Springfield Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Grenita Lathan has answered questions surrounding the district’s diversity and equity training for teachers and principals.
At a Springfield School Board meeting in May, nearly 40 people stood before board members to either praise the district for offering diversity training or accuse district leaders of using critical race theory, which has roots in Marxism and Communism.
Here are Dr. Lathan’s answers from an interview with KWTO’s Bonnie Bell.
Bonnie’s full interview with Dr. Lathan covering this topic and several others will air this Sunday night, July 18th, at 8:00 p.m. on 93-3 F-M and A-M 560 KWTO.
In this clip, Dr. Lathan discusses materials handed out to staff that got a number of people up in arms about the district’s diversity training.
Here, Lathan says conducting diversity and equity training with staff is not something the school district just started doing.
In this clip, Lathan explains what diversity and equity training is all about:
If you’re wondering whether the public will be allowed to view the training materials, Lathan covers that here:
The Springfield School District has said from the beginning this is not curriculum designed for students, and that is has nothing to do with critical race theory. But opponents say the themes of critical race theory are included in the lessons, even if they aren’t labelled CRT.