News/Commentary

‘Parents deserve to know’: Texas law firm advises schools on how to ‘circumvent’ CRT ban, watchdog says

October 20, 2023 | | Print Article

Accuracy in Media, a watchdog group that has recently made headlines for its Harvard “doxxing truck” that displays the students who signed a pro-Hamas letter, took a hidden camera into a Texas conference for school board officials and school superintendents. They discovered that a prominent Texas law firm is advising the educators on how to “circumvent” the state’s ban on critical race theory (CRT).

Thompson & Horton LLP works exclusively on “school law” for Texas schools and universities, Adam. Guillette, president of Accuracy in Media, told Fox News Digital. In the video, attorneys from the firm explain to administrators how to “lie to parents” and “indoctrinate kids,” he said, despite the Lone Star State’s stand against CRT.


(Video: Fox News Digital)

And it isn’t just a Texas problem.

“What we’ve captured throughout the state of Texas is entirely consistent with what we’ve seen in other states: The administrators do not care what the law tells them to do, they are committed to pushing the radical principles associated with critical race theory, no matter what,” Guillette said.

In one portion of the video, Ashley White, senior associate at Thompson & Horton, explains to the conference crowd that “Senate Bill 3 does prohibit a teacher or school district from requiring an understanding of the 1619 Project.”

“However, it doesn’t prohibit a student from choosing to do an assignment on the 1619 Project; it doesn’t prohibit the teacher from having the 1619 Project among a number of other books that the students could select from related to a project; it also doesn’t prohibit a teacher from assigning an article that might have a concept from the 1619 Project,” she states. “So, for example, if they have an article that’s about the fact that every musical genre in America was kind of born from Black roots, that is a concept that comes from the 1619 Project and that would still be allowed.”

As BizPac Review has reported, the 1619 Project is a revisionist retelling of the nation’s history through the eyes of the New York Times’ Nikole Hannah-Jones, who believes America was founded on white supremacy. It has become a cornerstone of CRT teachings.

White notes that “teachers are given a safe harbor from discipline for inappropriate content concerns if they are teaching from state board of education materials.”

“So, what that means is that teachers who use only materials from those state board-approved materials, they’re going to be immune from any sort of disciplinary proceedings that may allege a teacher violated any portion of the law,” she explains.

When a conference attendee remarks that, “[T]heoretically, you could have the 1619 Project in your library,” Oleg Nudelman, a partner in the Dallas and Fort Worth offices of Thompson & Horton states, “You’re exactly right.”

“What you cannot do with the 1619 Project,” Nudelman says, “is assign it as required reading because that would be arguably requiring an understanding of it, right? If a school district wants to have the 1619 Project in their library and let their kids check out and read it, that is not against state law.”

“It’s morally outrageous when you meet with administrator after administrator who brags to you about deceiving parents and ignoring the law, and it’s incredibly outrageous to learn that tax dollars are essentially used to pay for a conference where they hired attorneys to teach them to circumvent the will of elected officials and the will of the parents,” Guillette fumed.

Thompson & Horton LLP denied that the law firm is helping woke administrators skirt the law.

“We do not endorse or encourage any actions that would circumvent laws,” a spokesperson for the firm said. “We understand concerns about parental rights, and our primary objective is to provide accurate information and guidance to Texas educators to ensure teaching practices are within the boundaries of the law.”

The presentation quotes are “consistent with the requirements of the law and were used to describe what the law requires and does not require,” the spokesperson argued.

“That is essential to an understanding of any law, which is the purpose of a presentation such as this, during which audience members often ask us questions for further clarification,” according to the firm. “Our purpose was not to advocate for any position, policy decision, or teaching approach, but to provide a clear description of this new law to those responsible for making such decisions.”

A spokesperson for the Texas Association of School Boards accused Accuracy in Media of misrepresenting the “law experts.”

“It’s obvious that this group took short snippets of an hour-long conference session and edited them to push their own agenda and misrepresent what was being said by these school law experts,” the spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “If you look at the last caption on the video, they are clearly pushing vouchers.”

Guillette, however, called the video “just shocking,” especially considering that it was filmed in Texas.

“It’s certainly not in Berkeley or Boulder,” he said. “Instead, we go to deep-red states and these administrators are lying to parents, deceiving parents, and I think parents deserve to know that.”

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Melissa Fine
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