‘There Is No Rational Debate’: Loudoun County School Board Chair Trashes Parents

by Harold Hutchison

Brenda Sheridan, chair of the Loudoun County Public Schools board, criticized parents protesting the use of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schools, claiming “[t]here is no rational debate” on the issue.

Sheridan made the comments during an interview with Chuck Todd, during the Oct. 27 episode of “Meet the Press Reports,” a weekly podcast.

“I’ll echo that we are not teaching Critical Race Theory. It’s not in our curriculum,” Sheridan told Todd. “Critical Race Theory has been manipulated to replace what is really equity initiatives and teaching students about their biases and our teachers about their biases.”

Despite Sheridan’s denial, parents say there is evidence that principles of CRT are being taught in Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS). In March, a video leaked of an LCPS teacher asking a student to notice the race of two women in a photograph. The photograph came from a Daily Mail article about fraternal twins.

Critical Race Theory holds that America is fundamentally racist, yet it teaches people to view every social interaction and person in terms of race. Its adherents pursue “antiracism” through the end of merit, objective truth and the adoption of race-based policies.

Sheridan continued to claim that the controversy over CRT was manufactured.

“I have to go back to the pandemic. Because it stirred from parents who were very legitimately concerned about schools being closed, and then — so, you had angry parents who I can absolutely empathize with and we wanted to help and we took their kids out of school because we had to. And then — so, you had a group of angry parents and then someone lit the fire with Critical Race Theory, and I truly believe it is to impact elections,” Sheridan told Todd. “There is a fire lit every week in Loudoun County on a new topic just to keep the anger flowing,” Sheridan added.

Sheridan did not mention that she was one of a number of Loudoun County school board members targeted by a recall campaign after the discovery of a secret Facebook group, Anti-Racist Parents of Loudoun County, which targeted parents and others opposed to the use of CRT in school curriculums. The group also worked to get an elementary school teacher who opposed a proposed transgender policy fired. The chair of one LCPS committee in Loudoun County also said that opponents of CRT “cannot and should not be tolerated.”

LCPS also faced controversy over explicit material in books assigned to students. In addition, parents accused LCPS of covering up a sexual assault that occured in May prior to the passage of a transgender policy. The accused student was found guilty earlier this week of the May assault and a second one earlier in October.