Missouri AG sues Springfield for allegedly hiding critical race theory training for teachers

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a lawsuit against the Springfield school district, alleging that the district violated a transparency law by restricting access to teacher and staff training that promoted critical race theory.

"Today we sued Springfield Public Schools on behalf of parents to find out exactly what is being taught to their children, especially as teachers and staff are attending trainings where they’re required to consult an ‘oppression matrix’ and other materials," Schmitt told Fox News on Tuesday. "Springfield Public Schools have stonewalled parents and a state representative, but they will not stonewall the Attorney General’s Office."

The lawsuit alleges that Springfield Public Schools publicly acknowledged that it had been instructing teachers and staff on critical race theory – a framework that involves deconstructing aspects of society to discover systemic racism beneath the surface. In a December 2020 report, the school district reported that it had required district leaders and staff to participate in a one-day training from the Facing Racism Institute, and the district claimed the goal of the training was to "introduce the components of critical race theory from educational research with applications to the district."

In one training session, an instructor told teachers and staff to consult an "oppression matrix" and identify where they fall on it. According to the matrix, "privileged social groups" include "white people," people with "male assigned at birth," "gender conforming CIS-men and women," "adults," and "Protestants."

Instructors also presented staff with a figure on "covert white supremacy," which presented "BIPOC as Halloween costumes," "tokenism," "All Lives Matter," and "Eurocentric curriculum" as examples of "socially acceptable" "covert white supremacy."