‘Educate, Not Indoctrinate’: Anti-Racism Push In Coronado Schools Fuels Backlash

Speaker 1: 00:00 The black lives matter movement has generated debate and awareness regarding racial prejudice and calls for reform in communities across America. That includes the overwhelmingly white city of Cornetta where a petition to encourage schools there to imbue curricula with minority perspectives garnered 4,500 signatures. But that movement for change has sparked a backlash, a counter petition. It labels black lives matter, a quote, highly political Marxists organization with views that are rightfully alarming to anyone who believes in family, the constitution and civil society report are actually McGlone of voice of San Diego, wrote about the controversy and joins me now. Welcome to the program. Thank you, Mark. Well, your story notes that the school population in Cornado is just 1.4% black. Explain what incidents besides general protests over the killing by Minneapolis police of George Floyd prompted the original petition calling for changes in what kids are taught in Cornado schools. Speaker 2: 00:58 Yeah, so a number of students of color both past and present had expressed a desire for more equitable punishment and discipline of students that, you know, launch racial slurs or taunts, they described some issues with, you know, experiencing and hearing the N word and having students, you know, repeatedly call them that and then not get in trouble for it. So they really wanted to see that address more equitably. Um, they also a number of students discussed problems, the annual colonial day, uh, which did not in their view, you know, acknowledge the slave trade going on at the time and often, you know, even provoke some of their peers to make comments about slavery, um, you know, sort of aimed at them. Um, then there's also just, you know, even in the lower grades, you know, uh, racial aggressions that they experienced, um, and they would like to see the school district more proactively teach, um, as well, you know, uh, issues of race and read books from, um, you know, authors that are African American and read, you know, learn about history from that point of view and not just Speaker 1: 01:56 Now, what was the reaction to the change petition from Cornado superintendent, Carl Mueller. Speaker 2: 02:02 He was actually very receptive. He came out and said, you know, I'm impressed that our local community is having a voice and, and weighing in on this. And you know, this is not a political issue. Racial justice is not a political issue. It's an American issue. This is a human rights issue. Um, and he did specifically say, you know, I believe strongly that the black lives matter issue is one that our community has embraced. Um, he said that in a video statement and in a written statement, and then even just outright said, you know, yes, you know, black lives matter, but those words, uh, turned out to be very triggering for some members of the community who, who then took so great issue with any notion that there would be these sort of changes coming, uh, with any kind of affiliation or Alliance with the black lives matter, Speaker 1: 02:44 Right? That's the backlash that you're writing about and tell us about the counter partition that emerged in late July, who's behind it. How many signed it? What are the arguments they're making Speaker 2: 02:53 At this point? It's got about 264 signatures. Basically they, they caught wind of both the initial petition, as well as the superintendent's support of making some kind of change. Although the district never put in, you know, from plans to dramatically overhaul anything, but they were open to it and they were listening to the calls for change. And so they saw that definitely had a problem with it said, Hey, wait, wait, wait, you cannot come in here and make these radical changes to our curriculum with any affiliation with black lives matter. You know, we believe it's a Marxist organization. We have problems with their mission. You need to put a stop to any and all changes that want to be made this school year. We need to have a debate about this. We need to have a committee about this. You need to take community input. Speaker 2: 03:37 I'm fine. If we need to make some changes that are race related, fine, but you know, you need to denounce black lives matter. And back away from this plan of action basically is what they've said. And so they did create this petition a number of them. Do you have connections to Graham Memorial Presbyterian church? The pastor, you know, signed onto this counter petition a number of deacons and elders, the children's director, the bookkeeper, the pastor Miguel wrath told me, you know, it's not a church led petition by any means, but certainly, you know, members of the community became aware and had concerns and they all, they all feel similarly. So they threw their support behind this counter petition to try to get Coronado, to stop making these sorts of changes that were being asked, um, you know, to, to stop making progress on making changes, especially for this coming school year. Uh, so that's, that's sort of what we found with the counter petition. There, Speaker 1: 04:29 No changes really specifically have been made regarding racism and tolerance and curriculums so far, right? Speaker 2: 04:35 The school board in their latest meeting, they did put some more specific language in their action guide, you know, outright barring, you know, sort of race-related discriminatory language as well as religious based and other, um, and gender-based, you know, sort of discrimination. So they did take that step too, to a point. Um, they are working on a new equity policy, uh, the draft of which was by the California school boards association. And, you know, it was more aimed at like, um, you know, closing the achievement gap and the differences in education between different racial groups. That's not really at the heart of the movement. Um, you know, that initially arose in the wake of the George Floyd, um, killing. And so, uh, we'll see what happens. They're going to have a committee convene, uh, to both address that equity policy, maybe rewrite it a little bit before they adopt it. Speaker 2: 05:24 And then they're launching a longer term, you know, sort of two year committee process with various stakeholders who haven't been selected yet that we'll look at maybe making changes to, you know, district hiring practices, um, whether there does need to be new curriculum introduced across the board to address some of these issues and things of that nature. So as far as that longterm timeline, the counter petitioners are sort of getting what they wanted in that, you know, nothing immediate more of this, you know, a couple of years out, maybe we'll see some more come to Cornado, but in the short form, Coronado did make a couple of immediate changes. At least a couple that were asked for Speaker 1: 05:58 Now, does this controversy figure to cause changes on the school board, um, in terms of election. Speaker 2: 06:04 So three, three people who ended up pulling papers to run for school board, um, we're also, uh, you know, had signed on to the counter petition against, you know, the racial justice, um, movement that was happening. And so one of those individuals has since decided not to run, there's only two, two seats open. Um, and so he said, you know, I understand there's two others that basically share my point of view. I don't want to split the vote. I didn't really want to run anyway, but yes, you know, this was my motivation for running. We needed to stop this sort of political indoctrination of our schools. Um, and so that, that was very much his motivation. And again, there are a couple others and they all do have ties to the Graham Memorial Presbyterian church either. You know, they play in the band or they serve coffee or, um, you know, have been attendees for a while. Or I think in the one individual's case, he was a deacon, uh, who, who he's no longer running for school board, but very much believes that the other two will sort of hold that mantle and hold the line when it comes to Coronado, wanting to make these changes, um, and, and help them to not do so so quickly or with any affiliation with black lives matter, which again is, is the heart of a lot of their, Speaker 1: 07:09 I've been speaking with voice of San Diego reporter, Ashley McGlone. Thanks very much. Speaker 2: 07:13 Thank you.