Albemarle County Public School Board:
On Sep 20, 2022, Alliance Defending Freedom <info@adflegal.org> wrote:
She Was Harassed After Speaking Up Against CRT Indoctrination...
Hi Bernard,
It’s basic: The government cannot force teachers and administrators to endorse ideologies that violate their beliefs. And it cannot harass them based on their race.
But that’s exactly what happened to Emily Mais.
For as long as she could remember, Emily wanted to serve children in public schools. After years of teaching, in 2018 she began working as assistant principal of a local elementary school in Charlottesville, Virginia. She loved her job dearly.
Emily’s school district in Albemarle County, Virginia, introduced a controversial policy and mandatory teacher training based on critical race theory (CRT).
She witnessed firsthand how the training instructed teachers to be racist. It taught them to view each other and their students solely through the lens of race. And she couldn’t believe it.
During one training session, a group discussed the school district’s hiring practices.
Emily made a comment on the topic, intending to use the phrase “people of color.” But, she accidentally said “colored” instead. She immediately apologized—profusely and repeatedly—but one staff member wouldn’t accept her apology and proceeded to berate her in front of the entire group.
After this, hostility rained down on Emily for months. Eventually, she felt she had no choice but to resign.
Emily turned to Alliance Defending Freedom for legal help. We have filed a lawsuit on her behalf against the Albemarle County School Board. Teachers and administrators should be free to advocate for the good of their students—without enduring radical harassment.
If we ignore what happened to Emily and that type of abuse continues in schools, what kind of public education system will be left? Who, other than the most committed activists, will want to teach? What will happen to our nation’s children?
Will you give the best gift you can right now to help defend people like Emily?
Thanks to a special $500,000 matching grant, your first gift to ADF will be matched—dollar for dollar—and make twice the impact!
THEY SILENCED AND SHAMED EMILY FOR SPEAKING UP
Again and again, Emily was branded as a racist. No apology satisfied. Other employees openly cursed about her at work. Her pleas for help to her superiors fell on deaf ears.
Some of Emily’s coworkers came to her in tears about what was happening. But they dared not support her in public. They feared what might happen to themselves.
Before she left her position, administrators orchestrated a final meeting where she was instructed to apologize once again for what she said. But it wasn’t about repentance. It was to further shame Emily for her slip of the tongue.
The message was clear: Question the CRT-based training program at your own peril.
Bernard, our team has heard from many concerned teachers who are being told that they must teach impressionable young students that gender is fluid and “gender transition” is a healthy path to emotional peace. That God’s design for humans as male and female is a lie. That their skin color is the most important thing about them.
This is harmful—and just plain wrong.
And it isn’t just happening in big-city schools. It’s not just in certain states. It’s all over the nation (perhaps even in your local school district). It’s a problem that should concern us all.
Teachers don’t surrender their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate. Parents don’t give up their rights when they send their children to school.
Kids deserve a proper education, free from ideological indoctrination in harmful gender and race propaganda. Teachers deserve to be able to tell students the truth, not train them to be activists. And parents deserve to be the primary decision makers in kids’ lives, not the government.
Don’t you agree?
Will you help stop government-imposed indoctrination by standing with teachers and administrators like Emily?
For freedom,
Kristen Waggoner