Critics press race theory allegations at School Board meeting; supt. pushes back

LACONIA — The Laconia School Board continues to be buffeted with accusations from a group of residents who allege students are being taught critical race theory, a charge which the School District steadfastly denies.

Two people made the assertion during the public comment session of Tuesday’s board meeting.

Resident Jim Thompson said a seminar for School District staff in January was, to him, an indication that the controversial theory was being taught.

“That session presented messages and ideas which in the public view are critical examples of critical race theory,” Thompson said. “The terminology of diversity, equity, and inclusion are your words,” he continued. “But what is in those slides (presented at the seminar) are clearly unacceptable to us,” he said referring to what he called his “small circle of friends” who have the same concerns.

About 20 members of the public attended the meeting held in the Laconia High School auditorium.

Superintendent Steve Tucker, during his report to the board, broached the issue of anti-discrimination awareness and education in the district.

Referring to the Right to Freedom from Discrimination law contained in a rider to the recently-passed state budget, Tucker said that guidance from the state Attorney General’s Office “to teach that a certain group of people are inherently superior or inferior to another group of people is against the law. We’re not doing that,” he declared, “and so I don’t see anything at issue with that.”

He noted that parents can exempt their child from participation in specific course material under a pre-existing state law that allows students to be given an alternative assignment to material their parents find objectionable.

”If there’s something a parent is not comfortable with, we … can provide an alternative assignment. That’s nothing new. That’s been happening for years,” he said.

In response to a question from board member Aaron Hayward, Tucker said that under the guidance, offering training to school staff on the topic of implicit bias is not prohibited.

The superintendent said the guidance also explicitly says that school can continue to teach about the role that race and racial discrimination have historically played.

“I think that is an important lens and important experience for kids to have about their identity and the nation’s identity,” Tucker said.

Thompson has raised the CRT issue at prior School Board meetings over the past two months, as has Doug Teegarden, another resident.

On Tuesday Teegarden accused the board and Tucker of not coming clean on the issue.

“You’re playing hide and seek,” he said. “Well, I will continue to play.”

Teegarden said he is concerned about the content of teacher education on diversity and inclusion, particularly one slide in the January training session that prompts discussion of “white privilege.”

“To kids who are not white, what kind of message does that send? That non-white kids are not privileged, they’re deficient in some way? All kids are precious,” Teegarden said.

He believes the teacher training echoes Critical Race Theory.

“It’s a Marxist doctrine. You chip people into little groups then pit them against each other. It’s what Mao did in China, dividing people into oppressed and oppressor, subservient and elite,” he said.

The School District’s Diversity and Inclusion Task Force was created in February 2020 in an effort to ensure all kids are treated respectfully, within the bounds of the law, Tucker explained.

“It’s not the intent to teach that white kids are privileged,” Tucker said. “The intent (in teacher training) was to help someone see what the world is like through a black child’s eyes. We talked about what it’s like to be a person who has certain experiences, who shape who they are.”

“We’re not teaching CRT,” Tucker told Teegarden after the School Board meeting adjourned. “I don’t feel any answer I give you is going to be sufficient.”