Black principal in Texas suspended after controversy over photo with white wife

[Jilly_in_VA]

The Washington Post reported that Colleyville Heritage High School Principal James Whitfield has been widely accused of teaching critical race theory and promoting the idea “of systemic racism,” according to parents who have complained for months to the local school board.

Whitfield denies that he has ever promoted critical race theory at his school and said he believes he is being racially targeted.

“There’s no credence to the CRT claims,” he told the Post. “This group that has spoken out against me has a problem with inclusivity, with embracing diversity and with providing equitable experiences for all students.”

The national debate over critical race theory and its teaching in public schools and colleges has exploded as a major cultural issue in recent months, with conservatives decrying the curriculum as un-American. It was first developed during the 1970s and 1980s as a way of exposing the roots of systemic racism throughout all aspects of society.

https://www.ajc.com/news/black-principal-in-texas-suspended-after-controversy-over-photo-with-white-wife/U72HYDIVONDCDGFUZ3OHQG5OQQ/
__________________________________________________________________
Can we just secede from Texass already?

[North Shore Chicago]

1. Agreed, secede already.

Assist in moving females and all animals out of this barbaric state!

I have lived in Dallas, a very progressive area, Austin and Houston, What the hell is going on that it has come to this? (rhetorical question)

[Elessar Zappa]

2. Unfortunately,

the progressive metropolitan areas can’t yet overcome the vast rural vote that is reliably Qpublican. But soon, the blue areas will overcome the red areas. Every year Texas turns more blue.

[North Shore Chicago]

3. Hopefully,

where there is will, there will be hope.

[usaf-vet]

25. Ya but! can the rest of us survive long enough to see the proverbial pendulum swing toward center?

At 74, I am really tired of this hatred that has permeated the country.

45 has been nearly as successful as Covid in the pandemic level of hatred he has spread nationwide.
Without a vaccine to counter its effect.

Although, it appears more republicans are dying from the Covid 19 and the Delta variant. We can thank the anti-vax and alternative "cures" midset for those numbers.

The GQP is inadvertently working in a direction that might end up favoring Democrats. Neat "trick" killing off your own supporters.

[PatSeg]

9. Yes and start airlifts to get the sane people

out to resettle elsewhere. I lived in Texas for over a year a long time ago (east of Houston) and when I left, I swore I would never set foot in the state again. It is ten times worse today than it was then. We did meet a lot of great people in Texas, but sadly they were usually outnumbered by the gun nuts and religious fanatics. I am not sure which was more scary.

I headed back to Chicago where I stayed until twenty years ago. I take it that is where you are.

[North Shore Chicago]

15. Yes!

Hi neighbor.

[PatSeg]

24. Hi there!

I am in New Hampshire now, but most of my life was spent in Chicago and the suburbs. It will always be home to me. I've noticed your DU name before and always meant to say something. I lived on Belmont right off the lake for awhile and later on Marine Drive across from Lincoln Park. It was so nice to go out the front door and have Lincoln Park as your front yard.

[central scrutinizer]

16. They'll be replaced

By droves of incel bounty hunters from other states looking for easy money and a way to punish women for shunning them

[PatSeg]

27. Let as many of them go to Texas

and then build a fence to keep them there. Kind of like Manhattan in Escape from New York. Leave them there long enough, they'll probably kill each other off. Disease, ignorance, and guns would be their undoing.

I'm writing a script in my head. I do that a lot with these very peculiar people. It helps keep me sane.

[Luciferous]

29. My brother moved to Texas a year ago from Illinois and is already planning to

move back. I lived in the south for a while and tried to tell him it was a lot different but he had to learn for himself.

[PatSeg]

31. Oh, I've had that conversation with people as well

I tried to warn people what it would be like. One guy moved anyway to the Dallas area. As far as I can tell, he never had regrets, but so many people I've known who moved south often move back north. It is a major culture shock that is hard to describe.

[chowder66]

4. Incredible. They suspended him for a photo of him kissing his wife on their 10 year anniversary.

After the July 26 school board meeting where Whitfield was accused, at least one parent reached out to the district to complain about the Facebook photo of Whitfield embracing his wife, Kerrie, on their 10-year wedding anniversary.

A Grapevine-Colleyville school district official reportedly sent an email to Whitfield, calling the photo inappropriate and ordered him to take it down so that it would not “stir up stuff.”

[Deuxcents]

5. The Principal

Should get out of Texas n go somewhere his education n talents will be appreciated.

[sir pball]

6. The photos in question:

[jaysunb]

7. Okie doki. ...I clearly see the root of this problem. Without a doubt.

She's not just white, by gawd she's kinda purdy.

[sir pball]

8. I mean, the jathing suit kind of is a crime...

But not one worthy of firing!

[PatSeg]

10. And he is really good looking as well

Sounds like some jealousy as well as racism.

[tblue37]

23. Yeah, but so is he.

[Sympthsical]

11. That is . . . a lot different than I was expecting

Oh yeah, I can see a parent going after that one. This guy has taught in public education with children and their parents before, yes?

It always surprises me when educators leave their FB pages public. There was a superintendent at my old school district. First gay man. He came in some years after I had graduated. I kind of knew him through mutual friends, as we were around the same age. Anyway, he put his FB info out there. Parents and students could access it.

Yeah, don't post photos and videos from your night out in Boystown, guy. He was rapidly gone.

I have no doubt in my mind there is a lot of racist motivation here. I just don't get why you'd want students to ever see pics like some of these. Keep FB private if you're in a position of public scrutiny like that. Hell, I don't have a single co-worker or employee anywhere near my FB.

I'm assuming these were public photos. "Let's lay on my wife in a sexualized pose where students can see," is not the brightest idea I have ever heard. The article really characterized that one a little dishonestly. "It was just a kiss." Yeah, that's . . . more.

This is perilously close to "play stupid games" territory. I mean, you know there's racism all over this, but his judgement was not great if this was public.

Attractive couple, though.

[Biophilic]

13. Not the photo I saw a couple of days ago on DU about this couple.

It was a perfectly acceptable photo of a happy couple standing next to each other. Not sure where this photo came from, but I think it's suspect.

[Sympthsical]

14. My reaction is totally based on the photos in this thread

If these were posted on social media students and parents knew about, c'mon, guy. What were you thinking?

If these are private photos someone fished out of somewhere, then fuck these people.

[sir pball]

18. The article I got them from said they were on his socmed

I think he said as much as well. I don't get what the problem is though? They certainly aren't inappropriate for anyone to put on their personal social media...I MIGHT see a case if he had them on his desk or something, but that wasn't the case. Maybe I'm just an amoral libertine

[Sympthsical]

19. He's a public educator of children

They come under a great deal of scrutiny. A principal even more so. Anyone in the field knows this. If his social media is accessible to parents and students, those pictures were just begging for it. It takes a lot less to get parents riled up.

I have a friend who's been a teacher since college, and she recently ran and won a school board race. She has two FB profiles. The one she used for teaching and now the school board, and one for friends and family where she shares personal things. The personal one is locked from the public.

I don't personally care about the pictures. I even appreciate them (super handsome guy!). But if I'm a public school principal, newp. Not on public social media where kids can see. That's an own goal. This one should've been common sense.

[LeftInTX]

20. No biggy...just ask him to keep any pics with PDA not public

There is nothing indecent in the pictures at all. He did nothing "wrong" and nothing worth getting suspended over.
I would not be surprised if there are PDAs of other educators who aren't getting as much negative attention.

There are numerous images in the collage which are perfectly fine. He can select a few of them and issue is resolved.


The pictures are adorable. But the one where he is on top might be considered a bit PDA. The piggy back pics are absolutely adorable and should stay.

*********

I do feel that the complaints are OTT and a bit racist. I would not be surprised if there are other white educators with similar pics, which are not drawing this type of attention. But heck, my hubby keeps no pics on his SM, except work pics. His wife is a bit radical, so he keeps her hidden...LOL

[Sympthsical]

22. If it had been private, it would've never come up

If a friend had posted it on their private page, I wouldn't think anything of it. If a kid's teacher posted it on their public page, ehhhhhh. I mean, I wouldn't have complained (don't care).

I'm more bothered by the lack of common sense. "Really? Didn't see this one coming? Been dealing with parents of students for how long? And this one's a mystery? Really?"

Like I said, I don't even let employees on my FB page, and they're all grown adults. Mixing the personal with my job? Especially intimate moments? Nah. I'm good.

[uponit7771]

41. I can't see blatant stupid ass racism coming either sometimes & I'm black this is not an "intimate"

... moment, if it is we're screwed as a society.

OMG people, we do know what's on the internet now that's considered "intimate" ?!!?!?!

[Biophilic]

12. Not the photo I saw a few days ago about this story.

That photo (singular) was perfectly innocent and showed a modest, happy, middle class couple. Why are you posting these?

[sir pball]

17. They were in the story I saw. They were on his social media.

I fail to see your problem with them. They're a clearly loving couple doing an admittedly trite photoshoot; they're in no way suggestive, provocative or otherwise inappropriate.

[wellst0nev0ter]

30. Those photos are Calvin Klein ads

Holy hell, people need to get over themselves.

[uponit7771]

42. RIGHT ?!?!! OMFG, some people need to go have an orgasm quick before they fall over or some shit

[Biophilic]

34. I have no idea how to search for prior posts on DU, but I know what I saw and it wasn't these or

even the same people.

[alphafemale]

28. It looks like a cute reenactment of "From Here to Eternity" surf kiss

Which was sometime in the early ass 50's and this couple is WAY more clothed and FAR less suggestive.

[csziggy]

32. Those pictures are NOT on James E. Whitfield's Facebook page

Yes, there are a couple of them on the beach in the same outfits - one with her on his back and the other with him holding her in his arms. But not the ones shown in your message. Maybe whoever took those pictures posted them somewhere else, but none of the pictures of the couple kissing in the surf on James E. Whitfield's Facebook page in the public photos.

https://www.facebook.com/JamesEWhitfield33/photos

The shot shown seems to be a badly angled photo of a scrapbook page, not a screenshot from a computer view. So those photos were probably not posted publicaly for the world to see.

[Igel]

33. No, they're not.

The story was scrambled in the interest of politics from day 1.

The newspaper that broke the story issued a correction and partial retraction a few days later with, perhaps, an apology. By then the "truth" was reported and echoed and for the most part the retraction got to traction, and the correction never left the starting gate.

In 2019 he was asked to take down the pictures from his Facebook page. He did so. Problem went away. Look all you want on his Facebook page, you're not going to see the pictures because they aren't there.

That was in 2019. Maybe the outrage was because of race, maybe not. But it's a fact that teachers have been fired for being in 15-year-old 1-piece bathing suit advertisements, for posting pictures of drinking while on vacation, having a picture of a wife in a bathing suit in the classroom, or pictures of teacher + other simulating foreplay or sex--in none of which race was an issue. It's like pointing out that the driver pulled over was black and ignoring the fact that whites doing the same 85 mph in the 55-mph stretch of road were also pulled over. Did race contribute? Perhaps. But it certainly wasn't necessary, so showing it was is a stretch--believers nod and say, "of course," doubting thomases don't.

Where I work I was told that happy hour is fine, but don't get drunk and do not show *anything* that ties us back to our school or school district: leave IDs, "spirit shirts", etc., out of the picture. One guy was fired for his second beer Friday afternoon at 4:30 while wearing a school shirt. Obviously not a good role model, right? I've gone out for a brew and burger and changed it to iced tea and burger when the server was one of my students.

In Aug. 2021 the "CRT" accusation came up against the principal. He was suspended. In the first few days after the meeting in which he was suspended, what the principal released was all about CRT and racism--no mention of the pictures. Seems reasonable to infer that the issue wasn't the pictures but accusations of being infected with the "CRT virus."

[LeftInTX]

43. They were

Paywall, so I have no idea....Many times pics on posts won't show up in the pictures section for various reasons. He said they were posted in 2019, so I would have to scroll a long way to find them...My hunch is the person complaining went on a fishing expedition and found the pics by scrolling and scrolling down his FB page. I think they're being racist if they went looking that far for pictures. I bet they were looking for Black Lives Matter stuff...

I see nothing but wholesomeness on his Facebook. But I'm not gonna scroll and scroll all the way back to 2019


Maybe the NYT article has more info

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/us/colleyville-hs-principal-beach-photos.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes

[url=https://postimages.org/][img][/img][/url]

[FreeState]

35. Link to the source? N/T

[sir pball]

44. The NYT. I shouldn't have posted them, though.

I thought they would be exculpatory, all of my other social circles agree that they are not inappropriate even for an "educator"; I seem to have misjudged here. Link below, with that taken care of I won't be further engaging in this discussion.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/us/colleyville-hs-principal-beach-photos.html

[Traildogbob]

21. So

How many Dallas Cowboys and Houston footballers are gonna be suspended before the first game? You know the Hard Knocks behind the scene HBO series, showing families of beautiful white ladies with their black football husbands and mix races babies hard whitie cultist shitting themselves.

[yardwork]

26. Oh FFS. It's white supremacy racism, pure and simple.

[Captain Zero]

37. He's being Uppity, right?

I think all this could fit into a CRT case study, even though he has never taught it.

[yardwork]

39. Right?! It's literally textbook.

How dare he embrace that white woman. Think of the children?!

[Montauk6]

36. Loving While Black, there it is... (SMH)

[New Breed Leader]

38. First women, now blacks, next, gays

na

[LetMyPeopleVote]

40. Arggh