Shawnee Mission students protest teacher’s ‘white shaming’ claims. ‘Makes me afraid’

A crowd of Shawnee Mission North High School students walked out of class Wednesday morning to protest teacher Caedran Sullivan, who has been making headlines lately for her far-right claims that the school is indoctrinating students and “white shaming.”

The more than 60 students were met by counterprotesters feet away, a group of about a dozen encouraged by the Johnson County Republican Party to come out in support of the teacher and “fight this evil.”

“I don’t know why this is happening with adults being at the school right now,” senior Anylah Jones said of the counterprotest. “Being an African American, it is very offensive. This should not be happening here, the most diverse school in the Shawnee Mission school district. I find it kind of scary, if I’m being honest. This is a step back.”

Sullivan, an English teacher at North, started gaining attention after writing a column in The Lion, a site run by the Herzog Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes Christian education. She wrote that teachers are being “manipulated and intimidated by a divisive ‘woke’ ideology that is creating a culture of contempt and disrespect.”

She argued that the district’s diversity and equity training is “indoctrinating” students and pushing a “strong anti-capitalism, anti-conservatism, and anti-American bias.” She also opposes rules on student pronouns, saying the district faults “a teacher for using the student’s legal name or ‘incorrect’ pronouns that match the student’s biological sex.”

Her claims, which gained broader attention after being shared by Fox News, echo those shared by conservatives across the country who are fighting in the culture war to limit teaching on America’s history of racism and slavery they call critical race theory and remove library books they deem inappropriate.

Sullivan said in an email to The Star on Wednesday that, “I believe my position is being misrepresented and distorted,” and shared a link to another column she wrote defending her stance.

She wrote in her column that she has been threatened and attacked and that, “One teacher referred to me as a ‘Nazi’ and ‘fascist’ for disagreeing with her views.”

The Shawnee Mission district has expanded its diversity and equity work in recent years, to train teachers on how to be more culturally aware and close achievement gaps. Last school year marked the third year the district has required its employees to participate in that training.

Proponents argue that the training is crucial to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce, better supporting students of color, reducing racial disparities and teaching from a variety of perspectives. They say Sullivan is spreading disinformation about the work.

“The work of establishing schools where every student feels a sense of belonging and receives the support they need to achieve their personal best, is never done. Every day, across the district, students and staff come together to create One Shawnee Mission,” district officials said in a previous statement.

Laveanna Washington, a junior who said she has Sullivan as a teacher, said students felt unheard after going to the school board to voice their concerns, so they planned Wednesday’s protest. Several students told The Star on Wednesday that they have other issues with Sullivan as well, alleging that she has misgendered trans students and denied students’ experiences of racism.

“For her to say that diversity is white-shaming, I don’t think that’s the point at all. Because you’re in a POC school, you have whites, you have Blacks, you have Indians, Mexicans, people from all different cultures. And you also have people in the LGBTQ+ community,” Washington said. “So I think that maybe you need to learn about that. Because while you’re educating us, someone needs to educate you about what’s going on in the world now.”

Shawnee Mission spokesman David Smith said during the protest that the district is choosing not to comment, but instead “will let the students speak for themselves.”

Smith later said in an email that, “It would not be appropriate for me to attempt to directly respond to an article written by one of our teachers during their non-work time, particularly to correct things that are not accurate. If that person or any other individual is interested in filing a formal complaint concerning something they have experienced here in the district, our complaint process is available to them.

“It is self-evident that her perspective does not reflect the experience of the vast majority of our staff.”

Washington said she wants the district to acknowledge the students’ concerns.

“If I’m skipping class, it’s going to be for a good reason. For my younger siblings, they’re going to probably come (to North) and I don’t want them to be taught by her if that’s what she’s doing,” Washington said. “Especially being a Black student in her class and being in the LGBTQ+ community, I feel like she’s not respecting us. And we want to be heard.”

Some of the Johnson County residents who showed up to counterprotest in support of Sullivan said they heard about the students’ walkout from the local GOP and Debbie Detmer, a regular at county, city and school board meetings. Detmer made headlines when she lost a lawsuit against the city of Shawnee after she said she was denied entry into a city meeting because she wasn’t wearing a COVID-19 mask.

Detmer told The Star the group was showing up to “stand against the indoctrination of our children.”

“I’ve been waiting for one teacher to have the guts to stand up, and I’m praying for her daily. She’s in the belly of the beast,” Detmer said of Sullivan. “This is me saying, ‘I stand with you. And you’re not alone.’”

She said: “I don’t think that until they started teaching it, that anybody thought about the color of a person’s skin.”

Jan Bombeck, who said she is a former North school librarian, joined the students’ protest. She called Sullivan’s claims “ridiculous.”

“Part of being at a public school is hearing ideas that are diverse. Learning about history is not indoctrination,” she said.

Shawnee Mission North has roughly 1,500 students, with about 53% who are white, 9% Black, 30% Hispanic and 6% multiracial, according to the state education department.

“I’m sorry but I don’t feel like you can be anti-white here. We’re in the Shawnee Mission school district. We’re surrounded by all white people,” Jones said.

The senior said the debate makes her worried about going to school.

“It makes me afraid of what’s going to happen now that this has happened. This is my last year, but what’s going to happen for the minorities? We have to speak up.”