Bernards Township, New Jersey Board of Education members blasted several parents who spent Monday night complaining about what they claimed was “critical race theory” training for teachers and one person in particular, a Trump supporter who said students need to “grow a pair,” and the education system is “all about hating Donald Trump” – and was applauded by the same parents complaining about “critical race theory.”
“What is the most upsetting part is someone did come up here and make racist comments and basically said, ‘You know what, our children should learn to grow a set,'” school board member Ruchika Hira, according to Patch, declared at the end of Monday night’s meeting. “And you know what the community members did? They clapped. And that to me, is appalling. Because this is the town that I live in. I have two young children, and this is the school district that my kids go to, and these are the parents that are clapping.”
Hira, and other school board members who criticized parents at the end of the meeting were referring to a man who only identified himself as “Mark from Gladstone,” but did not identify himself as a parent.
“Whatever happened to ‘sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me’?” the man asked. “What happened to just washing your hands? And what happened to protecting the children? I see men up here. Men sitting on this panel, why aren’t you guys doing anything to protect these children and to get this stuff out of our schools? Sexual deviance in our schools really? This is horrible. Teaching our kids about race, how to hate each other,” he added, echoing Fox News and right wing talking points.
“Teach white kids that ‘Oh, you got to give up your opportunity if you, if you get one and give it to somebody of color?” he accused.
“And then we teach the kids of color, doesn’t matter how good you are. You’re brown so you just get. This is how we’re going to teach our kids? I think it’s disgusting. I think it’s disgusting that I’m here listening to this sexual deviant crap that’s going on and how it’s being allowed and nobody’s listening to these parents,” he said.
He urged them to “start organizing, because nobody up here and it doesn’t seem like anybody in the public system cares about your kids. You need to start caring about ’em and you need to start getting more involved.”
“Mark” claimed “nobody seems to care about these kids anymore. It’s all about virtue signaling. It’s all about politics, and it’s all about hating Donald Trump. And anyone that’s a conservative or a Republican, you want to talk about bullying. asked me how I know what bullying’s like. And so everybody knows I grew up in Perth Amboy, a white kid in a predominantly Spanish town. You want to talk about racism and being called names? It’s called ‘toughen up.’ It’s called ‘grow a set’. It’s called ‘Life is never going to stop being bullies.’ There’s never going to stop being bullies. They’re going to be there every waking minute of your life. People need to start sucking it up. People need to start growing up. And parents need to start doing their jobs and the school boards need to start doing their jobs because this is getting out of control. Put your politics down and start taking care of the kids. Good night.”
“Mark from Gladstone’s” remarks start at the 1:12:30 mark: