A Sentinel report earlier this month on Shawnee Mission spending $400,000 on Deep Equity / critical race theory indoctrination drew national attention last week. The Daily Wire, a fast-growing conservative media company, found that the taxpayer-funded training tells educators to “explicitly reject and resist any parents who disagree with it.”
One Shawnee Mission parent told the Daily Wire that Deep Equity training caused him to pull his son from the public education system
“Deep Equity being taught in our school district was the deciding factor [in leaving the district],” Jeffrey Arant said. “If we sent our children to our school district where Deep Equity is being taught, they would be singled out because of a characteristic they had no choice in — race … I’m not sure how my soon-to-be kindergartener can have a healthy and meaningful friendship with another child when they see him as an oppressor.”
Daily Wire reporter Chrissy Clark dug into the Deep Equity Handbook and found many subversive positions of the teacher training.
Clark writes, “the second phase of the program directs “white folks” to “recognize and honor the personal racial and cultural narrative of each member of [the] staff.” The phase is directed at white people because they “often do not see themselves as racial or cultural beings,” according to the training.
“In the third phase, Deep Equity training provides a series of handouts that instructs teachers to look at the “historical and contemporary dynamics that have created and sustained systems of oppression, marginalization, and inequity for far too many of our students and their families.”
“One of the handouts asks educators to shift their paradigm from a “social dominance paradigm” to a “social justice paradigm.” Teachers must rid themselves of views such as “Christianity over other religions,” and instead focus on “religious [and] spiritual pluralism.”
“A second handout, called “White Identity Orientations” claims that “white identity” is rooted in “ignorance, anger, hostility, and racis[m].” The handout claims that only by “shifting power” and becoming an “anti-racist” can white people become transformational.”
Clark says schools districts that implement Deep Equity often deny that they teach critical race theory, and that certainly applies to Shawnee Mission. District Diversity Coordinator Dr. Tyrone Bates would not tell The Sentinel whether the district uses critical race theory in classrooms or for teacher training; he had the district’s PR director spin a reply on his behalf.
Shawnee Mission parent Jeff Arant told the Daily Wire that CRT indoctrination prompted him to pull his son from the district and homeschool next year.
“Deep Equity being taught in our school district was the deciding factor [in leaving the district],” Jeffrey Arant said. “If we sent our children to our school district where Deep Equity is being taught, they would be singled out because of a characteristic they had no choice in — race … I’m not sure how my soon-to-be kindergartener can have a healthy and meaningful friendship with another child when they see him as an oppressor.”
Arant also spoke to the Sentinel, saying a Shawnee Mission teacher told him the Deep Equity training is mandatory and is done “under the guise of professional development during in-service days.”
