IRC-NAACP President, Tony Brown, Tells Desegregation Committee to Abandon Agreement. “Do Not Keep Throwing In My Face, the 2018 Plan.”
Brown’s position is an unreasonable demand in federal case entering its 60th year of litigation.
On March 7, 2024 at the federally mandated IRC-NAACP / SDIRC Workgroup meeting, IRC-NAACP President Tony Brown asked the School District of Indian River County (SDIRC) not to “keep throwing in my face, the 2018 Plan.”
The 2018 plan Brown is referring to is the 2018 Joint Action Plan (2018 Plan) which is the contractual agreement the plaintiff, the IRC-NAACP, reached in federal court with the defendant, SDIRC 6 years ago. The agreement is a set of goals to reach “unitary status” according to the Desegregation Order. The case is entering its 60th year of litigation. For the last 8 years, estimated legal costs for SDIRC average $105,000 annually. The IRC-NAACP admitted in the meeting it receives pro-bono legal counsel.
Brown’s comment express the continued tactics of his team’s obstinate illogical position when faced with real time progress founded in the measurable performance of the School District. On Monday, March 18, at the superintendent’s workshop, Dr. Moore commented that his executive team has established their priorities and created the systems to be in full compliance with the 2018 Plan. “I want to remain consistent, as your superintendent, I think we have met all of the requirements and we are entitled to unitary status.”
However, nearly from the outset of the March Workgroup, IRC-NAACP representatives questioned the validity of data derived from the teacher mentorship program the SDIRC presented at that meeting. The program is required by the 2018 Plan. Section II - Mentoring of New Teachers and Instructional Staff (Section II) directs the SDIRC to “continue its plan and practice of welcoming and providing a supportive professional environment for all its employees, including African American employees of the School District and its schools.”
Section II acknowledges that all “teachers who are in years one through three of their teaching career are automatically enrolled” in the mentoring program. Only those with degrees from a college of education can opt-out.
The SDIRC presented a spreadsheet of aggregate data results confirming the work is being done superseding the requirements of the 2018 Plan. Yet, member for the plaintiff, Merchon Green, further requested an expansion of requirements. “I think it needs to be documented that supporting materials be provided, because we had that issue before where the Equity Committee was getting reports and charts and graphs, but we didn’t get the raw data.”
Historically, Green has only advocated for a separate mentoring program for African American teachers. Her comment was referring to her time as the chairperson of the Equity Committee originally established by the 2018 Plan which was the precursor to the Workgroup. That committee’s job was to receive the data from the School District, evaluate it and make recommendations to SDIRC board for consideration. The 2019 Inaugural Equity Committee’s Report said the district demonstrated “NO COMPLIANCE” in regard to the committee’s recommendation of “a detailed plan specifically created for African American teachers and instructional staff” while acknowledging it “understands there is an overall mentoring plan for all teachers” which is what is required by the 2018 Plan.
The Sunshine Journal has learned through a public records request, that since January 01, 2018, there has not been one case filed by a teacher, instructional staff, or, student and their representative guardian for Discrimination or Harassment under SDIRC policy, 3122 (NONDISCRIMINATION AND ACCESS TO EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY) and SDIRC policy, 2260 (NONDISCRIMINATION AND ACCESS TO EQUAL EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY). Furthermore, according to the real-time enrollment at the district website, minority teachers are 20.4% of instructional staff with black teachers accounting for over half. That representation is an increase since the 2018 Plan was adopted, and it exceeds the agreed upon requirements.
In the line of reasoning put forth by Green as to what she believes constitutes proper mentoring, she perceived failure referring to the arrests of former first year physical education teachers, Darius Cohen and Akkua Hallback. Cohen was from Clewiston in rural Hendry County and Hallback was from Moore Haven in rural Glades County. As friends, they shared a residence. Both of the teachers were arrested in 2021 when, on their own personal time after a night of drinking, Cohen and Hallback went into an apartment thinking they were at the residence of Cohen’s girlfriend. Instead, it was the home of a family of five. Cohen went in and lied down in the bed of the mom and dad who had one of their children between them. Hallback went to use the bathroom. The father ended up outside with the two teachers where a scuffle ensued. As the man ran, Cohen fired four shots from a gun wounding the father in the back. He survived the wound. Cohen is still in jail facing a first degree murder charge. Hallback was arrested on a controlled substance charge.
Green said, “To talk about the effectiveness of mentoring, we had two black teachers get arrested. It reflected horribly on the school district. And I can tell you, a mentoring pairing, yes they do instructional stuff, but they also tell you ways around the community” adding, “if they had been effectively paired, there would have been some different things that happened in that situation.”
Dr. Moore responded, “But that’s mentoring an adult. The intention of this [program] is to help them transition into being an effective educator, not where they are spending their [time at] 3:00 AM. Those are the decisions they made, and that’s not evaluating our mentoring program.”
“It’s all encompassing!” said Green emotionally. Tony Brown added, “It’s all apart of it Doc. Cultural Competency. Nobody caught it. Think about it, you are bringing a kid from a rural county into Indian River with all the nuances associated with that environment. Is he culturally competent to survive? Dr. Moore, we are looking at it holistically. Just because they are black, don’t mean they understand the black experience.”
Asking for Culturally Responsive Teaching or CRT is demanding the school system change its whole approach outside of the requirements of the 2018 Plan and the equal treatment of SDIRC newly hired educators in the mentoring program. Later, NAACP President Brown stated, “We have seen some of the most atrocious stuff go on in Indian River County. And our people, even though the data might say this and the data might say that, we have a community full of functionally illiterate kids. And, that’s a reality. I am not faulting anybody, I am faulting the system.”
In the book, “Critical Race Theory: An Introduction,” written in 2001 by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, the authors clearly state the intentional undermining of the very American principles that inform the 2018 Plan. The authors write, “Unlike traditional civil rights, which embraces incrementalism and step-by-step progress, critical race theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order, including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism and neutral principles of constitutional law.”
Critical race theorists believe that the practice of CRT is intrinsic to its design. “It not only tries to understand our social situation, but to change it; it sets out not only to ascertain how society organizes itself along racial lines and hierarchies, but to transform it for the better,” add Delgado and Stefanic. At the meeting, Brown reaches the same conclusion, and therefore, the 2018 Plan has to be ignored. He determines, “We are here to help alter the course of that system, but we must be open and honest to say, ‘that’s not good and that’s not good, and we need to change that, and, not keep throwing in my face, the 2018 Plan.”
Excerpts from the book: Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, Delgado, Richard, & Stefancic, Jean, 2001, first ed. pp.2-3