Lt. Gov. takes aim at 'indoctrination' in NC schools
Senator Kevin Corbin from the far west
I represent a district touches Tennessee and Georgia
So a long way from right to get the furthest
driven
Uh every week let me say first of all thank
you to attend the governor Mark Robinson
Pretty good
This task force
What a blessing it is for me for him to
have asked me to be on this myself and David
Willis rectory in the General Assembly along with these wonderful
educators and other folks behind us
The purpose of this committee you'll find out is to
uh to listen to parents listen to students listen to
public public education
Folks have been through the most difficult year
Uh I think in the history of our state this
has been a difficult year for students
Been a difficult year for a parents educators everyone
And I think we need to get out of the
defensive posture getting the proactive posture
And that's what Lieutenant Governor Robinson is doing
Um I'm proud to bring 20 years of experience
I served in my local school board in Macon County
for 20 years and then six years as a county
commissioner before coming to the house and the Senate
Don't do the math
I'm not that other I started
I was 22 when I started
So and that is the truth
I bring that local government experience to it
And I'm looking forward very much to serving on this
committee with these wonderful community people behind me
It's going to be a wonderful experience
And I think it's gonna be a great experience for
North Carolina for us to have a government leading the
charge
Uh working along with people like Captain Kirk over in
the department
Education doing a wonderful job
They're looking forward to working with her
So with that said very quickly I will introduce David
Willis
David Willis is North Carolina representative representing District 68 baby
Yeah My name is David Willis
I'd served the great people of Western Union County District
68 in the North Carolina house The last 10 15
years I've been an educator a father of two boys
in uh currently in middle school
I'm a product of North Carolina public schools from the
earliest levels of preschool Elementary school middle school high school
Community College university
I've seen it all
Um I don't recall a point in time where I
knew any of my teachers or my professors political views
their party affiliations
It was never relevant to what we were there for
We were there to learn how to read and write
and be prepared for a career
And I think we've strayed from that over the last
several years
We hear it from students
We hear it from other teachers
We hear it from parents who are concerned about the
curriculum concerned about the content of their Children are being
taught and there are certain things that should be left
at home
There are certain things as parents that we have a
right and an obligation to teach our Children and it
should not be happening in the classroom
Our teachers are there to teach to nurture to love
these kids and so many of our teachers do a
phenomenal job of that
Well we need a place where these kids can learn
and to grow and we've seen with Covid you know
just how bad some of this is affecting these Children
over the last year
But we've got to be really careful not to blame
this on covid
We've had issues in our public schools for years and
this is really only brought it to the forefront
And so it's important today that we have finally a
mechanism that will help bring in spotlight issues that we're
having across the state
Parents want to know what their Children are learning
They need a place to go when they have an
issue or a concern about what's happening
And we have not had that mechanism in place until
now
And so I uh commend our lieutenant governor for standing
up for fighting for our our parents for our Children
as a parent myself a three
You know I want to know that somebody is there
to fight for me when I need it
And Mark Robinson has been that fighter for us
And those of us that are standing up here with
him today commit to being those fighters for the parents
and the families
And you know we could not think our lieutenant governor
anymore
Uh and I'll turn it over to Lieutenant Governor Mark
Robinson
What Thank you
I appreciate that
Yeah
Thank you
Um first off let me say thank you to everyone
is here
Members of the press Uh and also to the members
of our board and are here
Oh I'm going to introduce those folks and uh raise
your hand
Melissa Oakland
Uh Melissa Melissa is a Hanzo county
Uh board of education member
Where Your hand
Melissa
Again
Uh we have Melissa Merrill Union County Board of Education
member
Uh we have uh Olivia Occident State School Board member
We have Linda Cadel
Is that she here Did she make it Linda Cathode
Ellis
Where you at She's right back there in the back
right there
You can't see her but she is here
And we have uh Judy Henderson
She's a classroom teachers association
Uh director of North Carolina
Uh folks let me start off by saying this
This is not an indictment on education
I want to say that first and foremost the vast
majority of our teachers in this state and in this
nation are good
They go to work every day
They work hard and they are there for the benefit
of the students and parents that they are serving
And that's exactly what they do
This is not again an indictment on education
What This was born out of and inspired by was
the fact that in every corner that we traveled in
this state we found ourselves being besieged by folks who
were complaining about things their students and their Children were
having to learn in public schools that were contrary to
their own beliefs
Oh we call it indoctrination but it could be called
many things
It could be called politicizing the classroom
You know it could be called introducing things into the
classroom that don't belong there
But we see that in every corner and we received
numerous complaints about it
But while we're on the campaign and since we've been
lieutenant up and so thinking about how we can tackle
the problem we realized one thing we realized heretofore that
has not been a place where this data could be
bought two disseminated and uh and compact
And that's what we're seeking to do with this task
force
We want this task force to be a resource for
parents and students who feel that they are unable to
tackle the issues that they are facing in their schools
And trust me folks that is happening in this state
It is happening in this nation
There are parents and teachers who are literally afraid to
speak up against school boards against principles against administrators and
folks that has got to stop
School is supposed to be a safe place where people
can go for the purpose of instruction and that's what
we need to make sure it's happening
We need to bring some equity and we need to
make sure there is equity in the classroom and people
are being treated fairly
And that's what we're uh that's what this task force
is intended to do
Oh oftentimes when I mentioned indoctrination into the class in
the classroom people say Well where's the proof Where's the
proof we're going to bring you to prove we are
going to bring you the proof and we're gonna work
with local school boards uh local local administrators to make
sure that this is not happening
And if it is happening we're going to root it
out and bring it to an end because again the
classroom should be a place for education not a place
where people's opinions are being pushed on our Children
Mm
Uh huh
We're going to take in these reports and we're going
to take these reports seriously we're going to examine them
The most egregious ones of them will be Corby
W put in the hierarchy of how egregious they are
and we'll move down that list and we'll tackle those
issues as they come
How that looks right now we don't know because we
don't know how many complaints were gonna receive how many
issues we're gonna receive
But you can bet your bottom dollar as we receive
and we're going to take them all
And we're gonna take them very seriously because again as
I promised during my campaign uh bringing it into this
indoctrination in our classroom and let me be clear again
folks this is happening
This is not a question of if this is a
question of Yes it is
It has happened Uh and highlighting this is gonna be
something that we're gonna again take very seriously
So we're gonna take those reports and we're gonna take
them seriously
Uh I also want to reiterate this
This is not about any political ideology
I don't want any more for right hand right wing
political ideology to be put in the classroom that I
do left hand
Let me be playing about this
I am a person who one of my aspirations is
the one day teacher
And if I go into the classroom and I can't
put my opinion aside long enough to go inside the
classroom and give impressionable young minds just the facts without
my opinion I have failed as an educator
That's the commitment that I want from all of our
teachers and that is the commitment that we get from
most of our teachers
Unfortunately all of them are not following that protocol and
we are receiving those complaints about so how this works
We have set up our website or lieutenant governor's website
You can go to lt guv dot n c dot
gov
Find the the facts F a C
T s tab at the top of the page Click
on that tab and follow the instructions
That is what we're urging people to do Folks I
just want to reiterate again
This is not an indictment on education
This is something we're doing to try to continue to
perfect education in North Carolina to bring education in North
Carolina to be even better to be a shining example
of how it's supposed to be done
And we truly believe that by addressing these issues that
parents and students have bought us that we can do
just that
We can make education in North Carolina a shining example
in this in this uh in this country and bring
to an end some of the issues that we're seeing
in our schools
I'll take any questions you may have
Thank you very much for being here
Here
Got there Terry
Student
Come on I got Forgive me folks
This is Dr Terry Stoops
That's it You know Don't be tripping me up like
that young man
He's tripping me up
Oh I forgot to introduce you
Did not
I'm sorry
This is Dr Terry Stoops
He's on our board
Gosh I'm sorry
I'm a little nervous
His press conference in these cameras all the time to
get Okay
Now I will take any questions you may have yesterday
So Mark I interviewed you a few hours
A few days maybe
Yes
Oh yes
Okay
Yeah
Mm
Yeah But shoes in the next election
I believe
I believe it is
Yes ma'am I do
Uh education is one of those hot button issues
Uh And even for folks who don't have Children in
school it should be because education touches every issue we're
facing right now Everyone
And so yes we desperately want to highlight
That is just in the upcoming elections
Excuse me
Yes ma'am
You mentioned on the top of the website W tap
for facts
Tell us what back stands for
And does that foretell include a way for parents to
contact too Yes Facts stands for fairness and accountability in
the classroom for teachers and students when they make sure
I got that just right
Yes
Yes ma'am
So the aroma also working with some leaders mostly haters
and concerned parents
They're starting some um that's why so much that stuff
Yeah
Yeah
How can parents become involved and also questions And then
the second question is will there be a liaison between
parents and the task force to know exactly how to
move forward Okay I'll take the first part of that
question first
I think the best thing that parents can do start
getting involved with your local school boards
Go to the means
Learn who the folks are on your school board learn
who your representative is
And if those people are not doing your will inject
yourself into that
Whether that be running or finding someone else to run
for those boards
But get involved with that school board and find out
what it is that they're doing
The second part of that as this task force moves
ahead is probably going too long
It's probably going to evolve
And there will be people that will be there to
get to directly address uh some of these parents and
students
Yes
Hey how you know Yes I can hear you
Now you know my ears old
Um could you explain what are two issues that you
have heard about their parents or educators are concerned about
That's my first question
Okay You want I guess You want me to give
you an example An example that was given directly to
me was during Black History Month
A young lady in the classroom once you do her
black history report and the teacher told you have to
do it on someone you know who's made history or
historical figure
She wanted to do it on me
She wanted to do it on me
I made history in the state
You may not like my politics but I made history
in this thing
It's black history market
The teacher would not allow her to do that and
told her she had to do her report on Tupac
Shakur
That is indoctrination
That is what we are talking about
That is exactly what we are talking about
Simply because I guess you didn't like my politics or
because she doesn't like me
Or maybe she has something
I don't have no idea what the issue is but
all the criteria was met but she would not allow
that young lady to do that and instead gave her
somebody who was completely contrary to something that her parents
were in favour of
So that's the type of issue that we're talking about
I'm not gonna say the school district
I'm not going to mention their names
That is that is confidential
I'm not going to mention that
Yes sir
Okay
So once you prioritize the list of issues that you
received from parents educators students what action are you going
to face Very
That's a very good question
So we cannot move on this issue right now because
we do not have the critical link
The critical link is the data
We need the data
That is what we are going to be collected
Once we have collected this data we see what the
issues are exactly
We can name the issue the number of issues where
they're coming from
Then we can chart out a course of action
This is not going to be an easy fix folks
and it's not going to be something that's going to
be easy to tackle
It's gonna take a long time but we will know
how we're going to tackle this after we get this
information and disseminate yes
For an example here in Lake County they have what's
called the Office of Equity Affairs
A lot of other districts have adopted a similar office
of equity affairs
The sole point of this office from what I've seen
in my own Children's classroom has been to study their
white privilege and to train teachers about white fragility and
white privilege
All these kinds of diversity trains is costing taxpayers over
$2 million
What are you going to be looking at those kinds
of opposite host in no matter what form the indoctrination
may take whether it be against students whether it be
against teachers were going to be taking it head on
It has got to go out of our school system
We're spending too much time in our classrooms trying to
teach these Children difficult social issues they cannot understand and
far too little time trying to teach them how to
read write and do mathematics
So whatever form it may take we're gonna take it
on
How many people are on your board and what is
the break up of conservatives Liberals Problem Currently we have
12 people that we were able to bring in and
those people political status
It's not remain to this situation because this is not
again
This is not about left
This is not about right
This is about doing what's right Bar stool
So their political makeup is again akin to what we're
talking about
We didn't bring people and ask them Did you vote
for Donald Trump We didn't bring him in and asked
you to vote for Joe Biden
We bought him and asked him Do you want to
do right by our students in school That's the question
that we asked
Right Rob Yes sir
I asked for an example
Someone asked for an example
I have an example standing beside me
He was in second grade
He brought home a book that was pushing transgender lifestyle
in the county school
In this weight count Yes
People that are public schools this year
Because of this lifestyle we don't approve of it
We are not opposed to individuals of color race cream
but we pulled him out
This one is coming out this year and we are
thankful that you are pushing this forward the same
It's say yeah put their high
Yes ma'am once you have data collected for long yes
Is this something that will be brought to the Legislature
watching the state board We can't say right now we
don't know what's uh what's going to happen
Uh but we're going to do whatever we need to
do in order to uh to highlight this issue and
bring it to an end
Whatever we need to do whatever mechanism we have to
go through uh to fight this we're gonna go Whether
that be the legislature whether that be sitting down with
the school board doesn't matter
because this is a serious issue that's got to be
dealt with and heretofore has not
Yes sir
Hi
There will go on observer
Best couple lawmakers
The group here talks with the Legislature about giving us
more
It's more power in the future
Absolutely
Absolutely not
This board is in his empathy right now
We have not discussed any
No
Yes sir
Yeah
Yes sir
I just want to get your thoughts here
Still Yeah can see power Council of State Only two
on
Oh well I'm not gonna get my thoughts about that
right now
That's that's an issue for another time
I hate not to answer your question but I don't
want to take away from what we're doing here right
now
What we're doing right here right now I think we
need to stay on task because this is directly for
the benefit of our parents and students
And we want to stay right here on that bank
Right The dancer Maybe Maybe later on we'll tackle it
Alright
My chief of staff telling me we need to wrap
this up because it's cold out here folks thank you
all for coming
We appreciate you Look for the work
We're going to do it to be out there soon
Thank you very much for coming
Thank you
Mhm
Mhm
Yeah I'm sorry
All right