A Visual History of the "Culture War" in GCISD

Around the time that COVID hit, the "culture war" nation-wide was hitting an all-time high. Our neighboring school district, Carroll ISD, had discovered a "cultural competence" plan that was going to be forced down the throats of the educators and students in their district. The community rebelled, and a fierce fight opposing teaching Critical Race Theory and gender ideology in Carroll public schools began.

As close neighbors, GCISD and Keller ISD were both watching this fight and taking notes. It occurred to both communities that if Carroll ISD was having to fight against CRT and gender ideology in its district, then chances were, those same topics were already in their school districts too. 

They were right.

This page covers 4 topics:

1. Counseling Concerns
2. Curriculum Concerns
3. Library Concerns
4. Teacher Training Concerns

Years ago, several GCISD parents discovered some unfortunate realities related to how their children were treated by GCISD's counseling team, in addition to some incredibly biased sexuality training given to the counselors themselves.

Students were given a survey, without parent consent, that questioned their racial tolerance, sexual behavior, and sexual inclinations. 

Counselors were given a training that taught them how to integrate "tolerance" into their practice, which included hiding gender identity conversations with students from their parents. 

A full video of that counselor training that was removed from the district's official YouTube channel; we captured screenshots of it before then and put them below.

This section covers:

1. Part of the "Aim for Success" sex ed survey given to GCISD's kids without parent consent
2. The results of a DEI survey given to GCISD's kids without parent consent
3. An invoice from the survey instrument company (Panorama Education) that provided the DEI survey and processed the student data
4. Screenshots from the counselor training about how to let go of "being binary" (gender is a spectrum--not just the male/female dichotomy), how to confront people who don't use the right pronouns, and how talking to parents "may be" a must

Notably, there has been some debate as to the actual existence of a standardized curriculum in GCISD.  That's because there were gaps in many of GCISD's programs that teachers had to fill by writing teaching materials themselves. At the high school level, it's still the teachers who write materials, and those materials can change without district authorization. In this way, the district still does not have a consistent curriculum for many high-school level classes.

The primary concerns parents and community members had within teaching documents was the presence of Critical Race Theory at all levels of schooling, in addition to a great deal of sexually explicit and inappropriate materials.

This section covers:

1. Educator Resources for Black Lives Matter protests
2. Screenshot of student interface with BLM graphic
3. Screenshot of student interface with Minecraft BLM graphic
4. Image of AVID student training in CRT intersectionality
5. GCISD teachers promoting "race and equity" at AVID student training
6. GCISD elementary curriculum writer advocating for the "1619 Project" 
7. 9th grade ASPIRE teacher-created CRT curriculum document
8. 9th grade sexually explicit reading materials imbedded into GCISD's curriculum
9. 11th grade sexually explicit reading materials imbedded into GCISD's curriculum

GCISD's libraries are commonly known as "learning commons," and librarians are commonly known as "digital media specialists." 

About 5 years ago, some of GCISD's librarians decided to include more "diverse viewpoints" in their libraries. That is a direct quote from one of GCISD's former librarians.

Years later when Critical Race Theory, gender ideology, and sexually explicit books were discovered in the district's libraries (at all levels), parents spoke at board meetings expressing their deep concerns for the safety of their children and asked for a review of materials. The district complied.

Ultimately, only illegal sexually explicit and graphic materials were removed from GCISD's libraries. CRT and gender ideology materials were kept, but moved to a "parental consent" area of each library in all secondary schools (there is no such area in elementary school now).

This section includes:

1. some CRT books found in K-12 schools
2. some sexually explicit books found at 6-12 schools
3. some gender ideology books from 6-12 schools

GCISD's educators are the lifeblood of our school district. When several disturbing teacher trainings hosted by the school district became public knowledge, the community was understandably concerned.

These teacher trainings were often written and led by individuals within the district. They provided a complete overview of Critical Race Theory and all of its doctrines: microaggressions, white privilege, systemic racism, intersectionality, and more. 

Below are selected images from 4 such district trainings that were offered to GCISD's teachers.

1. "Breaking the Barrier: Talking About Our Differences"
2. "Who's School Made For?"
3. "A Taste of Theory"
4. "What's Race Got to Do with It: Amplifying ALL Students' Voices"