Opinion: CRT isn't the hill to die on when children are literally dying at school

Over the past two months, the majority of the Forest Hills school board cited critical race theory and political indoctrination as the reason for cancelling an opt-in Diversity Day that has been held for nearly seven years.

I sat in a school board meeting and listened to the board president describe those opposing racists and racism as "charlatans." She went on to describe educators and academics as "elitists." A school board president openly described those that teach and care for our children as "elitists." Teachers are underpaid, underappreciated, and highly educated individuals, far from elitists.

I also watched my board colleagues ignore the hundreds of students who rallied in support of Diversity Day. Students came to board meetings, exercised their right to peaceably assemble, and bravely spoke out during public comments at meetings. Not one of my board colleagues acknowledge the students. Not a single one.

The day after students held their own event, a Turpin High School student went to testify in front of a congressional subcommittee on civil rights and classroom censorship. Again, crickets from the board and district. During their testimony to Congress, the student said, "Seven students have committed suicide since I started middle school. While administrators are doing everything they can to just keep us all alive, this anti-critical race theory rhetoric by the school board is causing immeasurable stress."

Last week, the country watched as an elementary school in a small Texas town, not far from my own hometown, became the scene of the latest mass shooting. Nineteen children and two teachers lost their lives.

Let me say that again, 19 children and two teachers are gone.

We live in a country where we desperately need responsible gun legislation, and support for teachers, students, and mental health and wellness. Instead of addressing the very real, tangible issues impacting students and teachers, we are fighting off rhetoric surrounding non-existent, fabricated issues.

Critical race theory is a legal theory. Social emotional learning, the newest target, often amounts to classroom management. Book bans. Opt-in sexual education. Pronouns. Masks. I could go on.

Terms like diversity and inclusion have been hijacked to make them fit a fabricated narrative. There is an actual handbook available online that's dedicated to manipulating the public over an academic theory.

Here's the hard truth: if a person turned in a law or graduate school paper describing CRT and SEL as concepts meant to make white people feel guilt or as encouraging racism, they would fail their assignment. They would fail the assignment because it is not correct and their opinions are not facts that can be substantiated. It would be like turning in a science paper that argues the Earth is flat. It simply is not factual.

Every person in government and school leadership has a choice to make. Continue expending energy on fabricated issues, or start addressing things like safety in schools, and supporting teachers, students and mental health.

Going after CRT, SEL, books, history, opt-in activities, pronouns, and whatever else there is, isn't the hill to die on when children are literally dying at school. This isn’t the hill.

Leslie Rasmussen is an Anderson Township resident, educator and member of the Forest Hills Board of Education.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Opinion: CRT isn't the hill to die on when children are literally dying at school