Judicial Watch gets docs appearing to show coordinated effort to advance CRT in Va's Loudoun Co

The watchdog group Judicial Watch said Friday that it has received 3,597 pages of records from Virginia's Loudoun County that show a coordinated effort to advance Critical Race Theory initiatives in the county's public schools, despite widespread public opposition to the curriculum.

The records were produced in accordance with two Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act requests to Loudoun County Public Schools. 

The requests were made In March and April and ask for communications between county Superintendents Eric Williams and/or Scott Ziegler with school board members, teachers and parents regarding anti-racism initiatives, including a proposed speech code.

In one apparent example provided by Judicial Watch, Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee Chairperson Keaira Jennings writes on March 27 to former Director of Equity Lottie Spurlock and others that she tweeted, "We will silence the opposition ... without realizing the firestorm my words would cause ... My intention was and is to have the voices in support of equity in education be heard and supported, and I was actually thinking 'hopefully those voice will eventually ring louder and drown out those against equity.' "

In another apparent example, on March 18, the African American Superintendent's Advisory Council issued “Recommendations on Equity,” which includes the recommendation to establish "a single indicator or composite score related to school climate that includes indicators related to antiracism and culturally responsive and inclusive learning environments ... ."

Judicial Watch says the documents show Karen Dawson, executive assistant to the superintendent's office, asks several public school officials to distribute the recommendations to their staff members and that Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Ashley F. Ellis responds: "We already have a head start with so many of these things."