Dueling protests were held outside Thursday’s meeting of the Fairfax County School Board, for and against critical race theory (CRT) in the district’s schools. On the pro-CRT side, Michelle Leete — a leader in the NAACP and PTA — excoriated critics of the Marxist-inspired theory:
Let’s deny this off-key band of people that are anti-education, anti-teacher, anti-equity, anti-history, anti-racial reckoning, anti-opportunities, anti-help people, anti-diversity, anti-platform, anti-science, anti-change agent, anti-social justice, anti-health care, anti-worker, anti-LGBTQ+, anti-children, anti-health care, anti-worker, anti-environment, anti-admissions-policy change, anti-inclusion, anti-live-and-let-live people.
Let them die. Don’t let these uncomfortable people deter us from our bold march forward.
In stark contrast, some on the anti-CRT side were offering prayers for their pro-CRT counterparts. “I was praying for them on the other side at the rally,” Steven Mosley tweeted. “They were calling for me and others … to die.”
Brenton Hammond, District 43 GOP nominee for House of Delegates, shared on Twitter that he was “in shock” after hearing Leete’s incendiary rhetoric. “I heard this tonight as it was spoken and I was in shock,” the candidate tweeted. “Absolutely unacceptable, we must be a better example for young people and all people.”
“Leete’s rhetoric — and the applause it drew — is part of a worrisome trend on the Left that viscerally hates and demonizes those with sincerely-held, alternative points of view. Her incendiary words are hardly reflective of a tolerant, ‘live-and-let-live’ mindset,” the Fairfax GOP tweeted. “The current zero-sum, win-lose K-12 system needlessly fuels hatred and resentment. We hereby offer a true ‘live-and-let-live’ compromise: neither the Left nor the Right shall impose its values on the other; instead, let’s all support educational pluralism via #SchoolChoiceNow.”
The Virginia PTA — a thoroughly left-wing organization — released a statement Friday “on recent media coverage” that failed to even mention Leete’s name. “This summer, Virginia PTA board members will participate in sensitivity training to ensure that we remain mindful of our community and the words we use,” the statement read.
On Saturday, the Virginia PTA announced Leete’s resignation. “While not speaking in her role within Virginia PTA, we do not condone the choice of words during a public event on Thursday, July 15, 2021,” Saturday’s PTA announcement read.
On both Friday and Saturday, the Virginia PTA’s Twitter account disabled comments from the public. To date, the organization has not renounced Leete’s hateful, CRT-informed worldview — only her “choice of words.”