Virginia PTA Moves to Eliminate School’s Parent Group After Anti-Critical Race Theory Candidates Elected

Accuses anti-CRT members of making ‘hostile atmosphere’

Alex Nester • June 25, 2021 4:30 pm

The Parent Teacher Association of Virginia despatched a letter of intent to abolish the mum or dad group of the nation’s high highschool after a slate of candidates opposed to essential race concept gained an election earlier this month.

The letter, despatched to the Parent Teacher Student Association of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology on Wednesday, claims that the just lately elected candidates skirted bylaws and created a “hostile environment” for members. This is the most recent fallout between pro- and anti-critical race concept factions on the elite highschool, which made headlines final fall after district officers abolished its entrance examination in an try to enhance black and Hispanic enrollment.

The Virginia Parent Teacher Association would circumvent the outcomes of the referendum on Fairfax County Public Schools if it determined to transfer ahead with eliminating Thomas Jefferson’s mum or dad board. Candidates opposed to Thomas Jefferson’s latest fairness measures—such because the up to date admissions course of—gained a majority on the affiliation board.

Harry Jackson, who was voted president-elect in the newest election, referred to as the Virginia PTA’s transfer “dictatorial.”

“This is how they welcome this new diverse class, by taking away their support,” Jackson, who would be the first black man to function president-elect, advised the Washington Free Beacon. “This is the most diverse class in history, and Virginia PTA takes out their support structures. It’s dictatorial.”

Thomas Jefferson’s Parent Teacher Student Association president Bonnie Qin and a faction of pro-critical race concept mother and father lobbied to enable principal Ann Bonitatibus, who backed the varsity’s fairness push, to vote in mum or dad affiliation conferences—bucking precedent and giving a further vote to the pro-critical race concept coalition. Jackson and others fought towards that transfer, as principals of Thomas Jefferson High School have traditionally shunned voting in Parent Teacher Student Association choices. The Virginia PTA stated prohibiting Bonitatibus, an govt committee member, from voting, violates bylaws.

The Virginia PTA has remaining authority within the determination to revoke the Parent Teacher Student Association Charter. The timetable for doing so is unclear.

The Coalition for Thomas Jefferson, a mum or dad group that backed Jackson and different anti-critical race concept candidates, sued the Fairfax County School Board in March. The up to date admissions course of, the group stated, deliberately sought to decrease Asian-American enrollment at Thomas Jefferson. Demographic information for the incoming freshman class exhibits that the brand new admissions course of did simply that. The variety of Asian college students fell 16 % for the incoming class—and the variety of white college students within the class elevated by 43 %—on account of the change.

The similar actors who pushed for implementing essential race concept based mostly initiatives at Thomas Jefferson—together with Bonitatibus—additionally wished to remove the admissions take a look at, a collection of December emails between district officers revealed. In addition to Bonitatibus, who in a June e-mail requested mother and father to examine their “privileges,” Qin works for a legislation agency that represents TJ Alumni Action Group, which backed the elimination of the doorway examination in addition to different “equity” measures.

Jackson stated that transfer restricted the chance of many kids within the district “based on their ethnicity.”

“Lots of gifted Asian students did not get in because they had limited opportunity,” Jackson advised the Free Beacon. “I find it wrong to limit a child’s opportunity based on ethnicity.”

The letter is a transparent try to “hijack” mother and father’ energy on the nation’s high highschool throughout an ongoing debate over merit-based admissions, Asra Nomani, a mum or dad of a 2021 Thomas Jefferson graduate and vice chairman for Parents Defending Education, advised the Free Beacon. 

“The actions by the Virginia PTA are an aggressive abuse of power to control the mostly immigrant, mostly minority parents at America’s number one high school … and hijack the school, while it sits in the middle of a national debate over how we protect merit in America,” Nomani stated. “It’s a clarion call on how important it is for parents to stand up and be engaged in schools.”