Former public school administrator Emily Mais is suing the Albermarle County School Board, represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), accusing the school board of creating a racially hostile work environment that ultimately forced her to leave her job in September 2021.
Mais, who formerly served as an elementary art teacher for seven years, had raised concerns about the Agnor-Hurt Elementary School’s “anti-racism” teacher training calling for differential treatment based on race. The Training is based on the book “Courageous Conversations About Race,” which attributes both positive and negative characteristics to people based on race, such as teaching that only white people can commit acts of racism.
“Instead of training faculty members to embrace students of all races, Albemarle County school officials are using a curriculum that promotes racial discrimination. The training sets up a classic Catch-22: It encourages all staff members to ‘speak their truth,’ but when a white person like Emily raises concerns about the divisive content, she is deemed a racist in need of further ‘anti-racism’ instruction” said ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson, director of the ADF Center for Parental Rights.
The lawsuit, filed last week in the Albemarle County Circuit Court, details how she began receiving harassment from other school officials once she voiced her concern over the program. While voicing her concerns, she mistakenly used the term “colored” instead of “people of color.” Even though she repeatedly apologized, including immediately after using the term, the lawsuit also notes that some officials were “openly slandering” her at work, “cursing about her and calling her vulgar names at work, telling other employees she was a racist and that she intentionally demeaned black people, and trying to turn other employees against her.”
“Far from exploring ideas or philosophies surrounding justice and reconciliation, that ideology fosters racial division, racial stereotyping, and racial hostility,” the lawsuit continued. “So does the policy. Through the policy, defendants incorporate these pathological teachings into the school district’s programming and treat students differently based on race in direct conflict with Supreme Court precedent and the Virginia Constitution and state law.”
This is not the first time Albemarle County Public Schools have been accused of teaching students to ‘discriminate based on race.’ In late December of last year, nine parents and eight minors alleged in a lawsuit that the district is indoctrinating students with an ideology that “teaches children to affirmatively discriminate based on race.”
While there are no updates to the previous case, a hearing in the current lawsuit is scheduled for Friday. Hopefully, this teacher can receive some justice for speaking out against a racist system being disguised as ‘Anti-Racist.’