Washington school board cuts music class over 'White supremacy'
Olympia School District mother Alesha Perkins discusses how the school district decided to cut the music program, calling the move a new "level of absurdity."
The Olympia School District in Washington state is under fire for cutting music classes amid claims they promote "White supremacy culture" and "significant institutional violence."
Board members for the Olympia School District, which is facing a budget shortfall of millions of dollars, voted last week to eliminate band and orchestra for fourth-grade students, with one member commenting on the "problems with how elementary instrumental music is administered."
Alesha Perkins, a mother of three in the district, called out the "absurdity" of the move Tuesday on "Fox & Friends First."
"We have reached a level of absurdity in our school district, among our school board and our leadership that is just hard to ignore at this point," Perkins said, adding that the decision was "par for the course" for the controversial board.
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School Board Director Scott Clifthorne told dozens of concerned parents at last week's meeting that music courses aren’t offered equitably across the district, arguing that some schools provide the instrumental courses at times that would require some students to miss "core instruction."
"We’re a school district that lives in … is entrenched in … is surrounded by White supremacy culture. And that’s a real thing," Clifthorne said.
"There’s nothing about strings or wind instrumental music that is intrinsically White supremacist. However, the ways in which it is and the ways in which all of our institutions, not just schools — local government, state government, churches or neighborhoods — inculcate and allow White supremacy culture to continue to be propagated and cause significant institutional violence are things that we have to think about carefully as a community. And I think that we have to do that interrogation. And we have to address the ways in which it creates challenges for administering the educational day for our elementary learners while we retain the program."
Perkins said the district provided "no evidence whatsoever" to back the director's claims and argued the music program is a target for its "tradition of excellence" motto.
"The director of elementary education stated that not only is the program inequitable, but when she heard the word ‘tradition of excellence,’ which was used to describe our music programs, she said that the word ‘tradition’ actually translated to her to mean systemic discrimination."
The struggling district has had a history of controversial policies, including appointing a radical Black Lives Matter activist to fill a vacant board position and an elementary school creating a "safe space" club that excluded White students.
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Perkins said the policies are resulting in a "mass exodus" of families.
"We are losing students in huge numbers. I'm not talking about a handful of students. I'm talking about hundreds and hundreds of students that are exiting the district, and they are virtually all citing these results. You cannot sustain a school district with a mass exodus of students. I mean, it's just not sustainable for funding or anything else."
There will be two more board meetings to address next year’s budget before May 15, according to the district’s website. If no alternatives are identified, Superintendent Patrick Murphy will enforce cuts and layoffs.
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