A California school district meeting broke into chaos as a Black man criticized banning Critical Race Theory (CRT), and a woman reportedly told him to “get out of the country,” prompting an angry response from the audience.
The man, called “Deon,” criticized the board’s hiring of an anti-CRT consultant. A live stream of the proceedings showed him calling Temecula Valley Unified School District’s (TVUSD) approach to CRT “asinine.”
According to The Press-Enterprise, the board voted to ban CRT in December 2022. It also approved spending $15,000 in taxpayer money for sessions with an anti-CRT consultant Christopher Arend.
Deon claimed that CRT “isn’t even taught in any K-through-12 classroom in the United States of America.” However, In 2021, The College Fix reported that CRT is taught in K-12 schools, citing an elementary school in Philadelphia that forced its students to celebrate “Black communism” and act out a Black Power rally honoring political activist Angela Davis.
“It is disappointing to see people with a problem with history being taught,” Deon continued. “It is widely recognized by the vast majority of experts that bringing CRT into the K to 12 classrooms is just as outlandish as bringing calculus to the first-grade classroom. Neither idea is viable or credible.”
“Your continued, blatant, willful ignorance of the Black experience in this country is not only shameful but also detrimental to the education and growth of our children,” he concluded as the audience applauded.
UPDATE: Temecula Valley Unified School District held their CRT event tonight. After a black community member made a public comment, he was told by a white woman to leave the country if he didn’t like it.
Chaos erupted when a Trustee tried removing the man NOT the racist woman. https://t.co/w150wQIaEq pic.twitter.com/t7dm3vJal8
— InMinivanHell (@inminivanhell) March 23, 2023
As Deon returned to his seat, a woman reportedly told him to “get out of the country.” In the video, Deon replies, “if I feel that way, why don’t I get out of the country?”
The board’s president, Joseph Komrosky, warned Deon that he was given a “first warning” and would be removed from the meeting if given a second.
“She said, ‘Get out of the country,’” Deon shouted. “She told me to get out of the country. My family has been here since August 16, 1619.”
“Sir, that’s enough,” Komrosky said, requesting Deon’s escort out of the building.
People at the meeting erupted in shouts and chants after Komrosky asked for Deon’s removal from the building.
“If you like, the whole auditorium can leave,” Komrosky told the people causing disruption.
Board member Allison Barclay told Komrosky, “if that woman said that to him, she needs to be excused.” Two board members left the meeting over the altercation.
The mob just disrupted the Temecula Valley USD CRT workshop with a pro-1619 public commenter getting extremely confrontational and the others shouting us as "a racist panel". The two union-backed trustees then conveniently protested by leaving the meeting w/o a quorum. Link⬇️ pic.twitter.com/QcMpdDUpWY
— Wenyuan Wu, Ph.D. (@wu_wenyuan) March 23, 2023
Board member Steven Schwartz told Newsweek that a woman “made a comment to the effect that he should get out of the country.”
“The meeting devolved into chaos, and the board president declared a recess,” he added.
Seven states have banned teaching CRT in schools: Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. More than 12 states are currently progressing to ban it.
