Amid a national parent movement of concern for school curricula, San Antonio teachers in Northside ISD segregated a group of fifth-graders—10 and 11-year-olds—by the color of their hair as part of a lesson on the inequity of segregation.
At Leon Springs Elementary School, parents say that teachers informed the dark-haired children of their status as privileged and the fair-haired children of their status as oppressed. Both groups of children were given games to play, with the fair-haired children’s game missing pieces, making it nonfunctional. Allegedly, the fair-haired children were then told that they were “not as intelligent” as the dark-haired students.
Afterward, the fair-haired children were told to clean up after themselves and their dark-haired peers.
According to parents Mike and Brandi Lininger, who spoke with News 4 San Antonio, their daughter was “confused and hurt” by the experiment.
However, the lesson didn’t end there. According to parents, the fifth-graders were also shown the documentary “4 Little Girls,” which chronicles the Ku Klux Klan’s murder of four black girls in the bombing of an Alabama church. The fifth-graders were then shown graphic autopsy photos of the four little girls: Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, and Carole Robertson.
Northside ISD informed local news that the activity and video would not be used again as they “are not age-appropriate.”
Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, chronicled the story on Twitter and recently wrote on the return of segregation. Rufo said, “The most common justification for the new segregation is that racial minorities suffer disparities that must be rectified through ‘positive’ discrimination, which is presented as a solution for America’s historical racism. In practice, however, these policies often descend into illogic, cruelty, and malice.”
This experimentation in San Antonio classrooms is occurring despite the state Legislature passing what some lawmakers called the “strongest” anti-CRT bills in the country last year, which purported to ban teachers from using materials based on critical race theory.
However, “state bans are being ignored,” says Education Policy Analyst Carol Hornsby Haynes. “Emboldened teachers are declaring their First Amendment right to teach whatever they want without parents’ knowledge. Some states have penalties for violations of their bans, while others, like Texas, have no enforcement mechanism. The Texas ban includes only social studies classes.”
Apparently, the bills are not enough to halt the onslaught of indoctrination, as 91 percent of Republicans voted in agreement with Ballot Proposition 4 earlier this month, which states, “Texas schools should teach students basic knowledge and American exceptionalism and reject Critical Race Theory and other curricula that promote Marxist doctrine and encourage division based on creed, race, or economic status.”
Brandi Lininger says her daughter was hurt and her daughter’s friends were crying after their lesson on segregation. Seeing the depravity of humanity often leaves even a grown adult shaken, which can lead one to wonder what logic there is in purposely exposing children to it in the most horrific manner—by making them take part.
