School board candidates double down on ‘critical race theory’ campaign in rare group ad
Three Peninsula school board candidates are aligning themselves with the conservative campaign against what they are calling “critical race theory” being taught in the district. Although school officials insist there is no such curriculum being taught, candidates Linda Ader, Erik Johnson and David Weinberg have made it a focal point of their campaign for school board Position 2.
In an unusual strategy, the three candidates took out a joint ad in the July edition of the independent Key Peninsula News, a monthly community paper, calling on voters to “Save Peninsula Schools.”
The advertisement says critical race theory “teaches our children to judge people based on skin color, not the content of their character” and that comprehensive sex education “teaches our children to be confused about whether they are a girl of a boy.” The ad says these issues have become a “battleground for pushing back on the indoctrination of our children on these dangerous notions.”
It says it is “paid for by Committee to Elect Erik Johnson, Vote for Ader Campaign, Elect David Weinberg Campaign.”
In a phone interview, Johnson said he didn’t put the ad together, but he did coordinate with Ader and Weinberg, as he said they shared “common ground.”
“We agreed to support whichever candidate goes through the primary,” Johnson said. “I wouldn’t call it a strategic alliance, I would just say we agree on that concept.”
The primary election for the school board position is Aug. 3.
The fourth candidate for the position is Jennifer Butler, a longtime school volunteer and past president of Stand Up for Peninsula Schools. She declined to comment on the ad and instead said she wanted to focus on more pressing issues facing the district.
Lisa Bryan, executive editor of the Key Peninsula News, said the paid political ad does not imply an endorsement by the newspaper, which “neither endorses or opposes political candidates or issues.”
Wedge issues
Sex education has become a target of conservative groups who were upset by Senate Bill 5395 from last year. As reported by The Gateway in March 2020, the legislation required changes in sex education such as “a curriculum that includes encouraging healthy relationships, teaching students about sexual violence, educating them on consent and inappropriate touching and being inclusive of all students, whatever their gender orientation.”
Then-superintendent Art Jarvis said that the district was already in compliance with these standards, and no additional curriculum was required.
“Critical race theory,” another wedge issue, is a concept in some high-level graduate courses that seeks to examine the many ways past racism lingers, sometimes unnoticed, in the law and other institutions, and the ineffectiveness of mainstream liberalism in dealing with that. Academic experts say the theory is not being taught in K-12 classrooms.
In the neighboring South Kitsap school district, a board resolution to oppose CRT was introduced and subsequently failed after teachers came out to express their concerns.
Peninsula School District Superintendent Krestin Bahr reaffirmed in a June interview that there was no teaching of CRT in the district and provided a handout outlining what is taught.
She emphasized that the district supported the state-sponsored program called Multi-Tiered System of Support, which seeks, according to its mission statement, to “identify and address biases and systemic barriers that drive inequitable access and disparate outcomes for Black, Indigenous, and students of color, students experiencing poverty, students receiving special education or English learner services, students who identify as LGBTQ+, and highly mobile student populations.”
“Talking about equity and inclusion within that classroom, that’s the work that we are doing in Peninsula,” Bahr said at the time. “That’s the work that has to be done and making sure that the teachers have all the tools that children can learn.”
A district spokesperson, Aimee Gordon, said “as part of our regular and ongoing practice as a learning organization, we allow teachers some autonomy to choose materials to supplement adopted curriculum, ” but she reaffirmed that no CRT-level lessons were being taught.
A political strategy
The campaign against CRT began in Gig Harbor about the same time a onetime Seattle city council candidate and conservative activist named Christopher Rufo moved to the area and became a prominent commentator on conservative media.
In a widely published post on social media, he hailed the concept as a political strategy to mobilize conservative outrage around the “perfect villain.”
Weinberg and Johnson had previously distanced themselves from Rufo, saying his efforts have had no role in their campaign. However, in a Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce Debate on July 1, all three assailed what they defined as “critical race theory.”
Newcomers to politics
The three allied candidates are all newcomers to politics. Johnson previously said he worked in banking, though he wouldn’t say where, adding he was concerned about “cancel culture.” According to her website, Ader has worked as a “national corporate environmental science consultant.” Weinberg previously said he was a software architect.
Ader told The Gateway she didn’t wish to discuss the advertisement, her campaign, or provide evidence that CRT being taught. In the debate, Ader said she was concerned about emphasis being given to diversity, equity and inclusion, as she felt it could convince students to believe their country is bad.
On her website, she expresses opposition to CRT using an unexpected source: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the American civil rights activist who was assassinated in 1968.
Invoking Dr. King
“As Martin Luther King, Jr. advised, our children should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin. Critical Race Theory (CRT) teaches kids to divide themselves based on their race and then view themselves either as perpetrators of wrongs they didn’t commit, or as victims of wrongs they haven’t experienced,” her website reads. “There’s nothing that is unifying or empowering in this ideology; hence I’ll work against implementing CRT in our District.”
In an email, Weinberg also pointed to quotes from Dr. King and said his comments from the forum summed up his outlook of the world. He also said that he believes children are being taught to believe America is a racist country, and he disagrees.
“Dances with Wolves is in my top 5 best movies because it exposes the plight of the American Indian. I support teaching more history in schools, to include how this country began, both good and bad,” Weinberg said. “We must stop judging people based on their skin color and I think as a people America has progressed a lot from how things were 100 years ago. America is not a racist county and if you think it still is, then how did we elect, not once but 2x, a black president and now a black female VP?”
In prior interviews, Johnson has cited a children’s book entitled “A is for Activist,” a copy of which he held upduring the debate, as an example of CRT. He now acknowledges the book is not taught in the district, but says he wants to keep anything like it out of the schools in future.
“I want to see all curriculum posted every year for public review,” Johnson said. “Without any opportunity for deviation. I don’t know how it works or what individual teachers are allowed to slip into their classrooms, I don’t know how that works. The teachers need to have their own autonomy, but there needs to be a limit on that.”
Johnson said there would need to be potential corrective action from the top down if any deviation occurred.
“There would be a performance improvement plan,” Johnson said. “That’d be determined by the school board and the superintendent.”
Butler is exception
The sole candidate for Position 2 not focused on the concept is Butler, a familiar face in the school district.
She has served as vice president of the Peninsula Schools Education Foundation. She also has served as the Chairperson for Stand Up for Peninsula Schools, which helped to get a bond issue passed in 2019 that would lead to the opening of several new schools in the district. She also has been endorsed by incumbent Deborah Krishnadasan, who decided not to run again in order to throw her support behind Butler.
In the past, she has said she was trying to focus on the issues more directly impacting the district. On Tuesday, Butler told The Gateway she had nothing further to add about the ad or the issue, saying all questions about curriculum would have to be answered by the district.
However, Butler did write a letter to the editor in Key Peninsula New, expressing her hope that new facilities, such as Evergreen Elementary, can be used to “reimagine learning by bringing more real-world programs, like hands-on, project-based learning into our schools.”
When reached by The Gateway, Peninsula teachers referred all questions regarding CRT to the district.
However, Nate Gibbs-Bowling, a prominent Black educator who previously taught at Tacoma’s Lincoln High School and was Washington state’s 2016 Teacher of the Year, was sharply critical of the conservative campaign.
“If they’re going to be thought police, they should run for thought police, not for the school board,” Gibbs-Bowling said.
“Critical race theory is not being taught anywhere in Peninsula schools, point one. Point two, critical race theory does not teach you, or teach students if it’s being taught, to judge each other based on skin color,” Gibbs-Bowling said. “What it does is it explains how society inherently does by looking at how inequality exists across categories.”
He also said that using quotes from former civil rights leader Dr. King to justify the school board candidates’ position was misleading.
“You can’t just quote-smith for a line that fits,” Gibbs-Bowling said. “It’s a reductionist view and a flattening down of King’s legacy. Frankly, the people who do it know better and are using Dr. King as a cudgel against those who are advocating for civil rights.”
This story was originally published July 9, 2021 at 3:49 PM.
