Former teacher tells Tucker he 'was separated' from school after objecting to CRT, split Zoom sessions by race
'I saw some things that really disturbed me. And I spoke out about it'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A former teacher at a prestigious New York private school said critical race theory is seeped into regular childhood education that kids have been robbed of their individuality and instead are fed a collectivist mindset—where one's characteristics trump one's unique abilities.
Paul Rossi detailed that during the coronavirus pandemic, the school allegedly held two separate Zoom sessions for a particular curriculum — one for "white-identifying students" and another for "people-of-color-identifying" students — the former educator said on Fox Nation's "Tucker Carlson Today."
This led to an ultimatum. Rossi was offered a new contract for the following school year, but only if he agreed to attend "restorative practices, led by the Office of Community Engagement," so he could address the "harm" he caused students of color.
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"As a teacher, my first obligation is to my students. But right now, my school is asking me to embrace anti-racism training and pedagogy that I believe is deeply harmful to them and to any person who seeks to nurture the virtues of curiosity, empathy, and understanding. Anti-racist training sounds righteous, but it is the opposite of truth in advertising," Rossi said in a statement prior to the interview, read by host Tucker Carlson.
"For many years at my school, I had been watching the effects of some of these teachings -- DEI training, which is CRT-informed, or informed of the offshoots of CRT," Rossi told Carlson on the program.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}DEI is short for "diversity, equity and inclusion" — a component of critical race theory.
"There are some good things about [DEI], to be fair. But what I saw happening was that students were being led to identify with their group identity, and really to-- in a period of identity development, which is really important for students of that age."
"It is minimizing the personal side of [humanity], and being taught to embrace the collective side of it, the group side, which meant race, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation. These things were the most significant part of their identity. And I saw that playing out and having deleterious effects, not just on the culture of the school, but on the kids themselves."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}His breaking point was the aforementioned alleged Zoom session on self-care during the pandemic.
"[B]oth the students and the faculty were divided by race-- White-identifying students and faculty in one Zoom room, and Black, indigenous, people of color-identifying students and faculty in another Zoom room. And they got [dictated] substantially different content."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I was with the White identifying group, and I saw some things that really disturbed me. And I spoke out about it."
When he spoke out, it caused the administration to deliver the ultimatum. Rossi told Carlson some students also indicated they were troubled by the segregated Zoom sessions.
"They'd actually come to me, that they felt afraid and sort of silenced. So I wanted to set an example that they might-- that they might see a teacher that was asking questions about something, about a set of beliefs that were really being pushed on them as objective knowledge, which they really aren't," Rossi said.
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