by A.P. Dillon
- Durham Charter
- Enlists First-Graders for “Black Lives Matter” March
- School Pushes Social Justice Themes, Ferguson Protests and Teach For America
- Controversial Use of Taxpayer Funds
- School Director Tries to Push Parent into Retracting Criticism
Should six- and seven-year-old children be marching carrying protest signs and wearing “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts as part of a school-created event? Well, that’s what happened in Durham.
On March 17, a first-grade teacher at the Central Park School for Children in Durham held a “Black Lives Matter” march that included about two dozen children.
According to an article at The Daily Caller, children were signed up for the march and parents were not given an option of opting their child out of the event.
The Daily Caller article was written by Robert Mihaly. Mihaly has two children who attend the school. Mihaly took a close look at the teacher who organized the event, Stef Bernal-Martinez, and noted that Bernal-Martinez describes herself as a “Radical Queer Progressive Educator” and “white-passing Xicana.”
Allegedly, video of the children marching was posted online briefly but then was removed for the “safety” of the children. Bernal-Martinez even posted a photo of the children wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts to her Facebook page.
The school’s website bio for Bernal-Martinez says, “She is a young and new teacher who received her undergraduate degree in Political Science at The University of Texas at El Paso and her master’s degree in Early Childhood Education at Sarah Lawrence College.”
Bernal-Martinez is arguably putting that political science degree to work. According to the very liberal publication, IndyWeek, Bernal-Martinez said that “the kids came up with the idea.” Remember, the kids in her class are around six or seven years old.
In speaking with Mihaly about The Daily Caller article, he provided me with the text of several emails from John Heffernan, director of the school. In these emails, Heffernan threatens legal action if Mihaly does not have the article removed. Heffernan also told Mihaly that he has contacted the “lead attorney at UNC’s public school law division.”
In one email, Heffernan told Mihaly that his article was “violating the parent handbook” and perhaps his family’s “role in the school” should be examined:
“I have explained that [your] actions to submit and publish an article on the web is with school information, teacher names the way you have is causing hurtful, harassing, and hateful email to be sent to staff and board members. If you agree that this should continue then we need to discuss your family’s role in the school because it is violating our parent handbook. If you agree it should stop, then please remove the article from the Daily Caller.”
Mihaly said that he stands by what he wrote and will not be removing the piece unless the school promises there will be no future association with Black Lives Matter.
Mihaly also furnished me with the full article he submitted to The Daily Caller. The full article includes a number of footnotes. Read the full article here.
The article at the Daily Caller also notes that families with relatives or members who are police officers objected to the rally.
The Black Lives Matter movement nationwide has drawn considerable controversy given the violent riots in Ferguson, Missouri surrounding the fatal shooting of Michael Brown. The demonization of law enforcement overall has been a pervasive theme.
Those protests were, in fact, riots that included dozens of arrests, widespread looting, violent altercations and multiple incidents of arson. The movement gained more steam when national media outlets presented the “Hands up, don’t shoot”narrative, which was determined to be based on a lie.
I’ve noted the protests in the state of North Carolina, which also have taken place in Durham. In my research on these protests, it was clear that Teach for America had some hand in them. The Teach for America connection in Durham lined up with the organizers of the Missouri protests who were also affiliated with Teach for America.
National columnist Michelle Malkin picked up on my research and included it in her article at Townhall.com which chronicled the organizers in Ferguson as ‘paid agitators’:
“In Durham, North Carolina, two Teach for America officials led costly traffic blockades over the Ferguson, Missouri, shooting last December. North Carolina blogger A.P. Dillon identified protester Rachel Schankula as a TFA executive coach and program director dating back to 2001. Protester Robert Terrell Stephens, cited by police for attempting to incite a riot, is currently TFA’s director of alumni teacher leadership and also served as a community organizer for Obama for America.”
Teach for America itself is not hiding their social justice agenda. In an article at The Washington Post, a Teach for America teacher proudly proclaimed, “I am no longer a language arts and social studies teacher, but a self-proclaimed teacher of social justice.”
The organization has been highly criticized by knowledgeable experts, such as education historian Diane Ravitch. She criticized it for being politically oriented, for high turnover rates of their teachers, and for “sucking the air out of discussions on changing the profession.” Ironically, Ravitch gave this criticism in a 2011 Duke University speech. In 2015, Durham schools dropped their contract with Teach for America, citing a high turnover rate.
Teach for America is a 501(c)3 non-profit that has received millions of taxpayer dollars via the North Carolina General Assembly. Teach for America has also received funds from the state Department of Public Instruction via the federal Race To The Top grant. Perhaps it is time for the General Assembly to take a closer look at how this organization is spending the taxpayers’ money.
According to the Central Park School for Children website, the school is a public charter school that is a “child-centered, progressive charter school in Durham, North Carolina,” serving students in kindergarten through 8th grade.
Public charter schools are funded through public dollars. As such the schools deserve greater public scrutiny. The march at the school, based on a highly controversial movement, is plausibly an inappropriate use of taxpayer dollars. The infusion of social justice at the expense of time spent on actual academic subjects is never a good thing – especially for first graders ill-equipped to understand the themes of the march who should be focused instead on basics like reading and writing.
The Department of Public Instruction and the General Assembly have not been held accountable for any of these incidents nor – to my knowledge – have they even been questioned.
Until parents and taxpayers stand up and say, “Enough!” to incidents like this, they will continue to occur and possibly in greater frequency. Robert Mihaly was one parent who stood up. Where are the others?
When in doubt find something about education to hound.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/03/24/what-heidi-cruz-thinks-about-ted-cruzs-2016-run/
See the attached misuse of impressionable children!
George,
Is this the 7th or 8th article of mine you have decided leave a non sequitur comment on?
I like how the Independent is described as “very liberal” but The Daily Caller isn’t referred to as “very conservative.” No bias there at all. As far as I can tell you made no attempt to contact anyone directly involved in this story other than Mr. Mihaly, and you just took him at his word. Some of what he says is flat out untrue, all of it is spun.
Now thanks to Mr. Mihalys submission to a conservative online magazine, teachers at the school are receiving death threats. So his mock concern for the children’s safety has actually hurt their safety.
In the future, if you wish to do actual journalism, and report on my children’s school, or anything else for that matter, perhaps multiple sources might be in order.
Wow, just went with what Robert Mihaly’s wrote and said without any further fact checking, huh? Much of what he wrote about the event was at best a gross micharacterization. There were also many flat out lies. The kids were not involved in any dangerous march. This was in no way connected with any other march and the whole walk might have lasted 15 minutes tops. They walked around the block around the school. Parents sign permission slips allowing kids to go on all walking field trips, so kids were not taken around the block withot permission. Plenty of advance notice was given, through flyers of events occurring over the last 12 days before Intersession. Parents could have opted their kids out of the march. The mother of Mr. Mihaly’s kids proudly marched and their kids were excited to be a part of the event. Oh, and guess who else marched? Mr. Mihaly. Who else clapped when the kids sang a song afterward? My. Mihaly. Who else liked and positively commented on pics and video posted to a private Facebook group for parents (not sponsored by the school, BTW, but started by a parent)? Mr. Mihaly. Did he mention that one of his own family members paid for the shirts some kids wore? Did he also mention that the reason he was encouraged to take down the piece he posted is that commenters had threatened physical violence against staff members on some of the sites where it was posted or linked to? Mr. Mihaly alone put the kids and staff in the school in danger. Also, don’t believe racism is alive and well in NC and that there is no need for schools to help teach children to be inclusive of people of all races? Well, you have to look no further than Mr. Mihaly’s own piece for proof that this is not true. He is quick to reference the female teacher whose class was doing project work on the history of civil rights movements in the US (and note-history is still a subject under the purview of schools to teach) and to mention her RACE (Latina). At the same time, however, he NEVER even mentioned the WHITE MALE teacher whose class was also doing the same project based work. All in all, Mr. Mihaly’s inconsistent actions, misrepresentations and untruths make him an unreliable source for any article.
If I sound frustrated, trust me I am, along with most of the other parents in the school. It is okay to disagree with something being taught, but common sense says that putting your children’s school and staff out in the national limelight, and potentially in harms way from crackpots reading your “opinions”, is not a reasonable way to respond.
It’s interesting how the few parents that justify the BLM march just assume that Mr. Mihaly is lying and don’t actually know or in denial that (1) Most parents at the school were not aware of the event and therefore could not opt out. In fact, many teachers were not even aware of it. It was mentioned in a 12 day calendar of special events the school was holding that was sent out 2 weeks before and was written in very fine print. Even many teachers stated that they had not noticed it on the calendar. As one parent wrote in an email, it seemed a “purposeful omission” from the school newsletter by the director. Most teachers did not email their classes to let parents know they could opt in or out. Instead, they made the politically safe choice not to take their students. (2) Parents assumed that their kids are not going to be protesting when they signed the blanket walking fieldtrip form at the beginning of the year. Who would think that the school would allow the kids to protest in the name of any big controversial group? What’s next… Planned Parenthood? (3) Several parents who had safety concerns about the event, as putting the kids in BLM tshirts with signs made them and the school a target for anti-protestors, did meet with the school director prior to the event. The parents felt that with the numbers of school shootings, the school should never do anything that might even slightly make the kids and school a target. (4). Parents also expressed to the director in person and through emails that parents should have the right to opt in or out for their child, that the school was not allowing the parents to do that without being perceived as racists since BLM members believe “you are either for us or against us!” Parents sent emails to teachers stating that their kids were not to attend or would not be in school that day due to the event. (5). Mr. Mihaly wanted his son to be able to participate in his class project. He teaches his own children that skin color doesn’t matter and that all people have differences, strengths and weaknesses. That is what he means when he says he doesn’t see race (by the color of their skin). CPSC has always been an inclusive school where the kids are taught to value everyone, not to tease or bully, and that school is peaceful and safe place. The kids that attend school there do not refer to their black friends or their white friends, just their “friends”! In keeping with the school’s policy on “never excluding”, Mr. Mihaly was in complete support of an Anti-Racism March or an All Lives Matter March. He simply asked that the march and the school not be associated with the BLM “name”. He asked if the march could be called “All Lives Matter” or “All Kids Matter” instead and was told that it would be against school policy for him to show up with an All Lives Matter shirt or sign. Just because he attended the march does not mean he was in favor of it. The school gave him no other options. He was there to support his child who is in the class. (6). His wife generously donated money to cover the cost of a couple shirts for kids who otherwise would not have had shirts and would have felt left out and excluded I imagine. How quickly those who jump to conclusions and make assumptions that aren’t true label those who have different views as liers! Yet you accuse Mr. Mihaly of defamation. Maybe someone should ask Mr. Heffernan for the truth. He knows of all the controversy and division that this event created last week, days before the kids even marched. Yet, it still occurred under the BLM name. And now all the blame is on Mr. Mihaly, who was brave enough to speak up and empower his kids to pursue justice. Now, that’s activism!
There were no death threats for which I am responsible. There have been many articles on this matter. I only wrote one. The school would didn’t permit me to address fellow parents on the parents facebook page.
Leftists have a problem with free speech. Look at how many conservative and libertarian speakers at universities have been shouted down, and even bomb threated for attempting speaking engagements on campuses. Look how Trump campaign speeches are mobbed by anti-free-speechers wishing to silence him because he is marginally divergent from the establishment. True to form, the “progressive” leader of the school called my family first thing in the morning when we were trying to get away and relax at Great Wolf Lodge to demand, “take the article down, make a decision in ten minutes, or there will be legal action,” and “you are inciting violence.”
I merely shined light on the school’s nefarious schemings in a single article I wrote. Does anyone blame the videographer of the Rodney King beating for the subsequent 2,000 injured people, 50 deaths, and billion+ dollars in property damage? Whatever your opinion of the culpability in the 1992 Rodney King riots, the perpetrator is not the camera-person who merely shined a light on an initial event in the matter. But, as has been demonstrated, leftists abhor free speech.
It is not I that brought the “Black Lives Matter March and Rally” (the school’s description) into the national news. The school’s lead organizer of the march, Stef Bernal-Martinez arrayed 6-year-old children in her class in a video she posted on Youtube.com to invite a leading Black Lives Matter activist to the school. The out-of-state Black Lives Matter activist invited by Ms. Bernal-Martinez was out on bail for charges related to BLM activism at the time she was invited. In the video, the children were organized by Ms. Bernal-Martinez to plea with the BLM activist to “Attend our march.”
Ms. Bernal-Martinez has since taken the video down because outraged parents didn’t appreciate their children being used in this manner on a public website with 1.3 billion active users. Yes, parents concerned for the safety of their children don’t exactly appreciate exploitative videos being made of their children and posted on public forums without their consent. It’s not my literary skills that angered people, but rather an progressive cult that seeks to use unwilling parents’ children as pawns in their divisive activism. We can only be grateful that Ms. Bernal and the school’s administration was not competent at making the march as large and eventful as they attempted.
At least four families of which I am aware are actively seeking to flee the school before an unbalanced parent, teacher, or the school’s director implement his threats against them. Pray for them. One member of the Central Park School For Children (coincidentally another self-described “white-passing latina”) posted a facebook message threatening me (in a conversation thread to which I was not a party) to “DON’T WRITE CHECKS WITH YOUR MOUTH YOUR ASS CAN’T CASH.”
Keep in mind the rather obvious point that my opposition in the first place was that I don’t think children should be enrolled in a publicly-advertised, public political march against their parents will, particularly when the political organization is one which has encouraged and inspired violence all over the country. Got that? Suggest, “hey teacher! don’t enroll a bunch of 6-year-olds in violent movement” and their “Equity Committee” “team member” threatens your “ASS.” I know. Classy.
How funny is it that “Patty,” above, writes “he NEVER even mentioned the WHITE MALE teacher whose class was also doing the same project.” I think there were probably 6-7 teachers participating, I mentioned my own child’s teacher who posted the video, etc. This is the same teacher who last month confirmed in writing that a particular, official school “club is closed to White students.” She capitalized the word “White” in the similar manner that “Patty” above capitalized “WHITE MALE.” What does one make of this? But it’s how the cult of divisiveness and (re)segregation operates.
Welcome to public skool.
Everything that was written by Mr. Mihaly was footnoted in his original article.
Those links were verified. I reached out to him because he had written the article calling attention to the event in the first place.
The outrage directed at Mihaly for being upset and speaking out about what was clearly a controversial, political style event being held by a tax payer funded elementary school involving young kids is misdirected.
So is the outrage that I would interview the one parent who had the nerve to stand up and say something.
Where is the outrage at the school? At the teacher?
If anyone put anyone in ‘danger’, it was the school allowing this teacher to run amok with an inappropriate activity.