Teachers, parents, education officials, and others in a self-described “anti-racist” Facebook Group are organizing to target parents suspected of disagreeing with “anti-racism” programs in schools in Loudon County, Virginia.
The group wants to gather information on these parents, infiltrate their groups and use hackers to shut down their websites, expose them publicly, and gather donations for all these efforts.
In the past few years, Loudoun County’s school system has been flooded with policies and curricula about “anti-racism.” It even paid one racial consulting firm $500,000. All staff are required to go through an “Equity in the Center” training and in January 2020, the Equity Committee passed a policy to “Offer/Provide Equity in the Center-like training to parents.”
All these anti-racism efforts do not seem enough for the members of a Facebook group called, “Anti-Racist Parents of Loudon County.” The group has compiled a long list of parents who disagree with Critical Race Theory, a philosophy supported by the government but opposed by conservatives and even liberals for its rhetoric that America is an inherently racist country.
The issue seems to have been started by Beth Barts, a white 50-year-old educator who served in the board from 2019 until March 4 when her colleagues in the board censured her.
She has a reputation for blasting parents for questioning her agenda for “equity” and those advocating for the reopening of schools.
According to a report on the Loudoun Times, Barts was removed for failing to “welcome and encourage active cooperation of Loudoun County residents.”
In the anti-racism Facebook group, she rallied a group of members who believe her removal as a sign of the insufficiently aggressive approach by the school board towards racism.
“I wanted to share that I’m very concerned that the [anti-] CRT movement for lack of better word is gaining support,” Barts wrote in the group on March 12. She added that she hoped to “call out statements and actions that undermine our stated plan to end systemic racism.”
A parent, Jen Durham, responded with a clear plan, writing:
“This is a call for volunteers to combat the anti-CRT activities of the P.A.C.T. folks, the stoplcpscrt website, and the like. Looking for folks who are interested in volunteering to organize, lead, execute, and donate regarding the following points:
“Gather information (community mailing lists, list of folks who are in charge of the anti-CRT movement, lists of local lawmakers/folks in charge)
“Infiltrate (create fake online profiles and join these groups to collect and communicate information, hackers who can either shut down their websites or redirect them to pro-CRT/anti-racist informational webpages)
“Spread information (expose these people publicly, create online petitions, create counter-mailings)
“Find a way to gather donations for these efforts. Volunteering is great, but these activities can be costly and not everyone has extra funds readily available.
“Anyone who is interested in this, please feel free to comment here or PM me directly and indicate what you can help with. Then we can hold a kickoff call and start on action items.”
“I’m listing them this way: -First name -Last name -Alias(es) -Location,” Durham added.
“I’m losing any hope that remaining civil towards these people changes anything,” she wrote. “Avoiding these people isn’t enough to stop the spread of their evil rhetoric.”
“Anyone know any hackers?” she reiterated.
Members of the group began listing names of parents, with some including the physical addresses, employers, and even spouses’ names.
A review of the group’s communications, conducted by the Daily Wire, found out that some of the people listed as opponents of the anti-racism policies were neutral on the issue or even completely innocent.
“Why is she on this list? I haven’t seen her support anti-CRT?” one member asked about a name listed by Hilary Hultman-Lee, a former teacher of Latin.
“I put a question mark next to her bc I’m curious about some of her comments re the Dr. Seuss nonsense and racial equity generally. Happy to remove if I’m off the mark,” Hultman-Lee responded.
“No no, I wouldn’t go so far as to take her off. However, from what I’ve seen she is very carefully neutral,” the member who asked the question commented.
Another member of the group, Emily Morford, a parent, listed Ian Prior, a former DoJ official in the Trump era, and Aliscia Andrews, who unsuccessfully ran for a congressional seat under the Republican ticket.
“I am happy to help. The ones I mentioned are neighbors and mouthpieces for this in my community,” Morford wrote.
Other group members noted that Prior had a published op-ed in the Federalist from last October, where he opposed the CRT’s rhetoric that “racism is present in every aspect of life, every relationship, and every interaction.”
Speaking to the Daily Wire, Prior said that, “The best way to counter that is with an op-ed arguing ‘this is why you’re wrong.’”
He added that the Loudoun County school system’s focus on anti-racism has “radicalized privileged white women in Virginia. It has turned them into a threat to the people in their own community.”
“If it happened to them, what is it like for small children?” he added.
Prior believes that Durham is breaking a law in Virginia that states:
“Any person who commands, entreats, or otherwise attempts to persuade another person to commit a felony other than murder, shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony.”
Loudoun’s County Sheriff’s office has opened an investigation into the group’s activities.
“The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office is aware of the situation and the information has been forwarded to our criminal investigations division to review the matter.” a spokesperson told the Daily Wire.
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