Radical Activist Group Operating “Student Run” Club at OHS

Introduction

Recently, a student club titled SPIDEE (Students Promoting Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity through Education) began operating at Oakwood High School.  While SPIDEE is portrayed to students and the public as a “student run” club, the club, its concept, its contact person for students, its curriculum, the initial running and organization of its student meetings, and then the supervision and logistics of those meetings are all the work of an outside activist organization that created it: the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ).  In SPIDEE meetings, NCCJ staff work directly with and train OHS students, who then present SPIDEE’s curriculum to sixth graders in Harman and Smith schools.  NCCJ and SPIDEE students have asserted the club’s purpose is to promote ostensibly respectable objectives of fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion and opposing bias and bullying.  If that is the club’s sole purpose and function, then it should be wholeheartedly welcomed.  However, a review of NCCJ’s publications and public workshops reveals the organization advances radical and controversial Critical Race Theory (CRT)-oriented and other social and political agendas similar to those used in “student run” groups across the country that are run by other activist groups such as the GSA Network. 

These agendas include: teachings of ubiquitous white supremacy and systemic racism; lumping individuals into “privileged” or “oppressed” categories and effectively judging them based on their demographics such as race, sex, income, and even religion; advancing controversial sexual and gender-related agendas; and promoting the BLM organization and key CRT figures such as Ibram X. Kendi and Kimberlé Crenshaw.  In short, they are more akin to political and social indoctrination than genuine attempts to reduce bias, prejudice, and bullying.  Further, they display characteristics of DEI programs that studies have shown to fail rather than those that have been shown to succeed in achieving their stated purposes.  But is that also what SPIDEE teaches?  At this point, it is unclear, since NCCJ’s website on the SPIDEE program gives no meaningful, specific information about SPIDEE’s curriculum or teachings and NCCJ staff have repeatedly failed to honor, or have outright ignored, repeated requests by multiple Oakwood school student parents and residents to disclose SPIDEE’s curriculum and program materials.

Please peruse the article below for more details, and pay close attention to what NCCJ publishes and appears to promote on its web pages and public seminars.  Many web pages promote key CRT figures and teach us to judge individuals based on race, sex, or religion as being privileged beneficiaries who enjoy unearned benefits at others’ expense.  At the time of this writing, there is an upcoming free, public seminar on “The Role of the White Accomplice” (click HERE to register) that will surely cover these concepts.  Note their similarity to the contents of the GSA Network’s publications and actual student club materials (not to mention their similarity to certain professional development materials presented to Oakwood school personnel).  Then ask yourself: Is this what we want to teach our children to believe?  If this is what SPIDEE teaches, would it really achieve NCCJ’s and SPIDEE’s purported goals of reducing bias, division, discrimination, and bullying, or would it do the opposite by actually inciting and spreading more of it, and would it in fact amount to controversial political and social indoctrination?

If you share our concerns and desire for more transparency and disclosure about the SPIDEE program, please see the CALL TO ACTION section below for the NCCJ contact information to inquire about SPIDEE, and for questions that should be asked of NCCJ and the Oakwood school administration.  If you aren’t doing so already, please follow our Oakwood Community for Strong Schools (OCSS) website and Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/oakwoodstrongschools) for information and updates about this and other topics impacting our treasured school system and community, and sign up here for regular email updates.

1. A “Student Run” Organization?  Not Really.
2. What Does the SPIDEE Program Teach to Students?
3. Why We Are Concerned
   • Contact Person for the SPIDEE Program
   • Growing Trend of Activist Groups Injecting Their Agendas Into Schools via “Student Run” Clubs
   • What About SPIDEE’s Sponsor Organization, NCCJ?  What Does It Teach?
     • NCCJ’s Publications and Seminars Promote CRT Ideologies, BLM, and Judgment of Individuals Based on Race, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Expression, Income and Religion
     • NCCJ’s Online Seminars and Workshops on “Privilege” and “The Role of the White Accomplice” (vs. an “Ally”)
     • NCCJ’S Publications Feature BLM, Ibram X. Kendi, and Other Major CRT Promoters
   • What’s Wrong with These CRT-Related Teachings of “Privilege” and “Oppression” for DEI
     • Worsens Bigotry, Discrimination, and Division Rather than Ameliorating It
     • These Approaches to DEI Amount to Political and Social Indoctrination
4. Where does that leave us with SPIDEE?
5. CALL TO ACTION: DEMAND DISCLOSURE AND TRANSPARENCY

A “Student Run” Organization?  Not Really.

Last May, parents observed the following poster throughout the halls of Oakwood High School, inviting students to join a “student run” organization titled SPIDEE (Students Promoting Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity through Education):

The representation of the organization as “student run”, however, is misleading at best.  The email address that the poster provides for students to contact and get involved in the club isn’t the address of a student or even a staff member of Oakwood schools, but an outside adult who works for the Dayton chapter of a nationwide activist organization called NCCJ, the National Conference for Community and Justice.  Interestingly, the poster doesn’t make clear to students who the contact person is or her role as an outside activist. Furthermore, it is clear from NCCJ’s website (https://nccjgreaterdayton.org/spidee/) and the presentation NCCJ and some students gave to the Oakwood Board of Education during its August 2022 meeting (see here starting at 3:18) that NCCJ, not students, designed and operates the SPIDEE program and concept, designed its curriculum and instructional materials, organizes and runs the initial regular program meetings with students, and only then transfers the running of those regular student meetings in Oakwood High School, with NCCJ staff then continuing to handle the “logistics” of those meetings and sit in on them to provide ongoing advice and coaching.  A SPIDEE club member nevertheless repeated the representation that the club is “student run” during the presentation to the Board of Education, while mentioning that NCCJ staffers had been running the meetings, which had been “more student run” only over the previous couple of months.

Based on remarks from an NCCJ staffer, Lake Miller, during the Board of Education meeting, those trained high school students then give presentations to sixth graders in Harman and Smith schools to promote the SPIDEE program, which they plan to do three times this year, and it serves as preparation for them to get involved in SPIDEE once they reach ninth grade, or to get involved in other NCCJ programs such as “Agents of Change.”  He noted there are discussions about possibly expanding SPIDEE’s role at the middle school level as well, and that SPIDEE-trained high school students can get involved in running “Change at the Middle,” an NCCJ program for middle school students currently operated in other school districts.

Given the obvious role NCCJ plays in the design and operation of SPIDEE, one must ask, how did this “student run” club come to operate in the Oakwood school system?  Was it at the organic request of students, or was it initiated by outreach from NCCJ or other outside organizations, and/or Oakwood school administrators or staff?

What Does the SPIDEE Program Teach to Students?

NCCJ’s SPIDEE webpage states that its lessons “focus on diversity and inclusion, the danger of stereotypes, and the value of differences”, and its programs are “designed to promote anti-bullying behaviors and positive-decision-making in the lives of the students served.”  In its presentation to the Board, NCCJ presented itself as a “diversity, equity, and inclusion nonprofit dedicated to eliminating bias, bigotry, and all forms of discrimination”.  A SPIDEE club member then asserted that the SPIDEE curriculum for Oakwood schools was made to be “special so that it could really touch on the heavy subjects that we think are really important and that can make Oakwood a better community and make everybody feel more accepted and included”.

If the SPIDEE program is simply focused on teaching students to foster an inclusive environment that eschews and works to eliminate bias, prejudice, and bullying while leading students to treat each other with equal respect and dignity without regard to demographic differences, then the program should be welcomed as a valuable addition to the Oakwood school system and community for so long as it adheres to those laudable aims and does not incorporate divisive or the controversial teachings such as those discussed below.  It is possible that is the case.

At this point, however, it is unclear what the SPIDEE program actually teaches or presents to students.  NCCJ’s SPIDEE webpage provides only scant and very general information about what the program actually teaches.  Moreover, multiple Oakwood residents and parents of students in the school system have reached out to NCCJ via the “REACH OUT TO US TO LEARN MORE” portion of its SPIDEE web page to inquire about the program, and while they initially received a prompt and enthusiastic reply from the same NCCJ staffer whose email address appears on the above poster, or from other NCCJ staff, as soon as those residents and parents then asked for copies of the SPIDEE program and curriculum materials, they received no further answer, even in response to follow-up requests.

Why We Are Concerned

In addition to NCCJ’s failure to respond to multiple requests for the SPIDEE instructional and program materials, there are compelling grounds for concern about the scope of the program’s advocacy; specifically, that it may extend beyond the noble purposes described above and into highly controversial, divisive, and even radical political and social activism that even contradicts the stated purposes of the program and of NCCJ that are represented on its website and its presentation to the Board of Education.

Contact Person for the SPIDEE Program

The first cause for concern was an initial review of the undisclosed SPIDEE contact person whose email address appears on the above poster displayed throughout OHS, and who is also one of the two NCCJ staff members who has been running and then coaching the SPIDEE meetings.  A review of her social media postings included, among various left-wing political content, a pair of posts made just days after the outbreak of deadly and destructive riots following George Floyd’s death: one post voicing support for the Black Lives Matter movement whose name, slogans and logos were displayed by many of those who perpetrated the riots without any condemnation from the BLM organization; and, most troubling, a post that was clearly intended to defend the riots by likening them to other “riots that created change”, such as the American Revolution, and even the Marxist revolutions in Russia, Cuba, and South America:

Just five days after her above posts, it was reported the riots had already left 19 people dead (see here), and as a reminder, the riots went on to leave dozens dead, thousands injured, and approximately $2 billion in property damage, with stores looted and destroyed along with the livelihoods and finances of many of their owners, a historical 19th-century church in Washington D.C. and a police precinct in Minneapolis severely burned, a city block in Seattle overrun by violent extremists, and a federal courthouse in Portland besieged by Antifa and other rioters who attempted to set it on fire while federal employees were barricaded inside.  BLM not only failed to condemn the riots, but the Chicago BLM leader defended the looting as “reparations” (see here), and within about three weeks of this NCCJ staffer’s posting, the New York Chapter BLM leader declined to condemn the rioting and stated, “[i]f this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it … I could be speaking figuratively, I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation.” (see here). This NCCJ staffer’s Facebook posts remain on display (as of October 21, 2022), and this is the individual who is given direct access to Oakwood students to influence their views on diversity, inclusion, and quite possibly, political and social advocacy.

Growing Trend of Activist Groups Injecting Their Agendas Into Schools via “Student Run” Clubs

For general background, the emergence of SPIDEE in Oakwood schools comes as a larger nationwide trend has emerged, of outside activist organizations injecting their influence into schools under the cover of “student run” clubs and organizations.  They often represent themselves to schools and the public under the reasonable and agreeable mission of promoting “diversity, equity and inclusion”, “justice” and “anti-bullying”, while imposing curricula that reflect attempts to indoctrinate children to accept CRT-themed and other highly-controversial political, sexual and gender ideologies.  One prominent example is the Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) Network, which according to a thoroughly-sourced investigative report (GSA Clubs Smuggle Gender Ideology into K-12 Education) operates over 4,000 student clubs in elementary, middle and high schools across the country – including in Ohio – under the above-stated purposes of promoting inclusion and preventing bullying. 

While the GSA Network’s presumed purposes of combating bullying and fostering respect and inclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals would certainly be respectable and agreeable, a review of the GSA Network’s publications and its instructional materials for its student clubs show its agendas, including for student clubs, extend far beyond such aims.  As the above report shows, the organization’s administrative materials and literature advance the beliefs that “white European men created an oppressive system based on capitalism, white supremacy, and “heteronormativity”, that “to fight back, racial and sexual minorities must unite under the banner of ‘intersectionality’ and dismantle the interlocking ‘systems of oppression’”, and the GSA Network’s manifesto calls for the abolition of the police, of borders and of ICE, and “the overthrow of the ‘cisgender heterosexual patriarchy’”. 

Further, the GSA Network’s instructional materials for its student clubs, which it repeatedly brands to the public as “student run” as NCCJ does with SPIDEE, include a Digital Organizing Toolkit (see here) teaching children to do the “self work” to understand “’how [their] actions, lack of actions, or privileges contribute to the ongoing marginalization’ of the oppressed”.  The Toolkit includes a Critical Theory/CRT-themed chart that groups individuals into those holding “Systemic Power (Privilege)” who are allegedly responsible for specified forms of “SYSTEMS OF OPPRESSION” and “PREJUDICE”, versus those holding “LESS OR NO SYSTEMIC POWER (OPPRESSED)”.  These groups are assigned these judgmental classifications based on their race, sex, gender expression, sexual orientation, and even their lawful citizenship status.  For example, white people are deemed responsible for “White Supremacy”, straight and “cisgender” people are responsible for “heteronormativity” and “transphobia”, and citizens are responsible for “imperialism” and “settler colonialism”.  The Toolkit includes common neo-Marxist themes of repeated calls to work for “(collective) liberation” and “dismantling” of “systems of oppression”, and features a photograph of children each with an activist fist in the air, along with a quote from longtime activist and former longtime Communist Party USA member Angela Davis.  It is clear that much of the content and apparent purpose of this toolkit strays far from LGBTQ+ inclusion or anti-bullying.  The investigative report also notes the GSA Network’s literature is replete with anti-capitalist rhetoric.  These concepts of White Privilege, systemic racial oppression, and anti-capitalist sentiment are hallmark concepts of CRT[i].

The GSA Advisor Handbook, which is the manual for GSA personnel to use in “setting up, running and sustaining” the “student-run” club, includes instructions on hiding student participation in the clubs from parents: “Know the laws in your state around students’ privacy rights and what you do and don’t have to tell parents/guardians/families.  This is important so you don’t inadvertently out a student as a member of the GSA.”  It further states, “[n]ote that in many cases, it is not required that parents/guardians know that students are part of a GSA” (see p. 24 of the Handbook).

What About SPIDEE’s Sponsor Organization, NCCJ?  What Does It Teach?

NCCJ’s Publications and Seminars Promote CRT Ideologies, BLM, and Judgment of Individuals Based on Race, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Gender Expression, Income and Religion

A review of NCCJ’s website similarly shows the organization actively promotes and teaches concepts of Critical Race Theory and Critical Theory generally, including in its online publications and in seminars it offers to the public, some of which are presented under the oft-used rubric of supporting “diversity, equity and inclusion”,  “anti-racism” and “anti-bullying”.  These include promoting blanket judgments of groups of people based on their racial and other demographics as “privileged” oppressors versus “oppressed” victims, teachings that any system or standard that yields or permits unequal outcomes is therefore systemically unjust, as well as controversial activist positions on sexuality and gender ideology.

As with the GSA Network’s Toolkit for its “student run” groups, the NCCJ, in its publication “What is Privilege” (see here: What is Privilege? – NCCJ), teaches the typical CRT worldview of grouping and judging individuals based on their racial or other demographic identity group membership as either holding “Privilege” or being in one of a number of “Target or Oppressed Identities”.  Sporting the organization’s political bias with a picture of Fox News personality Tucker Carlson as a purported epitome of privilege, this publication defines “privilege” as “unearned access to resources (social power) that are only readily available to some people because of their social group membership”, and as “immunity granted to or enjoyed by one societal group above and beyond the common advantage of all other groups”. 

The page then singles out and defines the various types of “privileged” groups to include whites, males, heterosexuals, “cisgender” people (defined as having a “self-perception” and “expression of gender” that aligns with their sex “assigned at birth”), upper and upper-middle-class individuals, and even Christians, with each group alleged to have their privilege “at the expense” of an oppressed group.  So according to the NCCJ, someone who enjoys an upper-middle-class standard of living as a result of having worked hard and made responsible choices in life is nevertheless judged to have “unearned access to resources” at the “expense” of less economically successful socioeconomic groups – a quintessential Marxist economic and political worldview.  If these concepts are taught in the SPIDEE program, it can hardly be said to serve one of SPIDEE’s asserted purposes presented to the Board of Education, to “make everybody feel more accepted and included”, particularly for students in one of those supposedly “privileged” groups.

As often seen with CRT literature and activists such as Ibram X. Kendi who promote its precepts, the page’s discussion of “white privilege”, and its link to ”11 Facts About Racial Discrimination”, each cite statistically unequal outcomes among racial groups as conclusive evidence of systemic racism and white privilege, without any consideration of racially neutral factors that have been shown be significant causes of those outcomes.  For example, it cites the disproportionately higher share of police stops, frisks, arrests, and criminal detentions involving African-Americans without mentioning, even as a potentially-relevant contributing cause, the well-documented (and tragic) fact that a disproportionately higher share of crimes is committed by African-Americans, as evidenced not only by arrest records but also by similar results shown by victim survey data, each published by the U.S. Department of Justice (see here and here), as well as by higher crime rates in African-American communities (see here and here), among other sources of evidence.  By this logic, our criminal justice system could be deemed systemically sexist and rife with female privilege based on the sheer facts that men are slightly less than half our population but account for approximately 80% of those arrested for violent crimes.

“Christian Privilege”?

Among the “privileged” groups cataloged in NCCJ’s privilege publication are Christians.  This is presented in a video (https://youtu.be/IMWNYmuhTvg) showing a man angrily lecturing the “Christian Right” and complaining of the widespread acceptance and display of Christian customs and beliefs, such as holidays and holiday greetings, various affirmations of shared Christian beliefs or values, songs promoting Christian beliefs (presumably Christmas carols and hymns, etc.), elected officials acting based on Christian moral beliefs, and even having private Christian schools.  It exudes a clear intolerance of and opposition to the prevalence of Christianity and its influence on our society and culture.  How does this reconcile with one of NCCJ’s stated purposes of “eliminating…bigotry”, as presented to the Board of Education?

NCCJ’s Online Seminars and Workshops on “Privilege” and “The Role of the White Accomplice” (vs. an “Ally”)

NCCJ hosts a series of online seminars, workshops, and “training” sessions (see here: https://www.nccj.org/mission) whose titles and descriptions show they also promote these CRT-driven ideologies of white privilege, systemic racism, and doing the “self-work” to “dismantle” “systems of oppression” seen with GSA Network’s Toolkit for student clubs.  A two-day “Anti-Racism” session “is a live, online training program that explores bias, discrimination, oppression, and privilege in the United States”, while another program is titled “The Role of the White Accomplice” where one learns “the difference between an accomplice and an ally”.  Note this session will be aired FREE from 12-1pm on Tuesday, November 15^th, 2022.  To watch it yourself, register HERE.

NCCJ’S Publications Feature BLM, Ibram X. Kendi, and Other Major CRT Promoters

Consistent with BLM’s support seen above from NCCJ’s contact person for SPIDEE, BLM is directly promoted by NCCJ on the Bulletins section of its website (see here: Black Lives Matter – NCCJ).  Here, a promotional webpage dedicated to BLM is introduced as “an informational bulletin that can be used in clubs, classrooms, meetings, shared with friends and family…”  In addition to BLM’s alarming associations with the deadly and destructive riots of 2020 discussed above, BLM advocates defunding the police on grounds that “police don’t keep us safe” (see here), a view that is apparently rejected by the overwhelming majority of African-Americans, considering a Gallup survey showed 81% of African-Americans want the police presence in their neighborhoods to either remain the same or be increased.  BLM also teaches, including in its BLM At School detachment, 13 Guiding Principles that include “disrupting the Western-prescribed nuclear family” under Principle 11 (Black Villages) and “freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking” under Principle 6 (Queer Affirming) (see here and here).  BLM At School also presents recommended K-12 school curriculum materials teaching CRT-themed and LGBTQIA+ concepts to students at levels down to elementary school (see here and here).

A public statement NCCJ in Dayton released shortly after George Floyd’s death concludes with a list of linked “Resources”, including Anti-racism resources for white people – Google Docs, containing a litany of radical CRT-promoting authors, lecturers, and materials:

• Ibram X Kendi, a prominent proponent of CRT ideologies who publicly asserts that any policy or system that permits unequal outcomes among racial groups is racist, and who has explicitly advocated for the use of racial discrimination to remedy past, and what he believes to be present and future racial discrimination.  He has also stated that the equity gaps between black and white Americans cannot be eliminated without reparations for slavery, and anyone who opposes reparations is a racist (see here).
• The 1619 Project, a New York Times publication that – like CRT – espouses the false notion of the U.S. being based on systemic racism, and has been widely criticized by historians for its many historical inaccuracies.
• A presentation by Kimberlé Crenshaw, one of the most prominent CRT scholars and promoters.
• “White Fragility” by Rogin DiAngelo, which asserts that whites are collectively responsible for contributing to nationwide white supremacy in the country.
• “Me and White Supremacy” and ”White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack”, among other CRT-related titles.

What’s Wrong with These CRT-Related Teachings of “Privilege” and “Oppression” for DEI

Worsens Bigotry, Discrimination, and Division Rather than Ameliorating It

Research has shown that most diversity programs, with their emphasis on peoples’ differences, fail to achieve their stated aims of fostering inclusion and positive intergroup interactions, and instead breed division and resentment, and that by contrast, programs that are more effective in achieving those aims are those that focus on our common humanity and shared identity while honoring our various differences (see here). 

DEI, “anti-bullying” and “anti-racism” programs that advance these CRT-related teachings of “privileged” versus “oppressed” groups, as seen above with the GSA Network and NCCJ, fall squarely within this category of DEI programs that have been shown to be unsuccessful; they focus on our demographic differences.  Teaching people to generalize and judge individuals based on their demographics as members of a “privileged” (bourgeoise) class that enjoys “unearned” advantages at the “expense” of an “oppressed” (proletariat) class under societal systems of oppression is not only false and revealing of the neo-Marxist CRT concepts from which they are derived, it also explains why such programs would produce the opposite results of those they are purportedly intended to achieve.  

The predictable result of teaching people to make these blanket judgments of individuals based on their race, sex, religion, and other demographics as oppressors with unearned advantages at other groups’ expense is that it will condition them to view members of those groups in a negative light.  It conditions people to think and act exactly like racists, sexists, and bigots, by negatively judging and generalizing them based on their demographics rather than viewing them for who they are as uniquely individual human beings.  It clearly flies directly in the face of NCCJ’s stated purpose of “eliminating bias, bigotry and all forms of discrimination” or teaching about “the danger of stereotypes”; it will instead exacerbate and spread stereotypes, bias, bigotry, discrimination, division, resentment – and perhaps even – bullying.  In fact, according to the parents of one Oakwood school student, their child experienced explicit threats of violence from other students for daring to mention her belief that there are only two genders that are not fluid or decoupled from biological sex.

Ironically, these teachings run afoul of two of Martin Luther King’s oft-quoted ideals: his advocacy for a society in which his children “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”; and this one:

Stated otherwise, you cannot drive out “bias, bigotry and all forms of discrimination” as NCCJ supposedly aims to do, by injecting more of it into our society, including our schools.

These Approaches to DEI Amount to Political and Social Indoctrination

By conditioning members of certain demographic groups to believe they are “privileged” “oppressors” who enjoy “unearned” benefits “at the expense” of “oppressed” groups, these approaches to DEI clearly have a shaming effect that pressures them to undertake the steps these programs prescribe (i.e., “do the self-work”) to escape their loathed “privileged” status and gain acceptance as an “ally”.  This obviously requires that such groups must submit to, and openly profess their agreement with, the underlying, radical political and social beliefs and theories on which these “privileged” and “oppressed” classifications are predicated.  For example, a white person must accept the CRT precepts of “white privilege”, ubiquitous “systemic racism” and “white supremacy”, and that, as NCCJ’s “What Is Privilege” publication states, they enjoy “White Privilege” in the form of “unearned access, resources, and social status systematically given to white people at the expense of people of color”.  A person who might otherwise accept what until just recently was the almost unanimously-held belief that gender is binary, unchangeable, and synonymous with biological sex must adopt the beliefs of gender/transgender theory by recognizing they are “Cisgender”, which this NCCJ publication defines as someone who merely has a “self-perception and expression of gender” that happens to coincide with their biological sex that was “assigned at birth”.  They must then confess to enjoying “Cis Privilege” “at the expense of trans people”, or acknowledge that any disagreement with gender/transgender theory is “oppression” in the form of “transphobia”.  A heterosexual must confess to their “Heterosexual/Straight Privilege” and take prescribed steps to resolve it;  presumably, this would include accepting the content on Heterosexism in the “Resources” section of the NCCJ publication, such as agreeing that it is oppressive “heterosexism” to view “heterosexuality as inherently normal” and “moral” in contrast with homosexuality, or to oppose gay marriage.  This would of course require, among other things, that some reject the teachings of their religious faith and it displays a lack of tolerance or respect for diversity of religious and moral beliefs, all under the banner of promoting “diversity”, “inclusion” and “eliminating…bigotry”.

Where does that leave us with SPIDEE?

Again, it is possible that the SPIDEE program is limited to fostering positive interactions among students of different groups, and opposing genuine bias, prejudice, and bullying; but as demonstrated above, we have compelling reasons to suspect it extends well beyond that and into these harmful and divisive ideologies, and ultimately into political and social indoctrination. 

• Are we to believe there is some sort of ideological firewall erected within NCCJ that prevents these divisive, racist, sexist, religiously and otherwise demographically bigoted ideologies advanced in its publications and seminars from finding their way into the SPIDEE program, particularly when their contents so closely resemble those of the actual “student run” clubs operated by GSA Network? 

• Considering how NCCJ and its staff who run the SPIDEE program are so steeped in this radical activism as seen above, are we really to believe and trust that they would resist what must be the alluring temptation to use their direct access to Oakwood students to expose them to those ideologies? 

These concerns are compounded by the continued failure of NCCJ staff to disclose the SPIDEE curriculum and program materials in response to multiple requests, and follow-up requests, from parents of Oakwood school students and Oakwood residents.  Why is it that the NCCJ staffers who operate the SPIDEE program are eager to reply to initial inquiries from Oakwood parents and residents and then suddenly ignore them once they specifically ask to see the SPIDEE curriculum and instructional materials?  What is it about SPIDEE that NCCJ apparently doesn’t want Oakwood parents and residents to see?

CALL TO ACTION: DEMAND DISCLOSURE AND TRANSPARENCY

• Contact NCCJ and respectfully demand that they disclose the SPIDEE curriculum, instructional and other program materials that are used to organize and run the club and its student meetings, including any materials presented to students.  NCCJ can be reached at:
  • https://nccjgreaterdayton.org/spidee/
  • hbrown@nccjgreaterdayton.org
  • 118 West First St. Suite 630, Dayton, OH 45402
  • 937.222.6225 

• Ask the Oakwood school administration to explain what standards are used to determine which outside organizations are permitted to operate student clubs and organizations in Oakwood schools and have this sort of direct access to Oakwood students.
• Ask the Oakwood school administration to explain what vetting has been used for the NCCJ staffers who are given this direct access to Oakwood students.
• Reach back to the OCSS community on Facebook or via e-mail to let us know what you discover!

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[i] See Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (3^rd Edition) by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic at pages 86-91 and 134-135, with “white privilege” defined on page 86.