Education

School Counselor ‘Anti-Racism’ Committee Hosts Racially Segregated Event

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A school counselor association is hosting a weekly race-based group for members to learn about anti-racism practices, according to the organization.

The California Association for School Counselors’ (CASC) Social Justice, Equity and Anti-Racism Committee is putting on an 8-week affinity group explicitly offered for “white school counselors” to “explore their privilege,” according to a CASC tweet. The weekly group will serve as a facilitated group for the counselors to examine their racial identity and increase their “anti-racist work” at school.

“This school counselors organization should be focusing on getting kids back on track emotionally and academically—not teaching their counselors divisive race ideology,” Alex Nester, investigative research fellow for Parents Defending Education (PDE), a parental rights organization, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The term ‘affinity group’ is just a nice-sounding way to say that you are separating people by race, which is immoral and unconstitutional.”

White school counselors within the state of California are encouraged to attend an online information session on March 30 to discuss the overview of the affinity group and the curriculum, according to a registration form for the event. The affinity group is led by Emily Alvarez, a counselor at Tustin Unified School District and a member of the association’s outreach and engagement committee.

The association’s Social Justice, Equity and Anti-Racism Committee works with the CASC’s board of directors to ensure that the association is “all-inclusive, equity-minded and anti-racist” to serve the “diverse student population” of California, according to the association website. The committee provides professional development courses for school counselors in the state so they can increase their “anti-racist” ways.

To learn more about this 8-week affinity group, join us for our info session on March 30th from 5-6pm pic.twitter.com/wbQNBRfKa4

— CASC (@MyCASC) March 17, 2023

In 2022, a Georgia State University professor and an Atlanta Public School teacher hosted a “White School Counselors Virtual Summer Affinity Group” to teach about anti-racist practices, according to PDE. The training used an “Antiracism Everyday White Folks Workbook” adapted for school counselors to help participants unlearn their “white supremacy.”

“Training teachers and counselors in divisive ideologies like ‘anti-racism,’ means that children will be taught and counseled through this perspective,” Nester told the DCNF. “This is no way to treat children.”

CASC did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.