by Dave Huber
The San Francisco-area elementary school whose test scores dropped following implementation of the so-called “Woke Kindergarten” program suspended the teacher who exposed the controversial program.
On Thursday, the teacher who blew the whistle on the program was “summoned […] to a video conference” during which he was told to “turn in his keys and laptop and not return to his classroom […] until further notice,” the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Tiger Craven-Neeley said he was informed only that the leave was due to “allegations of unprofessional conduct.”
The suspension comes “less than a day” after a “divisive staff meeting” at Glassbrook Elementary School, which included Hayward Unified School District Superintendent Jason Reimann.
Among other things, Craven-Neeley had pointed out that a “primary objective” of Woke Kindergarten was to “disrupt whiteness,” but he never got an answer as to what that means. Instead, he was banned from future program workshops.
The district refused comment on the suspension noting it was a “personnel matter.” District spokesman Michael Bazeley did say, however, that following media reports on Woke Kindergarten, Glassbrook and the district “received dozens of ‘threatening and racist’ messages.”
“I don’t think any teacher or staff member wakes up expecting to be dragged through the mud of the national media,” Bazeley said. “They’ve been very resilient but it has taken its toll.”
The Wednesday staff meeting […] was tense, Craven-Neeley said, as he tried to explain that before going to the Chronicle, he approached school and district staff as well as the school board to raise questions about the program and the expense, with no response.
“There was so much anger toward me,” he said. “I was explaining my point of view. They were talking over me.” …
Craven-Neeley said that as the meeting grew tense about an hour in, when another teacher stood up, pointed a finger in his face and said, “‘You are a danger to the school or the community,’ and then she walked out of the room.”
Not long after, a district administrator asked him to leave the meeting.
“I was shocked. This is my school. I didn’t do anything inappropriate,” he said. “I left. I was very shaky.”
Another Glassbrook teacher, who requested anonymity for fear of pushback at the school, confirmed that a staff member put a hand in Craven-Neeley’s face and called him a disgrace and a threat to the school.
The teacher also said Craven-Neeley didn’t raise his voice even as others were arguing and talking loudly.
Woke Kindergarten’s leader, Akiea “Ki” Gross, describes “themselves” as an “abolitionist early educator, cultural organizer and creator currently innovating ways to resist, heal, liberate and create with their pedagogy.”
Gross recently posted a video in which “they” claim “Israel has no right to exist,” “the United States has no right to exist,” and that “every settler colony who has committed genocide against native peoples has no right to exist.”
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College Fix Associate Editor Dave Huber has been writing about education, politics, and entertainment for over 20 years, including a stint at the popular media bias site Newsbusters. He is a retired educator with over 25 years of service and is a member of the National Association of Scholars.
Photo “Kindergarten” by Pavel Danilyuk.
