Beloved Black Principal Fired in Ludicrous Critical Race Theory Spat

‘OLD PLAYBOOK’

Dr. James Whitfield is the first Black principal at Texas’ Colleyville High School.

Brooke Leigh Howard
Reporter
Updated Sep. 22, 2021 3:34PM ET / Published Sep. 21, 2021 3:24PM ET

Parents, teachers, and students were furious when a beloved high school principal in Texas was suspended from his post at Colleyville High School last month. Dr. James Whitfield, the school’s first Black principal, was put on administrative leave after being accused of pushing critical race theory in the school’s curriculum. Now, it seems as if their attempts to save him were all in vain. On Monday night, the Grapevine Colleyville Independent School District voted unanimously not to renew Whitfield’s contract.

After a lengthy discussion about budgeting and tax rates, board members opened the floor to community members who had prepared speeches to share in support of Whitfield. After being warned by the board that there would be no “noise or clapping” during the segment, nearly three dozen attendees took to the podium on Whitfield’s behalf.

“I grew up in the Jim Crow South, and what’s going on here is not particularly new. It’s an old playbook,” one resident of Grapevine, who said she lived in the area for 10 years, said. “But to beat it, we need to start being very clear about what’s OK and what’s not OK—or we’re going to continue being bullied by a reactionary minority.

“It is not OK to make baseless accusations about what our schools are teaching, particularly when all you know about the topic is what’s been told by professional propagandists. It is not OK to demonstrate contempt for another human being by making salacious comments about his family… To the board: It is not OK to punish a respected educator for defending himself when you could not find the intestinal fortitude to defend him as you, yourself, should’ve done.”

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