Colleyville Heritage principal speaks against ‘racist’ comments and critical race theory accusations - The Dallas Morning News

Colleyville Heritage High School principal James Whitfield is responding to what he claims are “bigoted” and “racist” attacks including online and public accusations that he is a proponent of critical race theory.

In Whitfield’s lengthy Facebook post on July 31, he wrote that he cannot ask others to speak up if he won’t and “just because I am a school administrator that does not take away my rights and ability to be human and defend myself.”

“I am not the CRT (Critical Race Theory) Boogeyman. I am the first African American to assume the role of Principal at my current school in its 25-year history, and I am keenly aware of how much fear this strikes in the hearts of a small minority who would much rather things go back to the way they used to be,” he wrote.

The curriculum, an academic framework that says racism is a systemic problem perpetuated by government policies and institutions, is not taught in Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, district sources have said.

The accusations, he said in the post, are being connected to a 2019 presentation on “Breaking the Barriers” that talked about people’s differences, which he participated in when he was principal at Heritage Middle School. The presentation has been used to “vilify my colleagues and me,” he wrote, even though it was approved by the district.

Whitfield did not respond to a request for comment, but did speak to KXAS-TV (NBC 5), telling the station that issues started two years ago, when he was promoted to principal at Colleyville Heritage Middle School.

Shortly after his promotion, Whitfield received an email from a school administrator containing a photo of himself and his white wife, Kerrie, kissing on an anniversary trip. He had posted the photo to Facebook and was asked by the administrator to take it down so as not to “stir stuff up,” according to Whitfield’s Facebook post.

“We hid the photo, no one from ‘above’ ever mentioned anything else about it, but the damage was inflicted on us in profound ways. It was at this moment that I knew the attack that we currently endure, was coming,” he wrote on Facebook.

The district did not respond to a request for comment by the time this story was published, but responded to NBC5 with the following statement:

“When a social media concern is brought to the attention of the district, we have a responsibility to review it. Some of the photos the district received contained poses that are questionable for an educator, especially a principal or administrator. It had absolutely nothing to do with race. As a new campus principal, we wanted to provide a smooth transition for Dr. Whitfield to Heritage Middle School, which is why we advised him of the concern and made a request for the photos to be taken down from Facebook.”

Whitfield now says that he can “no longer maintain my silence in the face of this hate, intolerance, racism, and bigotry.”

“For the better part of the last year, I’ve been told repeatedly to just ‘get around the fact that there are some racist people’ and ‘just deal with it and stay positive’ each time the racist tropes reared their heads, but I will stay silent no longer,” he wrote.

A petition supporting Whitfield is circulating around the district, according to NBC5.

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Colleyville Heritage principal speaks against ‘racist’ comments and critical race theory accusations - The Dallas Morning News
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