Indiana launches website for parents to report LGBT, racial indoctrination in schools
The state of Indiana has launched a new website allowing parents to document what they consider concerning curriculum in public schools as part of a statewide effort to ensure parental rights in education.
In a statement released last week, the office of Indiana's Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita announced the establishment of "Eyes on Education."
The project is defined as "a transparency portal to empower parents to further engage in their children's education by providing a platform to submit and view potentially inappropriate materials in their schools."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Rokita asserts that the portal is necessary in light of his conversations with "students, parents and teachers about destructive curricula, policies or programs in our schools."
"Our kids need to focus on fundamental educational building blocks, NOT ideology that divides kids from their parents and normal society," he added. "The media and schools themselves have continued to deny that this indoctrination is happening here in Indiana, so my office is launching Eyes on Education — a platform for students and parents to submit and view real examples of socialist indoctrination from classrooms across the state."
Stressing that the program aims to empower parents, Rokita added that his office also wants "to help empower excellent educators."
"In some cases, district bureaucrats suppress the conscientious efforts of caring and well-qualified teachers," he stated. "Our portal is a place where educators, too, can submit examples of materials they find objectionable."
In a video message, Rokita expressed hope that the portal will inspire parents to "take action with principals, school boards, lawmakers and the governor."
Online for less than a week, the portal already contains examples of content deemed concerning by parents in more than a dozen school districts in the state.
Specifically, the portal documents the inclusion of an "ideology matching" exercise allegedly given to Carmel High School students, asking them whether certain people are more likely to be liberal or conservative and vote Republican or Democrat. The portal also includes an alleged class lesson dividing students into the categories of "oppressor" and "oppressed" at a middle school in the same district.
Additionally, students at Carmel High School were reportedly asked to read an article from The 1619 Project Collection, an initiative of The New York Times designed to portray the establishment of slavery as the defining factor in American history.
Elementary school students in Center Grove were allegedly presented with a slide about "micro-aggressions" that identifies "All lives matter" as problematic. The same training also taught the fifth-graders how to be "anti-racist."
Additional material included in the portal consists of a sexual orientation and gender identity lesson at Martinsville High School that encourages students to become "emotionally independent from their parents," a lesson from an English class in Noblesville listing males, whites, Christians and heterosexuals as "dominant groups" while calling females, minorities, non-Christians and LGBT people "subordinated" and a college presentation reserved exclusively for black students in the Penn Harris Madison School Corporation.
A spokesperson for the Indiana Department of Education told The Indianapolis Star that Rokita's office didn't consult the agency before launching this portal. Carmel Clay Schools officials told the newspaper that Rokita's office didn't inform them of the claims made in the portal or ask to confirm the validity of the documentation.
“Multiple documents clearly originated from a now-defunct outside special interest group, and others appear to be online quizzes with no additional context provided,” Emily Bauer, director of community relations for Carmel Clay Schools, told The Star. “As a tool for purported transparency, it is irresponsible to portray these screenshots as curriculum, as CCS follows the Indiana State Standards.”
Additionally, officials for Noblesville Schools District and Hamilton Southeastern Schools, which also have materials listed in the database, told the newspaper that those materials are not used in classrooms any longer.
According to the portal, Indianapolis Public Schools, Mooresville High School, New Prairie United School Corporation and the Hamilton Southeastern Schools have policies in place that allow trans-identified students to use restrooms and sex-segregated facilities that align with their stated gender identity as opposed to their biological sex.
Last year, Indiana enacted a law prohibiting school officials from providing "any instruction to a student in prekindergarten through grade 3 on human sexuality." The measure also requires schools to inform parents if their child makes a request to identify as a member of the opposite sex. The legislation was approved in a 37-12 vote in the Republican-controlled Indiana Senate and a 63-29 vote in the Republican-controlled Indiana House of Representatives.
In the Indiana Senate, three Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the measure, while one Republican joined Democrats in voting against it in the House of Representatives. The state's Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed it into law last May.
Rokita's office has also authored a Parents' Bill of Rights, which declares that parents have "the right and expectation to question and review the curriculum taught in your child's school" as well as "the right to know what books are available to students in the school library and to request the removal of books that are obscene or include material harmful to minors."
Additional rights protected in the document include "the right to be notified if your child requests to be addressed by a name or use the pronouns of the opposite sex" and "the right to defend your child's First Amendment rights to religious expression and free speech in a school environment."
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
