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MISHAWAKA, Ind. — Despite pushback from the community and two members of the board, the Penn Harris Madison School Board voted on Monday to go ahead with spending more than $31,000 for a professional development training for Penn High School teachers by a radical anti-Trump activist who promotes judging children based on skin color. The agenda item passed with a 5-2 vote. Only board members James Garrett and Matt Chaffee voted against the training by Kagan Publishing and Professional Development. Board President Chris Riley, Vice President Ryan McCullough, Secretary Clare Roach and Members Dana Sullivan and Larry Beehler all voted in favor.
“The creator of this program is Dr. Spencer Kagan. He wrote the program you’re about to pay for tonight.” One parent who voiced her opposition to the training stated. “I spent a great deal of research on this professional development and found Dr. Kagan prides this program on transforming race relations.”
The parent then presented quotes from Kagan in which he taught teachers to segregate their students based on race.
“I found this statement pretty troubling and even more so that PHM would pay to have someone tell our teachers to specifically group children according to race.” The parent continued. “Is it PHM’s position that students should be put in groups based on the melanin content of their skin rather than the content of their character?… His position left me with far more questions than answers. Is it also PHM’s position that skin color is the most important factor regarding engagement? I must have missed that part in the 2020 resolution to eradicate racism at PHM.”
“Why are we spending over $30,000 to bring in this left-wing liberal to taint the viewpoints of our students?” Board Member James Garret (who was himself a teacher in the PHM school district for 43 years) stated, echoing the parent’s concerns. “Why not have our teachers doing the professional development in our own schools?… I guarantee our teachers are a lot better than these so called professionals. Get that money, divide it amongst the teachers. Give them that money!”
“This guy obviously is a far left person, promoting Critical Race Theory ideas and such… let me say this, if this same person, you found out tonight, he was a white supremacist, or if he was a far-right ideologue… would you be so willing to have his people bring in his workshop into our school and work with our students? I don’t think so.” Garrett added.
Several board members, including Chris Riley, Clare Roach and Dana Sullivan derided Garret for his comments, claiming the retired educator of 43 years didn’t know what he was talking about and that he was unprofessional, before they all voted to approve the racist professional development training at the cost to taxpayers of more than $31,000.
The training will be provided by Kagan Publishing and Professional Development for “Cooperative Learning” workshops on June 11-13 and September 10-12.
Kagan Publishing and Professional Development is founded by a radical anti-conservative and anti-Trump activist by the name of Spencer Kagan. Kagan’s social media feeds are full of him railing against former President Donald Trump, calling him a racist and more. Kagan also went on a tirade against private schools and school choice programs, while his organization posts quotes from former First Lady and Democrat, Michelle Obama, and pushes communist Critical Theory ideology.
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