Under a bill proposed by a Republican delegate, Virginia schools could be required to have a school employee check every bathroom every half-hour to ensure students are safe.

The proposal follows a 2020 case in which a then 6-year-old elementary school student in Hampton was allegedly sexually assaulted by another student in a bathroom over a period of 18 months.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a working paper, so as it passes through, it may be amended,鈥� said Del. A.C. Cordoza, R-Hampton, the bill鈥檚 patron. 鈥淣othing is set in stone until 鈥� it gets that ink from the governor鈥檚 pen.鈥�

Proposal

Under the , named Celeste鈥檚 Law after the Hampton student, public schools would be required to have an employee in each school check every restroom in the building no less frequently than once every 30 minutes during normal school hours.

鈥淚f they are walking around, going to the bathrooms and checking them, on the way they鈥檙e also observing everything else that鈥檚 going on,鈥� Cordoza said. 鈥淚f someone is planning to do something to harm other students 鈥� they go to their locker, they grab something else 鈥� they may see that. So it鈥檚 really making the job more efficient.鈥�

Cordoza said the culture in schools has changed in recent years, a factor that partly led him to introduce the bill.

He also said his legislation doesn鈥檛 envision teachers being taken out of the classroom to conduct the security checks. The bill specifically mentions employees conducting the checks would include 鈥渁ny school resource officer or any school security officer.鈥�

鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to overburden school resource officers or SSOs either,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e just want to make sure our kids are safe, and I want to do that in the most effective and efficient way possible.鈥�

Hampton case

Cordoza said he promised Nikia Miller, the mother of the Hampton student, that he would do everything he could to make sure a similar situation didn鈥檛 happen to any other children in his area or the commonwealth more broadly.

In March 2020, an elementary school principal in Hampton City Public Schools alerted Miller that her child had been sexually assaulted multiple times by another student who was a year older. Miller鈥檚 daughter was 6 when the alleged assaults began.

Miller told she believes there were at least 10 cases of assault against her daughter during an 18-month period. The child developed repeated anxiety and panic attacks and had to attend weekly therapy sessions, the mother said. She was also moved to another school.

Last year, Miller filed a $5 million lawsuit against Hampton schools, the reported, saying the division had been negligent.

Hampton City Public Schools in response stated it had conducted an investigation along with the Hampton City Police Division that found two female second graders who attended different after-school programs had met in a girls鈥� restroom after school hours.

The school division said it had no knowledge of the encounters until after the fact.

鈥淗ampton City Schools staff members remain committed to ensuring a safe and nurturing environment for all of our students,鈥� the school division said to WTKR last year.

The school division said that at the parent鈥檚 request, it had enrolled the aggrieved student at another school and offered counseling.

The Hampton case isn鈥檛 the only Virginia incident to unfold in a school bathroom.

In 2021, a high school student in Loudoun County Public Schools assaulted two female students on separate occasions. The first assault occurred in a bathroom; subsequently, the teenager was transferred to another school, where he assaulted another student. The first victim , saying it failed to follow Title IX processes for sexual assaults or even begin an investigation until five months after the assault.

Cordoza, who said he is familiar with the Loudoun cases, said the General Assembly must 鈥渘ow proactively try and prevent it from happening.鈥�

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To wind down after a chaotic school year, Austin Ambrose, who teaches third grade in Nampa, Idaho, purchased some fun reads he hoped would keep his students engaged until summer break 鈥� and like much good children鈥檚 literature, provide a window into another culture.

One title, , tells a Harry Potter-type story set in Brooklyn featuring a young Black boy. But when the book turned up on a , one family at Gem Prep, a charter school, argued it ran afoul of the prohibiting schools from promoting critical race theory.

Under the school鈥檚 policy, Ambrose had to offer the student an alternative book to read.

鈥淚 told them, 鈥業鈥檓 only trying to expose your child to different cultures and experiences,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淭hese conversations are going to help them when they get into the real world because they are going to meet people who are different from them.鈥�

Idaho is among nine states so far to ban critical race theory 鈥� which holds that racism is baked into U.S. systems and institutions to purposely keep people of color at a disadvantage. Lawmakers in at least 20 more states have proposed similar laws to block what they see as a dangerously divisive form of indoctrination. But for many teachers, the backlash feels like a new kind of McCarthyism, one where they fear being harassed, for a wide array of classroom activities. It doesn’t help that the clash comes as school leaders are struggling to help students 鈥� many of them lagging up to a year behind in core subjects 鈥� bounce back from the pandemic. To that end, educators are steering an unprecedented influx of federal funds toward their recovery.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a huge distraction at a time when we can鈥檛 afford a distraction,鈥� said Dan Domenech, executive director of AASA, The School Superintendents Association. 鈥淭his has been a year the majority of students were not exposed to the kind of learning they should have been exposed to. Now you鈥檙e going to paralyze teachers because they are afraid to teach.鈥�

The furor is hard to miss.

The Nevada Family Alliance wants teachers to wear to prevent them from 鈥済oing rogue and presenting their own political ideas.鈥� A mother in South Kingston, Rhode Island, to learn how the district teaches race and gender issues. And a conservative watchdog group, maintains an 鈥渋ndoctrination map鈥� showing districts influenced by critical race theory.

In suburban St. Louis, tensions over issues of race and curriculum have grown so fraught that educators feared for their physical safety.

Several Rockwood School District administrators had private security officers stationed at their homes. In June, school officials spent nearly $5,000, according to district spokeswoman Mary LaPak, to place private security for two weeks at the home of a district literacy coordinator, who instructed teachers in an April email to remove a lesson plan for a 鈥渃ulture and identity鈥� unit from the online classroom management system 鈥渟o parents cannot see it.”

In a letter, the local teachers union called on district officials to protect educators from 鈥減ersonal attacks and outright threats of violence鈥� following the backlash. Parents argued the district was teaching critical race theory and 鈥渕aking white kids feel bad about their privilege,鈥� according to the email.

鈥楨ye of the beholder鈥�

That鈥檚 a lot of mileage for an idea most Americans hadn鈥檛 even heard of until six months ago.

In that brief span, critical race theory emerged from grad school obscurity to become something of a Rorschach splatter of our anxious political moment. Some see little more than an attempt to reclaim episodes of Black history like the 1921 Tulsa race massacre or the long practice of Jim Crow redlining. For those who decry it, at school board meetings and , it encompasses a host of ills, from anti-bias training to that other 鈥淐RT鈥� 鈥� culturally responsive teaching, the integration of students鈥� cultural and ethnic backgrounds into the classroom. Some have lumped social-emotional learning and restorative discipline into the mix.

Because it can be so hard to define, Jonathan Zimmerman, an education historian at the University of Pennsylvania, called the dust-up over critical race theory 鈥渟carier鈥� than similar controversies, such as the recent clash over teaching The New York Times Magazine鈥檚 .

鈥淭he 1619 Project is a thing you can look up; it’s a very specific document with a curriculum attached to it,鈥� he said. 鈥淐ritical race theory isn’t in that category. It’s kind of in the eye of the beholder. And if that eye has watched a lot of Fox News, it’s going to behold a lot of critical race theory.鈥�

Fox has used the term times so far in 2021, according to the Washington Post. And conservative organizations such as continue to highlight schools that focus on students鈥� racial or gender differences. found that least 165 such 鈥済rassroots鈥� groups have sprung up over the past year, many with ties to GOP strategists.

Republicans see it as a winning strategy they can ride into the 2022 midterms. Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster, expects the fight to keep playing out in school board elections.

鈥淲e’ve gone through different waves, but school board races are very unequal terrain because the right spends so much time focused on them,鈥� she said.

In Virginia鈥檚 Loudoun County Public Schools, a conservative group, Fight for Schools, has launched over board members鈥� support for equity-related initiatives of Lilit Vanetsyan, an educator in neighboring Fairfax County Public Schools, went viral when she appeared before the Loudoun board to declare that classrooms had become 鈥渋ndoctrination camps.鈥� While the Fairfax district confirmed she is an employee, she also runs a Instagram account and is a correspondent for the Right Side Broadcasting Network.

In Tennessee, a chapter of , a group seeking more parental influence over school policies, opposes teachers鈥� use of the autobiography . Bridges wrote the 2009 book, which is aimed at second graders, about her experience as one of the first Black students to attend all-white schools in New Orleans. According to local news reports, the group objected to the book showing a crowd of 鈥渁ngry white people鈥� protesting integration.

When parents equate key aspects of the civil rights movement with critical race theory, they 鈥渉ave become very confused,鈥� said Erika Sanzi, the director of outreach at Parents Defending Education, a nonprofit at the center of efforts to resist what they see as 鈥渉armful鈥� political agendas in the classroom. (The organization鈥檚 website does not identify funders, and Nicole Neily, the group鈥檚 president, declined to to name them out of concern for 鈥渄onor privacy.鈥�)

Sanzi said she鈥檚 not necessarily in favor of the GOP-backed legislation because she鈥檚 鈥渟till hanging on to the belief that we beat bad ideas with better ideas.鈥� But she does question the messages some young elementary students are getting about their 鈥渨hiteness.鈥�

At an elementary school in Bellevue, Washington, for example, a for the 2020-21 school year said that students would 鈥渉ave explicit conversations about race, equity, and access,鈥� and that fourth and fifth graders would be responsible for implementing schoolwide anti-racist strategies. The plan has since expired and the district said it allows parents to opt their children out of 鈥渋dentity-related discussions.鈥�

鈥淭hese are children who believe in Santa Claus and put their teeth under their pillow,鈥� Sanzi said.

At outside Columbus, Ohio, the confusion ran so deep that two families asked to remove their children from a course that focuses on critical thinking.

To their parents, that sounded a lot like critical race theory.

In a February email to the school鈥檚 principal, one father who pulled his child from class said 鈥渉e didn’t want his kid feeling guilty about 鈥楳arxist critical race theory,鈥欌�� recalled Robert Estice, who teaches the required course. The class syllabus has no mention of Marxism or critical racial theory. For seventh grade, course themes include 鈥淗ow do I know what I know?鈥� and 鈥淗ow do I interact with others to understand their perspectives?鈥�

鈥淚 don’t want to put ideas in kids鈥� heads that aren’t their own ideas 鈥� that they wouldn’t have come to themselves,鈥� Estice said.

Some educators wonder whether the laws will take away a powerful tool that teachers have to connect with students 鈥� their own personal stories.

鈥淚 was a teacher, and one of the things I loved the most was the freedom to teach,鈥� said Tramelle Howard, a board member in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System in Louisiana, where a bill curtailing the teaching of critical race theory failed to advance in the legislature this session. 鈥淚 did not shy away from my lived experience. I had white male students in my classes, and it wasn鈥檛 my job to get them to think a certain way, but to think critically.鈥�

鈥業ntentional agenda鈥�

Little of this has anything to do with actual critical race theory, the legal term coined by scholar Kimberl茅 Crenshaw in the 1970s. It has become synonymous with a kind of racism that applies to institutions rather than individuals. It could, for example, describe police departments that disproportionately apply excessive force against African Americans.

In fact, it was one of these moments, the murder of George Floyd by a white officer in May 2020, that is most responsible for pushing critical race theory into the public consciousness. The cell phone video of Floyd鈥檚 death taken by a Black teen prompted months of protests and led many school leaders to take public stands condemning racism and calling out 鈥渨hite privilege.鈥�

Some of those efforts prompted outcries not only from parents, but educators. Teachers in a New Jersey district about being required to participate in what they described as 鈥渋nsulting鈥� anti-bias training. One white teacher reportedly said a presenter told her she was a 鈥渋nherently racist鈥� and a 鈥渨hite supremacist.鈥�

And in the Virginia Beach Public Schools, where some board members are pushing to ban critical race theory, Superintendent Aaron Spence agreed that his district went too far when literacy coaches attended a February training in which a video speaker said white educators should say 鈥渙f course I’m racist.鈥� Such approaches, he said, alienate teachers when 鈥渢he whole goal of equity is to keep everybody in the room.鈥�

With public comments over critical race theory dominating the last three board meetings and staff members frequently responding to calls and emails from residents, he called the uproar an 鈥渋ntentional agenda of distraction鈥� that 鈥渢akes us away from the real work of addressing the challenges we face in public education.鈥�

In September, former President Donald Trump put his stamp on the issue with an banning federal employees from receiving any training about critical race theory, further contributing to the perception that it promotes anti-American ideas. President Joe Biden reversed the order, but its language became a template for state bills to come.

Just last week, Republicans on the peppered Education Secretary Miguel Cardona with questions about critical race theory, specifically a notice for a that references the 1619 Project and the work of Boston University鈥檚 Ibram X. Kendi, a leading author in the field. (The department has since removed the references.)

Named last year as one of most influential people, Kendi won the National Book Award for . With such accolades, he is among speakers who can command over $20,000 an hour to address school districts on the issue. Kendi, like others, argues that everyone is born into a society founded on racism and that it requires to reverse disparities. He advocates for a , which would create an anti-racism agency to evaluate all local, state and federal policies to ensure they don鈥檛 contribute to inequity.

During the virtual hearing, some committee members tried to get Cardona to denounce Kendi鈥檚 work. 鈥淒o you realize how radical and how out of touch this guy is?鈥� Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin asked.

Virginia Rep. Bob Good pushed Cardona to ensure that the federal government wouldn鈥檛 legally challenge state laws banning critical race theory. While Good was speaking, someone shouted 鈥渞acist鈥� and New Jersey Democrat Donald Norcross鈥檚 name briefly showed on the screen. Chairman Bobby Scott, D-Va., later noted the 鈥渋nappropriate comment鈥� and asked the members to respect each other.

Cardona said multiple times the issue has become politicized and the department doesn鈥檛 dictate curriculum, but that he trusts teachers to navigate these issues and believes culturally responsive teaching 鈥渂uilds community.鈥�

Scoring 鈥榩olitical points鈥�

In states where legislation has already passed, some educators are questioning how they鈥檒l be able to address controversial topics this fall.

鈥淗ow can we learn about U.S. history without feeling distress at times?鈥� asked Eddie Walsh, an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Memphis Grizzlies Preparatory Charter School in Tennessee, one of the states that has passed anti-critical race theory legislation. 鈥淥ur goal as educators isn’t to make kids guilty, but we also can’t lie to them or omit the truth when it comes to our past.鈥�

In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed this month that allows teachers to cover the history of white supremacy, including topics such as the Ku Klux Klan and the eugenics movement, which involved the forced sterilization of Black women. But it forbids instruction from causing students to 鈥渇eel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or another form of psychological distress鈥� because of their race or sex.

Asia Klekowicz and Ryan York, co-CEOs of The Gathering Place, a San Antonio charter school with a focus on social justice, know they could be sued.

鈥淭here is a long history in the U.S. of laws being written as a way to score political points.鈥� York said. 鈥淲e welcome challenges to the way we [address these subjects].鈥�

鈥楾housands of critical conversations鈥�

So, where do we go from here? Legislation designed to suppress the controversial philosophy鈥檚 influence is problematic for a few reasons, said Matthew Shaw, an associate law professor at Vanderbilt University. First, he said, the laws are difficult to enforce. And second, they鈥檝e only created greater interest in the ideas they seek to wipe out.

鈥淭he irony is that trying to ban or limit critical race theory in conversations in such a public, blunt, legalistic manner has sparked thousands of critical conversations,鈥� he said.

One of the more thoughtful exchanges occurred last week, when two Black educators addressed the National Charter School Conference. Ian Rowe, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, called the debate a 鈥渕assive distraction鈥� from the fact that too many students 鈥� including white children 鈥� read below grade level.

鈥淲e want to create equality of opportunity for all our kids. Literacy has to be the anchor of that,鈥� said Rowe, who sits on the board of the which aims to unite people based on 鈥渃ommon humanity.鈥� 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want the whole hullabaloo around critical race theory to detract from something that is holding back kids of all races.鈥�

He said students should know the history of racial oppression, including the Tulsa race massacre, alongside the 鈥渟tories of racial resilience,鈥� such as how Booker T. Washington founded more than 5,000 schools in Black communities throughout the South with Julius Rosenwald, the president of Sears. And teachers should introduce critical race theory alongside ideas that challenge it. The problem, he added, is when it鈥檚 presented as a 鈥渟ole theology.鈥�

But at the same session, Sharif El-Mekki, CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development, described the backlash to critical race theory as 鈥渁bsolute hysteria.鈥� He added that focusing on successful Black people who 鈥渕ade it鈥� ignores the reality of why they had to be resilient in the first place.

鈥淭hat is a pathway to the dark side without the full story,鈥� he said.

鈥擱eporters Beth Hawkins, Mark Keierleber, Asher Lehrer-Small, Kevin Mahnken, Marianna McMurdock, Bekah McNeel and Patrick O’Donnell contributed to this report.

Clarification: An earlier version of this story reported that Rockwood School District officials spent $2,500 to place private security guards outside two administrators’ homes. That expenditure was related to a district controversy involving the removal of the “thin blue line” flag 鈥� a police solidarity symbol that has become associated with white supremacy 鈥� from a high school team’s baseball cap.

Lead images: Getty Images, Teaching for Change/Flickr and /Instagram