The school board of the Chandler Unified School District (CUSD) in Arizona is planning to hold a retirement event for its outgoing superintendent but has already cancelled and restricted student end-of-year activities citing the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a report at the Daily Wire, the school board will host a farewell reception for Dr. Camille Casteel for which attendees, and up to four additional guests each, will be brought to the event via shuttle buses.
Spokesman for the district Terry Locke said the retirement event is outdoors and will require wearing masks. Social distancing will be “encouraged,” the report noted.
— Chandler Unified SD (@ChandlerUnified) April 13, 2021
The school board, however, has already cancelled the students’ high school prom and restricted the number of guests seniors may invite to their graduation ceremony.
“We parents’ frustration isn’t that our school board is holding the events for Dr. Casteel’s retirement, but rather the glaring double standard of the board not being willing to also approve virtually the exact same logistics for our students’ proms and graduation ceremonies, using the excuse of ‘COVID risks,’” Jennifer Alvey, who has five children in the district, told the Daily Wire.
After parents apparently objected to the school board’s “hypocrisy” in holding the retirement reception but restricting and cancelling student-focused events, the board increased allowable guests at senior graduation from two to four.
“Although we’re happy to see additional guests being able to attend with their students during one of the biggest celebrations in their lives, we find the hypocrisy to be staggering,” Alvey said.
Parent Amy Jascourt said the school board showed a lack of transparency and honesty.
“I have done everything to continue to stay in CUSD, including paying someone every day to drive my daughter to and from school over the past years because CUSD was where we needed to be,” she said. “No other district could compare. The board members are not voting what is best for our children … CUSD used to be the leader, the one district everyone looked up to. Now, you are the district no one wants to be part of.”
In February, Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson Tonight host Tucker Carlson reminded his audience that leftist propaganda K-12 programs, such as Deep Equity, in use in CUSD in 2019, are being used in schools across the nation.
The Chandler school district paid about $418,000 to implement Deep Equity, a social justice program whose goal is “transformationalist white identity,” whereby “white folks are attempting to come to terms with race in a real way and question the systemic issues that have caused whites to be in a much superior position.”
As Breitbart News reported, however, after Carlson featured Deep Equity on his show, Chandler parents objected to its use and it was eliminated.
