Edina parents confront their school board

Classroom indoctrination stirs an emotional exchange.

A standing room only crowd showed up for a February session of an Edina School Board meeting to protest political indoctrination in their kids’ classrooms, first revealed last fall by American Experiment. But a “technical glitch” in the school district’s video means that no one can see or hear what attendees call an emotional event that captured the essence of the controversy that’s attracted national attention.

Nine parents and two students addressed the board, taking advantage of a public forum instituted after the contentious 2017 school district election. Here’s what happened, according to one Edina parent in the room:

“Our unified concern was over the Pre-AP English 10 class offered at Edina High School, and in the presentations [before the board] we exposed what the truth of that class is. They gave one message to parents about what this class is and then our kids for years have been coming home and telling us all kinds of crazy stories.”

Several school board members appeared to be moved by the personal stories of the impact of the ideological bullying of students who questioned the white privilege race theory and leftist activism imposed on them in class.

“It felt electric, that was the atmosphere in the room,” the parent said. “Those speeches were not given in anger. They were read, they were well-prepared, they were truthful, they were testimony and there was power in that.”

Yet photos of Superintendent John Schultz show him appearing uninterested in the testimony, paying more attention to his paperwork than the two students a few feet away from him.

The last impassioned parent to speak received a standing ovation from the audience.

Ultimately, the school board voted 6 to 1 to reject an alternative class the parents viewed as a way to avoid restructuring the controversial Pre-AP English 10 course. The outcome of a review of the English 10 course currently underway remains up in the air.

Edina Schools vows the technical problem will not be repeated.