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FRANKLIN, Tennessee (LifeSiteNews) – A Tennessee school board faces a lawsuit from a parental rights group alleging that the district’s curriculum teaches critical race theory (CRT).
Parents Choice Tennessee filed a lawsuit Friday against Williamson County Board of Education, Tennessee Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn, and officials from the Williamson County School District. Plaintiffs also include Patricia Lucente and her husband James Lucente. The lawsuit holds that they have a child enrolled in the district.
According to the lawsuit, the “Wit and Wisdom” curriculum used by the district for K-5 classes teaches CRT in violation of state law, and that the curriculum uses age-inappropriate materials and causes children to feel guilt and anguish.
“Critical Race Theory is an inherently divisive, debilitating and racist teaching practice that instructs students to only view life through the lens of race and presumes that some students are consciously or unconsciously racist, sexist, or oppressive, and that other students are their victims. Like all forms of political indoctrination, it has no place in Williamson County school classrooms,” the lawsuit holds.
Speaking in a press release, Patricia Lucente said, “The curriculum was adopted through a process in violation of state law, and over the objections of several parents and educators who raised serious concerns about the graphic, racist, and age-inappropriate nature of much of its content.”
“Wit & Wisdom uses Social Emotional Learning to masquerade as a sort of ‘feel good’ approach that steers young elementary-age children to horrific discussions of the savagery of slavery, war, misery, sexual aggression and death,” Lucente continued.
“Not only has Williamson County failed to protect our children from this harmful material, they have also failed to protect our teachers by instructing them to teach this questionable and destructive material with fidelity or else.”
“The claims presented in this lawsuit raise serious constitutional concerns regarding the parental liberty rights of parents to direct and control the education and upbringing of their children,” said Larry Crain, attorney for the plaintiffs. “The school system has turned a deaf ear to these concerns, and this is what has prompted this action.”
“Wit and Wisdom” was adopted by the district in 2020. The following year, Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee banned the teaching of CRT in schools. A complaint filed later that year by Moms for Liberty, a parental rights group, alleged that the curriculum utilized CRT, something that Williamson County Schools and the Great Minds, the company that provides materials for the curriculum, deny. The Tennessee Department of Education threw out the complaint claiming that the material covered by the complaint was taught before the ban on CRT went into effect.
CRT has been targeted by Republican governors and politicians in the past. In January, incoming Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin banned CRT in Virginia schools the day of his inauguration. Last month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis banned CRT in Florida schools. The ban is currently facing a legal challenge. Last week, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced that he was investigating Tulsa Public Schools for allegedly teaching CRT in violation of Oklahoma