Forsyth County Georgia Board of Education - Jere Krischel - 12/14/2021

This month we finally got justice for Jussie Smollet, who was convicted for his hate crime hoax. Jussie incited hatred against white conservatives, framing them for a fake hate crime he orchestrated. Although the #MediaIndustrialComplex still treats white people as objects of derision and shame, hopefully Jussie's case will make them think twice about their racist narratives.

On the surface, this case may seem far removed from the concerns of Forsyth County Schools, but unfortunately, there is a connection. We too have been victims of a hoax - the hoax that our community is not diverse, inclusive, or equitable, and that we require special programs to address unconscious white supremacy, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia.

Now, you might think to yourself that a specialized program to address white supremacy, sexism, and various phobias isn't that big of a deal. We all want to support our students and families, and diversity, inclusion, and equity sound like perfectly nice things.

The problem here, is that we are assuming our teachers are white supremacists. We are assuming that our students are sexist, and homophobic. We are beginning with the premise, that without these programs, left to their own free will, the members of this community would behave in terrible, awful ways. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Imagine for a moment if Cognia told us we needed to have special programs to make sure none of our teachers or administrators were unconscious pedophiles. That each administrator was responsible for actively addressing any unconscious pedophilia they might harbor, by taking anti-pedophila classes. We all agree that pedophilia is horrible, that it should be punished, and we should never tolerate it - but how would it make you feel, if your employer demanded that you take professional development classes, to make sure you don't have any unconscious pedophilia tendencies? How would it feel like to have someone assume that you were so morally broken that you needed special classes to make sure you weren't sexually attracted to children?
Now obviously, we need to have discipline programs that address bullying, whether it is due to anti-white hatred, or anti-gay hatred, or any other reason. But discipline programs are meant to address the outliers, not the vast majority of kind, compassionate, and well behaved children, teachers and staff.

Forsyth County, and Forsyth County schools are not racist. They are not homophobic. They are not sexist. They are not transphobic. They were diverse, equitable, and inclusive well before anyone ever heard of the acronym "DEI".

I would respectfully ask the Board, to ask Cognia to affirm the following DEI principles, if we are to continue using them for accreditation:

all people should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin;
equity of treatment is the goal, not equity of outcome;
the most important ingredient for student success is student effort, not what privileges or disadvantages they may start with;
individual identity is more important than any group identity;
The United States is the most diverse, equitable, and inclusive nation that has ever existed.

You do not need to be told not to be a pedophile. And you do not need to be told not to be racist, or sexist, or phobic of anything. And neither do any of us.

Thank you very much for your time, and again, I'd love to have lunch with anyone who disagrees with me.