{"id":139331,"date":"2023-12-23T14:33:51","date_gmt":"2023-12-23T19:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=139331"},"modified":"2023-12-23T14:33:51","modified_gmt":"2023-12-23T19:33:51","slug":"school-district-ousts-principal-for-holding-racially-exclusive-student-assembly-but-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/school-district-ousts-principal-for-holding-racially-exclusive-student-assembly-but-why\/","title":{"rendered":"School district ousts principal for holding racially exclusive student assembly &#8211; but why??"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An elementary school in Florida recently hired a new principal to replace one who was suspended and eventually resigned at the beginning of the school year.<\/p>\n<p>The latter, Donelle Evensen, had helped organized a racially exclusive assembly for black fourth and fifth graders to encourage them to raise their state test scores.<\/p>\n<p>Evensen is white. Anthony Hines, the now-former fifth-grade facilitator who helped coordinate the assembly, is black. According to the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.observerlocalnews.com\/news\/2023\/sep\/11\/bunnell-elementary-school-principal-donelle-evensen-resigns-as-investigation-into-segregated-assemby-is-completed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Observer<\/a>,<\/em> Hines showed students a PowerPoint which &#8220;included a bracketed competition on assessment scores with meals from McDonald&#8217;s and Chick-fil-A as prizes.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Hines allegedly told students that &#8220;if they were not responsible in school they would be in danger later in life of getting shot and killed or going to jail.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Evensen&#8217;s resignation letter explains more about the motivations behind the assembly:<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I can only hope that due to the unfavorable attention from this situation that a light will be shed and the most important conversation will be unavoidable as to the <em>achievement levels of subgroups of students<\/em> including African American students and Students With Disabilities&#8221; (emphasis added).<\/p>\n<p>Those subgroups are what George W. Bush&#8217;s &#8220;No Child Left Behind&#8221; and Barack Obama&#8217;s &#8220;Race to the Top&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/why-some-teachers-complain-so-much\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">are all about<\/a>. Ask any teacher or administrator and they&#8217;ll tell you: State testing is all about raising scores for <em>every<\/em> subgroup (and there are many). Continued employment can depend on these test scores.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"css-9pa8cd alignleft\" draggable=\"true\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/profile_images\/1675952537013198848\/E_xmxzyW_400x400.jpg\" alt=\"Image\" width=\"212\" height=\"212\" \/>The media would have you believe racial separatism like this assembly is wrong-headed and racist. One <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox35orlando.com\/news\/bunnell-elementary-school-new-principal-cari-mcgee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">local outlet<\/a> quoted two (black) students at the assembly as saying they noticed it was &#8220;only Black kids in the cafeteria&#8221; and were &#8220;embarrassed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>District Superintendent LaShakia Moore <em>(pictured) <\/em>said &#8220;students should never be separated by race.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t be fooled. Progressives and professional educationists <em>wholeheartedly<\/em> believe in racial separation. Isolating minority students for &#8220;positive&#8221; situations &#8212; like graduations, academic honors, and other celebratory endeavors &#8212; not only is acceptable, but encouraged. (And if you have a problem with that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/elementary-school-hosts-racially-segregated-playdate-critics-slammed-as-racists\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">then\u00a0<em>you&#8217;re<\/em>\u00a0the racist<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>The one exception is &#8220;negative&#8221; situations like the very one in question: being lectured on poor academic performance or behavior. (Note that separating white students for a negative situation, however, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/minnesota-college-forces-faculty-to-attend-racially-segregated-anti-racism-trainings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">is perfectly OK<\/a> due to &#8220;whiteness, privilege, oppression, supremacy,&#8221; etc. etc. etc. You can even get away with saying <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/u-colorado-equity-and-inclusion-official-white-people-need-to-fix-their-freaking-families\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">white people need to &#8220;fix their freaking families.<\/a>&#8220;)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/segregated-ceremonies-promote-belonging-scholars-claim\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Segregated ceremonies promote \u2018belonging,\u2019 scholars claim<\/a><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re trying to make sense of all this so far, don&#8217;t try too hard. After all, academia has been treated to word salads on this topic for years now, like the following from our &#8216;ol pal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?s=robin+diangelo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Robin DiAngelo<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/media\/GCCvN5YWwAAZGL8?format=jpg&amp;name=medium\" alt=\"Image\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em>The College Fix<\/em> archive provides further evidence of this maelstrom of racial absurdity:<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Back in September, an elementary school in Oakland held a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/elementary-school-hosts-racially-segregated-playdate-critics-slammed-as-racists\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">racially segregated \u2018playdate<\/a>,\u2019 and the <em>San Francisco Chronicle<\/em> said the &#8220;hate&#8221; from those opposed to the event &#8220;only reinforced the importance of creating more of these safe spaces.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; In 2020, San Diego Unified School District secondary schools <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/san-diego-schools-ditch-racially-disparate-punitive-traditional-grades\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">did away<\/a> with traditional A, B, C, etc. grades over concerns of racial disparities. Black, Hispanic and Native students were more likely to \u201cbe given\u201d (note: not \u201cearn\u201d) bad grades, according to a local report.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Also in 2020, Brooklyn College&#8217;s \u201cEnacting an Anti-Racist Agenda&#8221; program <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/brooklyn-colleges-anti-racist-agenda-to-address-profs-who-give-too-many-low-grades\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">looked into<\/a> professors who had &#8220;given&#8221; a lot of D\u2019s and F\u2019s or had high \u201cracial disparities in outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; In 2021, a Madison (Wisconsin) Metropolitan School District high school <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/bulletin-board\/legal-group-presses-madison-schools-over-racially-segregated-parents-zoom-call\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">held racially segregated Zoom conferences<\/a> related to &#8220;all the police brutality and violence that is going on.&#8221; A year before, the district justified racially separate &#8220;virtual discussion spaces&#8221; for students on the basis of &#8220;providing a \u2018level of emotional safety and security.\u2019&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; That same year, Minnesota&#8217;s Carleton College <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/minnesota-college-forces-faculty-to-attend-racially-segregated-anti-racism-trainings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">held racially segregated &#8220;anti-racism training sessions&#8221;<\/a> for all its employees based on black student demands.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; The University of Cincinnati held racially separate &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/public-university-separates-whites-and-nonwhites-in-post-election-dialogue\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">post-election &#8216;dialogue&#8217; events<\/a>&#8221; in November 2020 because it was &#8220;important to facilitate conversations that speak truth to power, allow space for healing, and cultivate change through candid dialogue.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; After some idiot on American University&#8217;s campus was recorded screaming the n-word, students demanded \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/american-u-students-use-n-word-incident-to-demand-black-spaces-on-campus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a safe space and housing options for black students<\/a>.\u201d Missing the irony, one black member of the student government said racially separate spaces would show AU was taking \u201cdiversity and inclusion efforts seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; This past spring, the University of Pittsburgh&#8217;s diversity office held a graduation ceremony <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/pitt-diversity-office-hosts-students-of-color-graduation-ceremony\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">for \u201cstudents of color<\/a>\u201d in order to &#8220;build unity and community with one another.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, a common complaint from African Americans on the topic of forced busing is that it destroyed <em>community<\/em> schools and neighborhood <em>unity<\/em>. Even more ironically, African Americans had plenty of community and unity in the days of <em>legal segregation.<\/em> Engaging in the same racial separatism as 80 years ago but reframing it as &#8220;building unity and community with one another&#8221; completely misses the point of multi-ethnic societal harmony.<\/p>\n<p>So, yes, ultimately Superintendent Moore was right in her criticism of the elementary school&#8217;s blacks-only assembly. But in a district where there&#8217;s a been a battle over &#8220;equity,&#8221; a term which ultimately necessitates racial segregation (and which the local NAACP president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.observerlocalnews.com\/news\/2021\/nov\/20\/the-word-equity-signifies-reform-and-should-be-part-of-flagler-schools-goals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">supports<\/a>), was anything more than reprimand really needed for Ms. Evensen?<\/p>\n<p>In the end, Principal Evensen fell victim to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/beware-of-academics-offering-expertise-on-systemic-racism-equity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ever-malleable nature<\/a> of &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/why-do-so-many-have-a-problem-with-equity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">equity<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/restorative-justice-whites-conservatives-police-need-not-apply\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u2018Restorative justice\u2019: Whites, conservatives, police need not apply<\/a><\/p>\n<p>IMAGE: Shutterstock.com; LaShakia Moore, Ramona Bessinger\/X<\/p>\n            <div class=\"article-truncate-control\">\n                <button class=\"show-complete-article\">\n                    Read More                <\/button>\n            <\/div>\n\n        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Racially separate groups are only ok for &#8216;positive,&#8217; not &#8216;negative,&#8217; situations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":775,"featured_media":28908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1367],"tags":[52322,15931,14757,52321,11680,52320,7104,8803,18673,22060,4182,39700],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/segregation.Shutterstock.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Oh4L-Afh","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139331"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/775"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139331"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139473,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139331\/revisions\/139473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}