TEACHER ORDERS KIDS TO REVEAL PRIVATE DETAILS WITH ‘DNA DOSSIERS’

A teacher in a Georgia public school has been caught ordering her students to create a “dossier” on themselves, including private personal information such as DNA, and post them in the classroom.

But Liberty Counsel, which wrote to the Coweta County School System in Newnan, Georgia, when parents complained about the invasion of privacy, says that while the district has confirmed the projects have been destroyed, many issues remain.

Such as the fact the teacher,  Kima Brown, and district officials were presenters at a conference of the National Council of Teachers of English that promoted “a radical ‘social justice’ and critical theory agenda.”

For example, Liberty Counsel said in a letter to the district, in which it explained it was representing parents in the district, the organization’s most recent conference included sessions titled:

• “Enacting Social Justice-Focused English Curricula”
• “Who Are We as Activist Allies? Storying Our Work as Social Justice Educators”
• “Using LGBTQ Texts in Middle School”
• “Why Are All Trans Youth so ‘Normal?”
• “Race Radical Literacies”
• “Sexuality, Power, and Rape Culture: Understanding Feminism in Adolescence”

A letter to the district this week thanked officials for the destruction of the “dossiers” created by students on orders from Brown.

“I appreciate your confirmation that the district has destroyed the dossiers, including the DNA information and other personally identifiable information contained therein,” said the letter from Liberty Counsel’s Richard Mast.

However, Brown’s “propaganda” assignment could have further implications for “student privacy interests regarding political and religious beliefs.”

The NCTE has declared “there is no apolitical classroom” and demands teachers reject “neutrality” to pursue “political engagement,” the letter explains.

“In light of Ms. Brown’s presence at this conference and the conference’s assertions that there ‘is no apolitical classroom,’ the district must disavow Ms. Brown’s ‘Propaganda’ assignment to ‘Create a Propaganda Meme’ regarding the ‘Syrian Crisis and War,’” the letter says.

“The U.S. Supreme Court has stated that agents of the state have no power to ‘standardize … children by forcing them to accept instruction. … The child is not the mere creature of the state.

“[The] primary role of the parents in the upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate as an enduring American tradition,” the letter explains.

Therefore, it states, the district must “forbid teachers from requiring students to create propaganda,” counsel Brown and others about parental rights “and the requirement of remaining politically and ideologically neutral,” and inform Brown and others the NCTE agenda are examples of “what not to do.”

“If I do not receive the requested responses, Liberty Counsel will take further action to prevent irreparable harm to the rights of parents and students,” Mast wrote in the letter.

Brown, who teaches at Northgate High School, had, without parental permission, demanded students “complete an individual ‘dossier’ containing confidential and personally identifiable information including a photograph, a strand of hair, a handwriting sample and fingerprints.”

The “dossiers” were posted in the classroom.

“Teachers cannot require students to provide hair samples, fingerprints, or other personal information, or force them to create propaganda without parental knowledge and consent,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “Teachers must be accountable to parents and parents must be vigilant and aware of inappropriate classroom assignments designed to indoctrinate, not educate.”

Attempts to get a comment from the district or Supt. Steve Barker were unsuccessful.