EDUCATION + SCHOOLS
Education group protests lawmakers encouraging ban on Critical Race Theory
May 20, 2021, 8:48 AM
The bill that would restrict turf on new government facilities failed in the Senate this afternoon with a 14 to 10 vote on Friday, March 3, 2023. (Utah State Capitol complex. Paul Nelson, file)
(Utah State Capitol complex. Paul Nelson, file)
SALT LAKE CITY — Protestors on both sides of the Critical Race Theory debate showed up at the Utah State Capitol Wednesday morning.
The Utah Education Equity Coalition organized the protest while lawmakers worked inside.
Critical Race Theory supporters, opponents show up for debate
Michelle Love-Day, an educator for 20 years and founder of the Rise Virtual C, says banning CRT omits critical conversation kids need to have.
“Critical Race Theory is to challenge us to recognize the pervasiveness and normalness of racism as a daily fact of life, and how entrenched it is systemically in our political and legal system,” she said.
The group says the move to sign a resolution supporting a ban on teach CRT was done without a discussion with educators first.
Counter protestors were there with signs saying things like, “Don’t teach my child to be a racist.”
Meanwhile, one of the state’s congressmen, Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, wrote in a Deseret News Op-Ed calling CRT an educational poison, arguing some of it teaches history inaccurately.
“The founding of our nation and the continuation of our nation is nothing that’s built upon the backs of systemic racism,” Stewart said on KSL’s Dave & Dujanovic Wednesday. “You have to tell a more rounded story than that, and Critical Race Theory simply doesn’t.”
