We’ve written a bit about schools and school districts in San Francisco, New York City, and Loudon County, Virginia, and the fights between parents and school boards that want to push a woke agenda. In San Francisco, they eliminated the selective admissions process at Lowell High School and replaced it with a lottery-based system; a school board member argued that admissions based on merit were “the antithesis of just.” This same school board member had tweeted that Asian American students used “white supremacist thinking” to assimilate and get ahead.
And as part of its “equity-focused plan,” the Virginia Department of Education decided to do away with all advanced math classes below 11th grade due to unequal representation of minority races.
There’s a great piece in the Washington Free Beacon Tuesday about New York City’s Department of Education chipping away at accelerated academic programs in the name of equity. While parents are outraged, a group of student activists calling themselves “Teens Take Charge” — “a student-led movement for educational equity in New York City” — are taking on the adults and crying foul when the adults push back — they’re just kids, after all.
In New York City, adult activists are siccing students on parents who oppose the NYC Education Department's woke agenda. If the targeted parents push back, they are accused of attacking kids.
"It’s like what Hamas does with human shields," one parent said.https://t.co/toTrwV45uV
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
The rally was proceeding without a hitch—until a group of student activists shoved their way into the middle of it, blocking speakers and unfurling a large banner that read “Unscreen Our Schools.” The 16- to 17-year-old activists belonged to a group called Teens Take Charge, which argues selective public schools are a form of modern-day “segregation.” Amid the ensuing tumult, one parent pushed the banner aside, while others threatened to call the police.
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At the adults’ direction, members of Teens Take Charge launch smear campaigns against supporters of merit-based admissions, branding them as “racists” and “segregationists.” If the targeted parents push back, they are accused of attacking kids—making it difficult to avoid reputational ruin.
The students are part of a group called Teens Take Charge, which argues selective public schools are a form of modern-day "segregation." The NYC Department of Education agrees; for over two years, it's been arguing that accelerated academics and standardized tests are racist. pic.twitter.com/X1uB8plIR0
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
The majority of parents—especially low-income Asian parents—see the tests as engines of upward mobility and oppose efforts to eliminate them. But the education department has a potent cudgel against that opposition: the high school students of @TeensTakeCharge. pic.twitter.com/xhLUYrDm8N
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
Members of Teens Take Charge launch smear campaigns against supporters of merit-based admissions, branding them as "racists" and "segregationists." If the targeted parents push back, Teens Take Charge claims its students have been attacked—or even physically assaulted. pic.twitter.com/QGzZzYzqp9
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
The result has been a feeling of powerlessness among parents and administrators, who fear that going against the youth group could jeopardize their careers. "You can’t debate children," Deborah Alexander, a Queens parent-leader, told the Washington Free Beacon. pic.twitter.com/fN3OrCrMFP
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
It isn’t children who are setting the agenda, though; it’s adults plugged into the DOE. Teens Take Charge is run by an organization whose cofounder, @taylor_mcgraw, is part of a working group with the department. TTC's program manager, Tajh Sutton, is similarly well-connected. pic.twitter.com/OdG8dHQ9F3
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
At these adults' behest, Teens Take Charge uses a variety of tactics to terrorize the DOE's political enemies. And whenever the DOE gets wind of what's going on, it invariably takes the students' side. Let's go through some examples: pic.twitter.com/04Q9xhUGKl
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
FALSE ALLEGATIONS: A Teens Take Charge student falsely accused an NYC mom of doxxing him, after she had tweeted an article in which the student was quoted. The student's age was then used as an excuse to bury records of the ensuing struggle session. pic.twitter.com/wT5ufdTzlF
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
THREATS/SERIAL HARASSMENT: After Maud Maron, an education council member, criticized the DOE's "simplistic narrative" of "white privilege," Teens Take Charge students demanded she apologize. "If you do not," they went on, "we will start a petition calling for your resignation." pic.twitter.com/OwYGQ5GZfp
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
When Maron refused to apologize, Teens Take Charge made good on the threat. Since then, Maron says, members of Teens Take Charge have shown up to almost every public meeting and event she’s spoken at, asking pointed questions about why she supports "segregation." pic.twitter.com/IIqkaY6pUr
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
The message was clear, Maron told the Free Beacon: "If you dare to speak up, we’ll do to you what we did to Maud."
(Maron is also the co-founder of @placenyc_org, a group that supports accelerated academics in NYC public schools.) pic.twitter.com/Wef4HXLC6H
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
BAITING: Sometimes Teens Take Charge lodges an allegation so absurd it baits parents into responding to their teenage tormentors. Remember the white parent who get yelled at last summer for holding a black baby on his lap? TTC took to Twitter to call him a racist. pic.twitter.com/xKNN0QtoL8
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
After he got into a heated back-and-forth with the students, Teens Take Charge accused him of "stalking" kids. And Adrienne Austin, the Education Department’s deputy schools chancellor, emailed him to say, "We do not attack children." pic.twitter.com/TDvGWdzkkh
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
The friendly interplay between Teens Take Charge and the DOE has made some parents wonder if the groups are coordinating. The DOE has encouraged groups opposed to competitive public school admissions to "get louder," and sponsored and promoted rallies hosted by Teens Take Charge. pic.twitter.com/jgTX3FhEXi
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
The DOE has also given Teens Take Charge preferential access to admissions data, which are cherry-picked to support its anti-test narrative. The data make it seem like the rigorous high school admissions test is biased toward the privileged. But the reality is just the opposite. pic.twitter.com/BWIrudYEPy
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
Not only do Asian Americans, who score best on the test, have the highest poverty rate in New York City; the students trying to eliminate the test are often the rich white kids who couldn’t ace it. Some of them even admit to using their privilege to game the system. pic.twitter.com/ZOBQMmAuPX
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
That would explain why students at Stuyvesant, which only uses the test to screen applicants, score hundreds of points higher on their SAT than students at Beacon, which also factors in intangibles like essays and interviews. Not coincidentally, a lot of TTC kids attend Beacon. pic.twitter.com/Lqxk3MLwPb
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
In other words, privileged activists are trying to eliminate competition from the working-class Asians who are outscoring them. But some Asian families are now fighting back—even as Teens Take Charge goes after them with everything it's got. pic.twitter.com/4KwL2HQjMw
— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) May 25, 2021
The last 12 months in America have been the best thing to happen to private education in my lifetime. It's almost as if it's being guided by a benevolent hand.
— Mr. Jeremy Fischer (@EvelenVVaugh) May 25, 2021
Kind of sucks that this garbage only affects those without the financial means to extricate themselves though.
— Mr. Jeremy Fischer (@EvelenVVaugh) May 25, 2021
That's a commie strategy….turning kids against the adults.
— Mingzhao Xu (@mxu111) May 25, 2021
Stage 2 of the cultural revolution.
Eventually you get people so brainwashed they murder family and friends.
Source: Cultural revolution in China.
— Latin 🔨 Stockbreaker 🔨 Lynz (@Clown0Frog) May 25, 2021
Teaching children to be useful revolutionaries is the precise purpose of this type of "education". The architects of the movement, like Henry Giroux, are quite open about the aim.
— tjbreak (@tjbreak2) May 25, 2021
Maybe, just maybe, kids don't always know what's best for them
— Reformed Jack Ma (@TheNewJackMa) May 25, 2021
“It’s like what Hamas does with human shields,” one parent born in China said. “Immigrants recognize in Teens Take Charge the Soviet Youth and the Chinese Red Guard.”
Is it any wonder the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York issued a blistering letter blasting critical race theory and antiracism programs in schools?
Related:
School board VP who says Asian American students use ‘white supremacist thinking’ to get ahead suing school district, city, and maybe 50 other people for ‘spiritual damage to her soul’ https://t.co/YMIjeqsqNE
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) April 1, 2021
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