CARROLL, TX – Voters who turned out in record numbers to support the candidates who won the divisive Carroll school board election sent a strong message that they do not want a diversity plan they believe pushes a “leftist” ideology in the school district.
Hannah Smith and Cameron Bryan, who will be sworn in Wednesday, each received almost 70% of the votes in an election that attracted a turnout of around 10,000 voters.
Smith could not be reached for comment, but she told Fox and Friends that “it was a radical response to fight the false narrative that the community is racist.”
Smith, an attorney who also clerked for Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, described how people move to Southlake because it’s a good place to raise children in the “award-winning” school district, and said there is unity among those who live there.
“And so, when the mainstream media was saying that we are an awful town, people are racist, our kids are racist, our schools are systemically racist, it just wasn’t right,” Smith said. “And so, people turned out to the polls in record numbers.”
Smith and Bryan were supported by the well-organized political action committee, Southlake Families, which poured thousands of dollars into their campaigns.
Another organization supporting conservative causes, Texas Values, also supported the candidates.
Jonathan Saenz, president of Texas Values, said in an email to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “These elections should remind us that all elected officials are accountable to the people, and when politicians stop listening to the people, they get replaced.”
Voters also voiced their opinions at the May 3 school board meeting reminding trustees that they were no longer a minority, but a vocal majority.
Danielle Lara told trustees that the voters spoke “loud and clear” with the highest voter turnout in history for a nonpresidential election.
“It is overwhelmingly clear that the leadership is not aligned and cannot or will not listen to the will of the people. Without a change in leadership, we will be at a standstill. It’s time to move forward,” Lara said.
Renee Thomas said parents want “the three Rs” to be taught in school and morals to be taught at home.
“For months, we have fought to protect the right for every student to be perceived as more than a color, more than a demographic, more than a victim,” she said.
VICTORY NOT A SURPRISE
“I kind of knew that I was running against a machine. I didn’t know (the vote margin) was going to be that bad. It was a surprise for me,” said Ed Hernandez, a business consultant who ran against Smith.
Hernandez said he is concerned about the children who came forward to tell their stories about how they were bullied because of their race, or because of other factors such as gender identity.
During his campaign, Hernandez said he met with people who were against the district’s proposed diversity plan.
Hernandez said he had reservations about Cultural Competence Action Plan or CCAP and didn’t support the plan “100 percent.”
“When we met face to face, I said, ‘how’s your wife, how is your daughter. They realized they are my neighbors, and that I was a guy from Southlake,” he said.
Hernandez said he wasn’t talking about critical race theory, but wanted to discuss how to keep children safe.
“The fearmongering won,” he said.
EMBLEMATIC TENSIONS
The divisions in Southlake illustrate similar scenarios playing out throughout the country.
Kimi King, a political science professor at the University of North Texas, said in an email to the Star-Telegram, “The Southlake elections are emblematic of the tensions faced nationally as the US (and Texas) adjust to changing demographics.”
Local governments and state legislatures are taking up the issue, but she said it is a continuation of the momentum from former President Donald Trump’s executive order which called for ending diversity training in federal programs.
President Joe Biden reversed that order.
One side talks about ending political correctness while the other side says the debate is about stopping the bullying and intimidation that accompanies systemic racism, she said.
“It’s really all about changing demographics in society and an increasingly mobilized population (on both sides). Especially here in Texas where the 2020 census shows the accumulation of a decade of growth, we’ve gained two additional house seats (owing in large part to the growth of the Hispanic population),” she said.
The Southlake election points to a battle over control of the suburbs, King said.
In places where people worry about diversity, people are concerned about losing something, he said.
“It gets masked in leftist ideology. All civil rights leaders were painted as communists,” he said.
CONTROVERSIAL DIVERSITY PLAN
Last August the school board voted to receive the 34-page Cultural Competence Action Plan that was two years in the making. The 63-member district diversity council submitted the plan as a draft, knowing that more work was needed, group members told the Star-Telegram previously.
But at the Aug. 3 meeting where the plan was presented, parents said they were not included in the process and did not want their children exposed to “leftist” teachings and said the plan would indoctrinate their children with ideas that went against their Christian values.
A parent, Kristin Garcia, sued the school district, alleging that school board members sent text messages about the diversity plan outside of an open meeting.
In December, a judge issued a temporary restraining order, halting all work on the plan.
Last month, Carroll School Board President Michelle Moore and Vice President Todd Carlton were indicted on charges that they violated the Open Meetings Act.
Maddy Heymann graduated from Carroll High School and helped form the group Southlake Anti-Racism Coalition (SARC). The group took testimonials from students who described how they were bullied because of their race, religion or sexual orientation.
The group called on the school district to immediately adopt CCAP, saying that all students need to be protected from bullying and discrimination.
When asked about the election outcome, Heymann said she wasn’t surprised, but she was “disheartened by the results.”
SARC and other progressive groups in Southlake are meeting to discuss next steps, she said.
Heymann said people are afraid of change in Southlake.
“I’m talking about the upper most echelon who think they have the most to lose. They see themselves as holding power. If we create an equal environment for others, they are afraid of losing power …”
But the demographics are changing, Heymann said. “You see youth tides shifting toward more tolerance.”
