and indoctrinates with shocking anti-America, anti-family, and anti-White propaganda.

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The Corwin Curriculum focuses on DEI over academics, with political ideology such as this: "Since 90% of our nation’s teachers are white, the business of achieving greater equity and excellence in public education is in large part a process of transforming the beliefs and behaviors of white educators."

Through the mandatory DEI curriculum, White people are portrayed as the problem: "Together they [White people] are experiencing a collective meltdown over the realities of race and their own whiteness," and "White supremacist hate groups represent one particularly hostile form of fundamentalist white identity, but there is also the Tea Party version that masks its racism with the guise of patriotism."

The turn away from academics to political indoctrination is summed up by Corwin’s DEI programming in its own words: Teaching is "redistributing privilege in the service of social justice."

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After I wrote a letter asking for our principal to request more balanced views without divisive, anti-White political ideology, the district subjected me to an "investigation" for "deadnaming" and then another sham "investigation" for "gender identity discrimination."

The district found no evidence of discrimination (I try not to use pronouns), but it disciplined me anyway for using "incorrect pronouns on one or a couple of occasions during the school year" – a claimed violation of a nonexistent pronoun policy.

When teachers were told to hide from parents that their minor children were experimenting with "transitioning" at school, I went public to explain to taxpayers what was going on in the district, expose the controversial race-based curriculum that the district refuses to release to the public, warn of the reasons for the worsening teacher shortage, and explain the low student achievement numbers.

For my efforts, I received tremendous public support but also hateful backlash, blatantly false representations of my positions and my actions, and was faced with an increasingly hostile work environment. As further punishment, I was stripped of my AP classes and was required to have supervised team meetings for a year.

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I appealed the discipline, tried to take my case to arbitration as provided in the teacher contract, and even attempted to get the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate. But the district would not participate in the appeal or arbitration and ignored the EEOC’s request for information.

It’s wrong to force teachers to go along with a lie and to force them to hide information from parents. It’s just as wrong for the district to force us to say things we do not believe and that go against our religious or moral beliefs.

After I exhausted every other available option over the past 19 months, the district has left me no alternative but to file a lawsuit. As a single mother on a teacher’s salary, I attempted to do everything I could to avoid having to take this step, but there is no other recourse.

The lawsuit details how the district trumped-up allegations under a nonexistent policy because I objected to the caustic, divisive DEI curriculum and because I am opposed to being compelled to say things I don’t believe.

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I just want to teach kids and not be forced to lie to students, parents or anyone. I care about all of my students – every single one of them. We should be kind, compassionate and loving as we strive to give them the best possible education. I work to that end every day, every year, with every student. But I refuse to deceive them, and I will not be compelled to say things that are not true or helpful.

When teachers enter the classroom, we don’t leave our constitutionally protected freedoms at the door. In the best interest of our students and families who deserve better, and in the face of those in the district trying to bully me into submission, I am not afraid to remain true to my beliefs and values. If that means I have to go to court, so be it.