Videos and other documents obtained by Parents Defending Education (PDE) have revealed an elementary school in Portland, Maine, canceled its math and literacy classes to enable teachers to organize students in a social justice march that included children chanting “Black Lives Matter (BLM)” and waving signs.
The national parental rights organization that opposes indoctrination in schools submitted a public records request to Portland Public Schools for the documents and emails related to the BLM march that was reported to have been originally planned at Presumpscot Elementary School on February 28 – the end of “black history month” – but was ultimately delayed until March 3.
🚨NEW from @DefendingEd:
An elementary school in Portland, Maine encouraged their fifth graders to participate in a school-organized Black Lives Matter march.
The students marched and shouted "Black Lives Matter" at the behest of the staff leading them in the march! pic.twitter.com/oTyMvRYb1B
— Nicki Neily (@nickineily) May 10, 2023
One video posted to Facebook on March 4 by Presumpscot School was accompanied by the following post, which, according to PDE, was written by the Presumpscot principal:
There are many moments as an educator/leader when you are humbled by the students and staff you work with. Friday was one of those moments. I was waiting at the green light on the corner of Washington and Preusmpscot [sic] behind a car. We were waiting to turn left when most of our school held up traffic as they marched chanting Black Lives Matter. It was incredible. Thank you, Anya Rosenberg and PRS Civil rights Team, for leading this work. Our students are the next leaders of this country and world, and I know because of them it will be a more just place.
The “civil rights team” is applauded in another Facebook video posted last week for its efforts in leading “Better World Day.” One child is heard saying in the video how she and her fellow students “marched on the sidewalk for Black Lives Matter.”
This video also features a child speaking about the school’s activities to promote “LGBTQ+ awareness.”
“Thank you, Emily, Caron, and Rebecca for leading the Better World Day Community Meeting,” said the post accompanying the video. “Here’s the Better World Day Video. I am blown away by these humans.”
The redacted emails obtained from PDE can be viewed here.
Unreal story:
Elementary school in Portland cancels math and literacy classes for a BLM march.
In the same email thread, a teacher expresses concerns over stalling foundational literacy skills.
Notice a correlation here? https://t.co/W8AfYpFxlu
— Edward Tomić (@VoxDextra) May 11, 2023
PDE explained that, in all of the emails obtained, “most of the school staff involved in discussions of the march have their pronouns listed in their email signatures.”
A fifth-grade teacher who provided her pronouns in her email signature sent the following email on February 16 to explain more about the anticipated event:
On February 28th from 9:30-10, 5th grade students will be leading a march to celebrate the end of Black History Month. This march is organized and led by the 5th grade civil rights team and is united in the message that Black Lives Matter here at Presumpscot and in our global community! Classes are invited to join the march by walking with us and visiting our memorial/celebration in the new cafeteria throughout the day.
The teacher invited other classes to join the fifth grade in the BLM march, which, ultimately, was rescheduled for March 3.
PDE continued that one previous email dated February 9 “appears to be from a fifth grade student to the teacher,” in which the child provides plans for the march, including “going into classrooms and making an ‘announcement telling everyone where the march is and and tell them about it and why it is so important and to please respect the piece of work that all the civil rights team did and please come with your class or with friends.’”
“Please look at the brilliance of these kiddos – this is 100% their planning led by <33333,” the teacher wrote in another email from January 26.
“In a document attached to the emails, the teacher appears to be promoting political activism and has students completing projects called the ‘Human Rights Activist Slideshow’ and ‘Human Rights Activist Research,’” PDE noted.
The emails reveal that regular schoolwork was put aside or attempted to be squeezed in so that students could be involved in planning and then attending the BLM march. One email, dated March 2, the day before the scheduled march, sent from the fifth-grade teacher who cites “Justice is what love looks like in public,” by Cornel West in her email signature, states:
Just wanted to clue you in on the different schedule we will have in 5th grade tomorrow. From 11-11:30 we will be doing our BLM March. When students get back into the classroom and settled, I think both classes will spend that last 25 minutes working on a math sheet for conferences. If [redacted] does plan to do this, perhaps you can support in her classroom while students are working on it? Hopefully the timing of everything will leave us with enough time to work on it.
Another email, dated February 28, from the fifth-grade teacher, whose signature also indicates she is the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher, explains how “regular math or literacy time” will not be able to take place on the day of the BLM march” due to other social justice activities:
[T]his Friday 3/3 the schedule will be different. We are having an expert visit from the HHRC [Holocaust and Human Rights Center] from 9:30-10:30 to present about immigration in Maine, and then from 11-11:30 we’ll hold the BLM march that was rescheduled from today. This means no regular math or literacy time on Friday morning. I’ll probably have students work on SLC prep on Friday after the march.
A redacted email sender then wrote in response about the concern that student literacy learning has declined:
Once we are through conferences, I will need to refocus reading/language lessons to more foundational skills. I am noticing that decoding skill development has stalled a bit.
The email documents also feature a photo of what appears to be a classroom in which a teacher is instructing children about a “Pyramid of Hate,” as defined by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which intends to show “while every biased attitude or act does not lead to genocide, each genocide has been built on the acceptance of attitudes and actions described at the lower levels of the Pyramid.”
The organizing teacher also sent an email on February 28 in which she appears to be indicating she will be instructing kindergartners in the school about what “BLM means” – “to help them understand on their level.”
“If anyone has a great video or read aloud to suggest for introducing this topic to 5 and 6 year olds, I am all ears!” the teacher wrote.
Following the BLM march, an email dated March 4 states:
Thank you so much for helping to make our Black Lives Matter march such a success. It was SO beautiful to see our community out on the streets chanting BLACK LIVES MATTER, smiling, hugging, feeling so empowered. That will be a memory I hold on to for a long time<3.
Mailyn Salabarria, PDE’s director of community engagement, said in a statement sent to The Star News Network that “using Black Lives Matter talking points and a ‘Pyramid of Hate’ for elementary students is not teaching leadership skills, it is promoting ideological indoctrination that doesn’t belong in the K-12 classrooms.”
“A school district that has a proficiency score below 50% should be focused on effective methods to address the learning loss their students are facing, not encouraging partisan activities,” Salabarria added.
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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Elementary School Protest” by Nicki Neily.
