Watch: School board president takes heat at conservative ‘critical race theory’ forum
Peninsula School Board president David Olson was heckled at a meeting of conservative parents when he defended the district’s policies of “equity and inclusion,” a video shows.
Olson appeared to try to mollify the group, promising at one point that the school board would address conservative concerns about “critical race theory” with a resolution at the next board meeting, July 22.
The July 13 meeting at the Hub restaurant was organized by the group Parents & Citizens for School Choice. Video and audio recordings taken at the meeting were shared with The Gateway.
At one point, a conservative school board candidate told the audience of about 50 people that Olson “is on our side” and urged them to be patient with him. But the crowd was often hostile and reacted with groans and interruptions when Olson defended district policy.
Groans and no’s
“Equity and diversity and inclusion and stuff like that, I think are all important aspects of our school district,” Olson said, drawing groans and audible no’s from the crowd, which appeared to be mostly white.
“Now wait, wait, don’t put your spin on it,” Olson said in response. “What I’m saying is that we need to make sure our children are taught fairly.”
Several voices can be heard saying, “They are taught fairly.”
“Let’s not go there,” Olson said. “There will be something at the school board meeting next Thursday that will address your questions.”
In response to multiple requests for comment, a district spokesperson said Olson and all other board members were unavailable. Direct emails and calls to Olson went unanswered.
Fractious meeting
A recording of the meeting was provided to The Gateway by a parent who was there. It revealed a group whose participants often disagreed over how best to accomplish their goals. Some felt Olson was not doing enough, while others stepped in to defend him.
“Are you with us, or are you against us?” demanded one parent during a discussion of masks in schools.
“If I wasn’t with you, I wouldn’t be here,” Olson responded. “That’s not what I heard,” the parent fired back.
School board candidate David Weinberg, who has been active in campaigning against CRT and mask requirements, intervened to vouch for the board president.
“He has to get (the other school board members) to agree and have a majority vote. That’s the problem,” Weinberg said. “He’s on our side totally, but he has to walk a fine line. It’s very difficult here and so, the thing is, I think he’s with us totally, a hundred percent.”
A man in the crowd disagreed.
“We’re done walking a fine line, that’s why we’re here,” the man said. Weinberg then pledged that “we will push back on the board, we will. We will do everything in our power.”
Resolution promised
State Rep. Jesse Young, (R-Gig Harbor) who was at the meeting, said “diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism” were all code words for critical race theory and called on people to go to the school board meeting to push back against them.
Critical race theory is a once-obscure academic concept taught mostly in law and graduate schools, which seeks to examine the ways past racism lingers, sometimes unnoticed, in the law and other institutions, and the ineffectiveness of mainstream liberalism in dealing with that. Lately, it has become a weapon in the culture wars, partly through the efforts of a Gig Harbor political consultant, Christopher Rufo, who has called CRT “the perfect villain.”
Olson promised that the board would take some sort of action in regard to CRT at the next meeting on July 22.
“There is something that is being developed at this time that we intend to bring to the July 22 school board meeting,” Olson said. “It’s currently in legal for review, and so we want to make sure anything that we bring forward at a board meeting to the public has passed the legal test because we don’t want to jeopardize the Peninsula School District or the board.”
Olson then said the action would come in the form of a resolution. He said he couldn’t commit to which way he would vote, as it is still being drafted.
“It depends on the language of the resolution,” Olson said.
In the neighboring South Kitsap School District, a resolution opposing CRT was introduced in June and subsequently voted down.
CRT not taught here
A Peninsula district spokesperson declined to comment on the resolution being drafted or provide any specifics on what action the board might take. The spokesperson said that an agenda would be released to the public a couple days before the meeting.
District officials have said many times that nothing resembling critical race theory is being taught in its K-12 classes.
In a prior interview, newly hired superintendent Krestin Bahr emphasized that the district is not teaching CRT, a graduate-level curriculum, and expressed support for current efforts to help students.
“Talking about equity and inclusion within that classroom, that’s the work that we are doing in Peninsula,” Bahr said. “That’s the work that has to be done and making sure that the teachers have all the tools that children can learn.”
Olson is being challenged in the Aug. 3 primary by Juanita Beard, a mental health counselor and local business owner. If elected, she would be the sole Black member of the board.
In an email, Beard responded to Olson’s pledge that a resolution about CRT would be coming.
“I will be very interested to hear what resolution the current board president offers,” Beard said. “CRT is not part of any curriculum plan, so the only solution that could be offered is the fact that this is a non-issue.”
‘Not interchangeable’
Beard also said she thinks there needs to be a distinction made between CRT and current efforts to support students in the district.
“CRT and equity and inclusion are not interchangeable. Equity simply means narrowing the gaps. Just like we want to narrow the gaps between our schools in Gig Harbor and our schools on the Key Peninsula,” Beard said. “It saddens me that simply a discussion about different peoples’ life experience in America has become a divisive topic that adults are trying to impose upon our children.”
Katie Russell, a parent in the district, said she attended the meeting after seeing a poster for the event and wanted to learn what people were discussing.
“I didn’t really understand why one of our board members was bringing CRT as the forefront of an issue to talk about since it is not in our schools,” Russell said. “It just seems like a scare tactic and a way to keep him in office to get a certain group of people to vote for him.”
Russell said she thinks the issue is a “backlash” to the district’s creation of an equity, diversity and inclusion committee. She has been a part of the committee as a parent volunteer for about a year.
“I just sit and listen to what our school is implementing to make sure we have equality and inclusion for all,” Russell said, emphasizing the committee has “of course not” tried to push for CRT or to indoctrinate children.
Basket weaving?
In an open-mic portion of the Hub meeting, one woman criticized an upcoming unit that she says would teach students in kindergarten through fourth grade about the indigenous tribes of Washington.
“So we’re going to get a lot of basket weaving going on, but not a lot of ‘who was Abraham Lincoln,’” the speaker said. “I have nothing against tribal studies, I have nothing against learning about indigenous cultures. I think it’s great. But it can’t be the only thing our kids are instructed in. It’s not well-rounded, it’s not balanced.”
Jill Neumeister, a Gig Harbor business owner and parent of a former Peninsula student, was at the meeting. She said she was disappointed by the comments made about indigenous people.
“I’m a Native person. I’m an enrolled Pawnee citizen,” Neumeister said. “The disdain she used that really minimized the importance of learning about our Native cultures was apparent.”
Neumeister said she had come to learn about where people were saying CRT was actually being taught. Instead, she came away with a feeling that they were creating a “boogeyman.” She said she supports the “brilliant teachers” in the district.
“The overall message was really this fear of, ‘Oh, it may not be in our schools now, but it’s coming,’” Neumeister said. “Just over and over and over again it was about explaining this tactic. It wasn’t necessarily about saying it was a real thing, but was about saying this is the way you should be talking about it. It was definitely a strategy session, and I find it disgusting.”
Mask mandate reviled
Some of the discussion at the meeting was about the state’s mandate for face coverings in the schools. Several people said they were opposed to any mask requirements and threatened to pull their kids out of school if it wasn’t eliminated.
“If I could do it, I would, but I’ve been told legally that we’re not allowed to do it,” Olson said. “The attorney will be there next Thursday to address some of these issues in more detail.”
When someone asked what would happen if parents and children showed up en masse without masks to protest the guidance, Olson said that would mean schools could take action in response.
“Technically, they could be forcibly removed from the schools,” Olson said.
At one point during the meeting, an employee for the Hub stepped in to say the restaurant was not in any way associated with the political gathering.
“Nothing is put on by our owner; we didn’t know this was happening,” the employee said. “I just wanted to make that clear.”
The July 22 school board meeting will be live-streamed over the district’s YouTube channel and also held in person at Swift Water Elementary, 10811 Harbor Hill Dr., in the Community Room beginning at 6 p.m.
