The viciousness of CRT supporters in response to parents' concern

 William Jacobson:

The aggressiveness with which the South Kingstown (Rhode Island) School Committee went after local mom Nicole Solas, for filing a series of public records requests regarding Critical Race and Gender activities in the school system, has never made sense. We now have a partial answer – the smear of Nicole in public statements by the School Committee Chair was drafted by a Public Relations firm.

The story broke nationally when Nicole wrote about a school board threat to sue her in a post at Legal Insurrection, I’m A Mom Seeking Records Of Critical Race and Gender Curriculum, Now The School Committee May Sue To Stop Me.

Our additional posts covered the developing story, which has received widespread national attention:

• South Kingstown (RI) School Committee Votes NOT To Sue Mom Nicole Solas Who Sought CRT Records
• South Kingstown Mom Nicole Solas: “They smear people who ask them questions, who disagree with them”

As the School Committee members openly discussed at the meeting on June 2, 2021, there never was an attempt to resolve the issue or work with Nicole prior to item being placed on the School Committee public agenda to discuss suing Nicole. The excuse that the district faced potentially millions of dollars of fines if they missed a deadline to respond to the public records requests was nonsense. As someone who has filed many public records requests over my career, there almost always is a negotiation and accommodation where the agency cannot comply because of personnel or other limitations.

From the get-go I felt something else was going on here. That Nicole was being singled out and made an example of for some other reason.

My suspicions were further heightened when, in response to Nicole going public with the lawsuit threat, School Committee Chair Emily Cummiskey issued very vicious attacks on Nicole on Facebook, to the local media, and then at the June 2, 2021, public forum, accusing Nicole of being associated with a national racist group, which Cummiskey identified at the public meeting as Parents Defending Education (PDE). The accusation that PDE is “racist” is outrageously false, as I’ve previously explained, and there is no evidence that PDE was behind Nicole’s requests.

The accusation that Nicole was working with a national “racist” organization has circulated even in mainstream local media without pushback from reporters.

The “racist” accusation was the focus of Nicole’s appearance on Tucker Carlson:

Why was PDE dragged into it not only by Cummiskey, but also by the lobbyist for the Rhode Island School Superintendents Association (RISSA) in a statement to the Providence Journal? That narrative is being pushed in local media, where there is fearmongering about other districts being subjected to extensive public records requests.

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There is much more. 

A PR firm was apparently behind the attack on Nicole and accusing PDE of being racist.  I find it curious that a PR firm was hired to deal with a records request instead of dealing in good faith with the request.  There is something about the True Believers in CRT that leads to emotional responses to being questioned about what looks to others as the overt racism of the teaching.  Nicole is not the only parent to face these vicious attacks.  The people in the schools pushing CRT act like they have something to hide.