Editor, The Smithfield Times:

In a February email obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, Isle of Wight County Schools Coordinator of Equity & Inclusion Kiyaana Cox-Jones scheduled a Zoom meeting with Randolph Carter to discuss IWCS Equity Phase plans.

Who is Carter? As stated on www.teachingwhilewhite.org, Carter is the founder and director of Eastern Educational (East Ed) Resource Collaborative (www.easted.org) and a member of the Black Panther Party. East Ed offers numerous equity resources to include the conferences “Teaching While White,” “Antiracism for White Men,” “Exploring the Relationship between Capitalism and White Supremacy” and “Assessing for Equity Series.”

While it’s unclear what Carter provided Jones for IWCS’ equity plan, it’s disturbing that our schools are sourcing a far-left political activist group member for guidance. After all, it was Superintendent Jim Thornton who stated that politics don’t belong in education.

What’s even more disturbing is how Carter and his organization obviously have a focus on white supremacy, antiracism, etc. – all tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT).

During the Aug. 12 School Board meeting, Chairwoman Jackie Carr stated: “There are some similarities with equity and CRT, and they are not the same. Think of religion. The Mormon religion and Christianity religion have similarities, but they are not the same.” This is outrageous, misleading and disingenuous!

Superintendent Thornton followed by stating he would continue his equity program that includes training on white privilege and bias, and he will not apologize for it. In other words, never mind your concerns with CRT, your opinion doesn’t matter, and we’re doing it anyway. Why else would the board vote to not allow all citizens their full time to comment?

Jason Maresh

Windsor