Illinois High School Civil Rights Seminar Draws Ire From Right

WINNETKA, IL — Rival groups of parents and activists at New Trier High School are rallying supporters to attend a school board meeting on Monday to speak out at an event marking Black History Month. A group of parents who see liberal bias in the theme has called for the event to be canceled or "balanced." The parents and their supporters have filed nearly a dozen of Freedom of Information Act requests with the district since January.

Over the past month, New Trier has become the focus of local and national media attention -- not for being ranked by Newsweek or Business Insider as one of the top high schools in the country or for the roughly $100 million renovation of its Winnetka campus, nor for its prestigious group of alumni, who include Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and former Sen. Mark Kirk.

Instead, New Trier is getting headlines because of its upcoming school-wide seminar day, entitled "Understanding Today's Struggle for Racial Civil Rights," which the school says is designed to "help students better understand how the struggle for racial civil rights stretches across our nation's history ... and how previous civil rights movements connect with the issues that we are facing today."

Keynote speakers at the only mandatory portion of the event are National Book Award winner Colson Whitehead, author of "The Underground Railroad," and U.S. Rep. John Lewis's co-author on the graphic novel series, "March," Andrew Ayden. Documents show administrators tried to book Rep. Lewis but were unable because of a scheduling conflict.

The school has been holding seminar days on different subjects since at least 1992, according to multiple school administrators. Past subjects have included "9/11/01: Learning from Tragedy," "Competition," "Humanity," "Teach, Experience, Live, Learn." None of those or other past seminar days sparked a national media controversy.

Last January, on Martin Luther King Day, amid the 2016 presidential primaries, the school held an event called "MLK Seminar Day on Race," which caught the attention of Breitbart.com, the right-wing website headed at the time by current senior White House strategist Steve Bannon. The site ran a series of articles critical of the school's choice of speakers and curriculum and accused school administrators of lying to parents about the day.

"Last year they had some really incendiary titles about 'White Privilege,' it was really kind of like a 'Where is this coming from?' kind of confusion. Why do you do that? Where is the balance?" said New Trier parent Betsy Hart, a former Reagan press staffer and director of seminars for the Heritage Foundation.

"This is really presenting one very narrow way to problem solve when it comes to race relations. Where's a lot of views that I know of and I follow and I hear about?" Hart asked.

Hart is one of the leaders of a new group calling itself "Parents of New Trier." The group is critical of the school's interpretation of "racial justice" and "civil rights" and wants conservative views presented to students to balance what it considers radical left-wing content. Short of that adjustment, the group has asked the school to cancel the event.

"Let's talk about what civil rights are. Civil rights by definition are legally protected constitutional guarantees," Hart explained. "I would say that this day does not actually talk about civil rights in that context of 'How are we going to actually find out, and accurately portray, where are those being denied and how do we change that." This type of training "can actually cause more division, can reinforce racial stereotypes, it can leave out opportunities to talk about: 'Is the bigger issue racial divide or educational divide?'" Hart said.

New Trier is a public school in a district with an average family income of roughly three times the national average and a population more than 80 percent white, according to Census data.

In a list of concerns on its website, the group says the event squanders the chance "to consider different viewpoints and real solutions to problems facing the African-American community, and to overcome black/white disparity." The website also features links to many articles denouncing diversity training in general and the "National Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity (SEED) Project" in particular.

The group posted a petition, "Balance - or else suspend - New Trier's Seminar Day on race," although it has hidden the number of signatories, and has organized around Facebook groups. The group's website, registered Jan. 19 according to domain records, features a list of its "Founding Steering Committee," which includes 10 names.

Several of the people on the committee confirmed it has not met in person and declined to speak on the record, with multiple people saying they were concerned about possible backlash.

Hart said the response to the group has received has been "vitriolic," and she says this year's seminar is part of a pattern.

"I think they're sort of inciting kids to think that 'If you don't think like me then you're a hater,' and that's just intolerant," she said.

Mark Glennon, the father of a New Trier student and author of an editorial criticizing Seminar Day, is a fiscal analyst and founder of the taxpayer-focused news site Wirepoints. He said he's received a significant volume of offensive feedback because of his opposition to the event.

"It's just undeniable that there is extreme left-wing bias in the agenda," Glennon said. He said the notion of "systemic racism" runs through the entire program in the seminars. "I simply don't accept that and don't think it should be taught as dogma or as fact."

When asked if human-caused climate change should be taught as fact or whether students should be taught the controversy, Glennon said, "Obviously, you should teach the controversy. I think there are a range of opinions about certain parts of climate science, particularly the extent to which carbon contributes to warming."

The group's objections stem from the roughly 100 separate, voluntary seminars that will be offered by staff, student groups and members of the community from the Chicago area. These speakers range from a Northfield police officer (not mentioned on the Parentsofnewtrier.org website at time of writing) to a Chicago rapper (a selection of whose lyrics are prominently displayed on the Parentsofnewtrier.org website).

Other seminars to be presented include "Examining Our Biases," "21st Century Voter Supression [sic]" and "Developing Empathy & Acceptance by Reading Picture Books to Children," according to programs for the Winnetka (10th-12th grade) and Northfield (9th grade) campuses.

"They can choose whichever ones they want to go to, and we think there's a wide variety of types of topics that students can explore," said Superintendent Linda Yonke. She defended the program and said it was vital to give students the opportunity for "important, age-appropriate, monitored conversations about the topic of civil rights."

While Yonke and other administrators say the seminars will feature opportunities for frank and open discussion among students and presenters, the "Parents of New Trier" group disagrees and has suggested a series of prominent African-American conservatives as alternative speakers, including Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke, NFL player Benjamin Watson, Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley and former congressman Allan West.

The group's website says New Trier violated its own policy: "Discussion of controversial issues should be age appropriate, serve an education purpose, be consistent with the curriculum, and present a balanced view."

It goes on to say the parents and students were "pleading for the other side to be heard (beginning in October)" but there is no evidence of any member of the group attempting to participate in the planning of the event, and administrators said plans for speakers were finalized before the group raised its objections. They said planning began in April and was organized by a committee of students and staff.

"I would like to make it clear that anyone was allowed to come up with a proposal for a seminar. There were numerous announcements made, emails sent, and surveys taken to encourage students and teachers to organize their own sessions," wrote a member of Student Voices in Equity on the Facebook group discussing Seminar Day. "There were public forums where parents could come and voice their support or concern for the day among other ways to give feedback."

That account was confirmed by the administrator in charge of the curriculum for Seminar Day, Tim Hayes.

"In April we convened a group of students and staff members. We just put a plea out and said 'Who is interested in being involved?' And we put together a group and they met in April and then again in May," he said. That group consisted of roughly 30 members, which included, but was not limited to, students involved in the Student Voices in Equity group, which also participated in the planning for the 2016 MLK Seminar Day.

But "Parents of New Trier" were not impressed, with Hart and others disputing that version of events.

"I've studied the agenda in detail, I've looked at the backgrounds of the speakers, and it troubles me that the topics are so one-sided and in my opinion biased to one particular worldview," said parent Darrell Butler, a member of the steering committee of the "Parents of New Trier" group. "The administrative and teacher organizers, I believe, deliberately excluded any other views."

"As it relates to our reaction, this isn't driven by some outside forces, Fox News or Breitbart or somebody elsewhere, we're neighbors, we're friends, we talk about these things, it's purely organic," he said.

"I don't need people calling me a racist, but that's where our world is today," he said, explaining his decision to take a public stand.

Seminar Supporters Respond

In response to the "Parents of New Trier" and the attention generated, another group has formed. Parents and community members who back the planned event have created a petition and are also mobilizing their supporters to attend the upcoming Feb. 20 Board of Education meeting.

"We were sitting around my dining room table and talking about Seminar Day and feeling that there was such strong community support for it, and asking 'What was a way we could harness that collective support to show it,'" said parent Mimi Rodman, describing the moment she and a group of friends decided to start an "I Support Seminar Day" petition. That petition has garnered more than 4,200 signatures over the past couple of weeks.

"I have had nothing but positive support on this," she said. "It was really just an overwhelming feeling that we wanted to make sure that people understood this is a really welcoming community in which we reasonably welcome hard conversations."

Rodman said she believes Seminar Day is one way to prepare students for the complicated world they'll enter when they graduate.

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky brought up the "New Trier Parents" at an address at last weekend's "State of Our Communities" event.

"Clearly this is a national effort," she said. "There seems to be a Breitbart connection to what's going on."

She said the group appeared to be mobilizing candidates for local elections in the area.

"People have to be real clear what their agenda is," the Democratic congresswoman said, and she encouraged supporters of Seminar Day to attend the Feb. 20 board meeting.

As the story gained media attention, more interested parties began composing open letters, opinion pieces and editorials, including a group of three New Trier friends and alumnae who graduated last year.

Francesca Gazzolo, Gracee Wallach, Cookie Belknap Fernandez and Mia Neumann published "An open letter to advocating the importance of New Trier’s Seminar Day, 'Understanding Today’s Struggle for Racial Civil Rights'", which addressed many of the specific complaints of the "Parents of New Trier" and endeavored to refute many of the claims and sources provided on the Parentsofnewtrier.org website.

"Racism is happening, it is real, and there is no point in hiding it. If we ignore something, it will not go away; it will only continue to fester beneath the cover of ignorance and inappropriate optimism," write the alumnae. "'Racism' is not a dirty word and should not be considered 'divisive' or 'biased'; confronting our racism is the first step to eradicating it."

Yonke said the Seminar Day is consistent with the school's overall "educational philosophy and objectives," which include fostering a "respect for group differences", "self-discovery" and "self-awareness," all of which the "Parents of New Trier" said the event is lacking.

"We always welcome parent input, we teach our kids to consider dissenting viewpoints and we want to model that as well," said Yonke, asserting that while the district and administration has been getting a lot of phone calls and emails, the vast majority of them are supportive.

"Of course I've heard from some people who disagree, but the communications I've received are overwhelmingly in favor of having the day as planned and feel that it's an important topic for their children to consider," she added.

The superintendent's assertion can be verified by examining the district's call logs. Of more than 100 calls received by the district regarding Seminar Day, only one was marked as being "not in support" of the event, according to the logs, which were obtained as part of a series of public records requests filed about New Trier Seminar Day by "Parents of New Trier".

FOIA Requests

Supporters of "Parents of New Trier" began filing FOIA requests with the district beginning on Jan. 10, when Winnetka Realtor Suzanne Martin (who hung up immediately when contacted by a reporter) filed a request for a broad array of records about the 2016 and 2017 New Trier Seminar Day.

Over the next few weeks, the group and others filed a dozen requests, according to the school.

These include:

• Three requests filed by Hart.
• One request from Glennon.
• One request filed by Arlington Heights Tea Party leader Art Ellingsen, out of his own curiosity. He says he was invited to attend a school board meeting on behalf of a parent who was afraid to go on her own for fear of retaliation against her children. He said Sheriff Clarke would be an excellent role model for the children of New Trier.
• One filed by Jasmine Hauser, a Breitbart contributor and New Trier parent who accompanied Hart to formally register their complaints with administrators.
• One request filed by McDonald's Chief Learning Officer, Rob Lauber, who did not respond to a request for comment sent through McDonald's media relations.
• Two filed by Wilmette attorney Charles Hutchinson, who has no children at New Trier but said he may in the future. He said he requested information about Paul Traynor, a New Trier parent who has criticized the "Parents of New Trier" group in its Facebook group, because he did not know who was organizing the event and wanted to find out. ("It's kind of scary, it's disturbing to me," Traynor said when informed about the request.)

(There was also one request filed by Mr. Daniel Kelley, who could not be reached for comment and whose connection to New Trier could not be established at time of writing.)

Some of the information they obtained is published on the group's website. Other documents they received, such as surveys from last year's Seminar Day from participants or emails and call logs showing overwhelming support for this year's event, were not posted on the "Parents of New Trier" website at the time of writing.

All information obtained through those requests is included here:

DOCUMENTS: "Parents of New Trier" Probe Seminar Day

In addition to the Feb. 20 New Trier Board of Education meeting, members of the community have been invited to see addresses from the event's keynote speakers. Colson Whitehead is scheduled to speak at Evanston Township High School on the Monday evening prior to Seminar Day, while Andrew Aydin is set to appear at New Trier High School Tuesday Feb. 28th, the evening of the event.

Top photo: New Trier High School (Patch File)