Commissioners Considering Ordinance On ‘Critical Race Theory’
June 22, 2021 at 10:54 p.m.
Commissioners Considering Ordinance On ‘Critical Race Theory’
By David [email protected]
In April, the Commissioners passed an ordinance declaring the county is a Second Amendment sanctuary. In December, they approved a resolution and ordinance declaring the county is a Constitutional Rights Sanctuary County. The ordinances and resolution were prepared by and read by county attorney Ed Ormsby.
At their meeting Tuesday, Dr. Chris Magiera, a Republican who ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Indiana’s 3rd Congressional District but lost in the primary to Jim Banks, approached the Commissioners.
He said, “What I would like to suggest to the Commissioners as the supreme law-making body of this county is to consider a resolution and ordinance prohibiting or banning the use of coerced teaching of what’s known as critical race theory, critical sex theory, the whole umbrella organization to county employees as part of HR compliance; and also to the extent that this body has any authority over the school system in Kosciusko County, that they also pass a resolution/ordinance banning the use of critical theory as a standard curriculum item in our schools.”
Ormsby responded, “We are currently under review of a critical race theory proposed policy. That is not ready yet to be rolled out. We are anticipating that we will have the current attorney general, Todd Rokita, here to speak on the issue, both from the state level and county level, to assure us that what is being taught meets with the standards that are announced in the Constitution, that every man is created equal. We will have more information on that at the next meeting.”
President of the Commissioners for 2021, Bob Conley, thanked Magiera and said he was just one step ahead of them.
“That’s good. We think it’s in the community. It’s a topic that’s on national news. We’re keenly aware of the potential there and we’re working diligently in trying to come up with a solution that’s best” for the community, Conley said.
According to edweek.org, “Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that racism is a social construct, and that it is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies. The basic tenets of critical race theory emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw and Richard Delgado, among others.”
As an example, edweek.org states that in the 1930s, government officials “literally drew lines around areas deemed poor financial risks, often explicity due to the racial composition of inhabitants. Banks subsequently refused to offer mortgages to Black people in those areas.”
Critics of the theory – often, though not exclusively, conservative Republicans – charge that the theory “leads to negative dynamics, such as a focus on group identity over universal, shared traits; divides people into ‘oppressed’ and ‘oppressor’ groups; and urges intolerance,” the edweek.org article states.
The American Bar Association website states that the theory is “not a diversity and inclusion ‘training’ but a practice of interrogating the role of race and racism in society that emerged in the legal academy and spread to other fields of scholarship. Crenshaw – who coined the term ‘CRT’ – notes that CRT is not a noun, but a verb. It cannot be confined to a static and narrow definition but is considered to be an evolving and malleable practice. It critiques how the social construction of race and institutionalized racism perpetuate a racial caste system that relegates people of color to the bottom tiers. CRT also recognizes that race intersects with other identities, including sexuality, gender identity and others. CRT recognizes that racism is not a bygone relic of the past. Instead, it acknowledges that the legacy of slavery, segregation and the imposition of second-class citizenship on Black Americans and other people of color continue to permeate the social fabric of this nation.”
Critical race theory is not part of the Indiana Department of Education state standards, which every certified public school in the state has to sign off on. Indiana Academic Standards can be found online at https://www.in.gov/doe/students/indiana-academic-standards/.
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In April, the Commissioners passed an ordinance declaring the county is a Second Amendment sanctuary. In December, they approved a resolution and ordinance declaring the county is a Constitutional Rights Sanctuary County. The ordinances and resolution were prepared by and read by county attorney Ed Ormsby.
At their meeting Tuesday, Dr. Chris Magiera, a Republican who ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Indiana’s 3rd Congressional District but lost in the primary to Jim Banks, approached the Commissioners.
He said, “What I would like to suggest to the Commissioners as the supreme law-making body of this county is to consider a resolution and ordinance prohibiting or banning the use of coerced teaching of what’s known as critical race theory, critical sex theory, the whole umbrella organization to county employees as part of HR compliance; and also to the extent that this body has any authority over the school system in Kosciusko County, that they also pass a resolution/ordinance banning the use of critical theory as a standard curriculum item in our schools.”
Ormsby responded, “We are currently under review of a critical race theory proposed policy. That is not ready yet to be rolled out. We are anticipating that we will have the current attorney general, Todd Rokita, here to speak on the issue, both from the state level and county level, to assure us that what is being taught meets with the standards that are announced in the Constitution, that every man is created equal. We will have more information on that at the next meeting.”
President of the Commissioners for 2021, Bob Conley, thanked Magiera and said he was just one step ahead of them.
“That’s good. We think it’s in the community. It’s a topic that’s on national news. We’re keenly aware of the potential there and we’re working diligently in trying to come up with a solution that’s best” for the community, Conley said.
According to edweek.org, “Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old. The core idea is that racism is a social construct, and that it is not merely the product of individual bias or prejudice, but also something embedded in legal systems and policies. The basic tenets of critical race theory emerged out of a framework for legal analysis in the late 1970s and early 1980s created by legal scholars Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw and Richard Delgado, among others.”
As an example, edweek.org states that in the 1930s, government officials “literally drew lines around areas deemed poor financial risks, often explicity due to the racial composition of inhabitants. Banks subsequently refused to offer mortgages to Black people in those areas.”
Critics of the theory – often, though not exclusively, conservative Republicans – charge that the theory “leads to negative dynamics, such as a focus on group identity over universal, shared traits; divides people into ‘oppressed’ and ‘oppressor’ groups; and urges intolerance,” the edweek.org article states.
The American Bar Association website states that the theory is “not a diversity and inclusion ‘training’ but a practice of interrogating the role of race and racism in society that emerged in the legal academy and spread to other fields of scholarship. Crenshaw – who coined the term ‘CRT’ – notes that CRT is not a noun, but a verb. It cannot be confined to a static and narrow definition but is considered to be an evolving and malleable practice. It critiques how the social construction of race and institutionalized racism perpetuate a racial caste system that relegates people of color to the bottom tiers. CRT also recognizes that race intersects with other identities, including sexuality, gender identity and others. CRT recognizes that racism is not a bygone relic of the past. Instead, it acknowledges that the legacy of slavery, segregation and the imposition of second-class citizenship on Black Americans and other people of color continue to permeate the social fabric of this nation.”
Critical race theory is not part of the Indiana Department of Education state standards, which every certified public school in the state has to sign off on. Indiana Academic Standards can be found online at https://www.in.gov/doe/students/indiana-academic-standards/.
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