Posted on April 11, 2022

Teacher Loses Job After Assigning ‘How Racially Privileged Are You?’ Paper

Adam Staten, Newsweek, April 8, 2022

A teacher in Missouri has lost her job after being accused of using critical race theory (CRT) in the classroom.

The local school board recently voted to not renew the contract of Kim Morrison, an English teacher at Greenfield High School, according to the Springfield News-Leader. The move was reportedly made after parents became upset about a worksheet, “How Racially Privileged Are You?,” that Morrison passed out and assigned to students. The worksheet was to accompany the book Dear Martin.

Morrison explained the point of the worksheet “was to prepare students for the conversation that was going to happen between two characters that we were about to read,” according to the News-Leader.

Following complaints from parents about the worksheet, Morrison was called to the school principal’s office in February.

The school’s principal, reportedly, then questioned Morrison about what she was hearing from parents and asked her if the worksheet was in fact CRT.

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Morrison was again called to the principal’s office in the middle of March. She told the News-Leader that the principal said they were continuing to get complaints about the worksheet. After this meeting, Morrison met with the district’s Superintendent Chris Kell—a meeting Morrison reportedly requested.

At the beginning of the meeting, Kell told Morrison that he was unsure if she would be brought back for the next school year.

Ultimately, the board decided, allegedly in a closed session, not to bring back Morrison for the next school year. In a letter from the superintendent to Morrison, the News-Leader reported, that the worksheet was the reason for her job loss. The letter stated: “Your decision to incorporate the worksheet associated with the novel ‘Dear Martin,’ due to the content and subject matter.”

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