EXCLUSIVE — A high school in Fairfax County
, Virginia
, is teaching students that they harbor inherent biases based on their religious or ethnic background under the guise of social-emotional learning, according to documents obtained by the Washington Examiner.
“Respect, Ownership, Achievement, and Relationships” is part of the social-emotional learning curriculum at Centreville High School and asks students to consider how their racial or religious backgrounds lead them to approve or disapprove of certain behaviors.
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“As we strive to create more welcoming and inclusive environments where all students, staff, and community members feel comfortable, it’s important to practice respectful communication strategies with others who may have different beliefs, cultures, or perspectives,” one of the program’s slides says. “Identifying and understanding our own implicit and explicit biases is very important and something to be mindful of in conversations.”
Students are asked to consider how their “religious, spiritual, and moral beliefs” inform what they “interpret as good and bad behaviors” and how a student’s “ethnic or racial group” has influenced their “understanding of how people should interact with each other.”
The slides for the curriculum include an excerpt from a video produced by the University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business that describes implicit bias and how to identify it.
Another slide says: “When people are acting out of their implicit bias, they are not even aware that their actions are biased. In fact, their biases may be in direct conflict with a person’s explicit beliefs and values.”
The concept of implicit bias has been linked to critical race theory, an academic theory that says the institutions and culture of the United States are systemically racist. Parent activists have also derided social-emotional learning as a sort of Trojan horse for the theory.
Centreville High School teacher Julie Perry told the Washington Examiner that she was told to present the “ROAR” materials during a general study or homeroom session in which students would have otherwise been working on their general class assignments. The program is geared toward high school students in all four grades.
Perry said she just skipped over the lessons and had the students do their assignments as they would during any normal homeroom session.
“What it’s doing is it’s telling one group of students, ‘You need to check your privilege,’ and another group of students, ‘You’re a victim,’ and neither is good for anybody,” Perry said. “It ends up lowering expectations for them, and same with students that are taught to have the victim mindset.”
The Centreville High School teacher, who said she is running for a seat in the state Senate in 2023, told the Washington Examiner that most students do not enjoy the lessons and often complain that they are boring. She encouraged other teachers to speak out against divisive programs in public schools.
“I hope and pray that more teachers will have the courage to speak out,” she said, noting that many teachers are afraid of retaliation if they speak publicly against their school district.
On its website, Centreville High School says that the ROAR program is part of its efforts to promote “positive behavior” among students.
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“We crafted school-wide behavior expectations for students and staff to ensure we have an environment where all students are welcomed, supported, and respected,” the website says. “This includes developing shared language and incorporating evidence-based practices and procedures to establish a school climate in which appropriate behavior is the norm.”
Fairfax County Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment.
