Chicago City Wire

In late February, faculty and staff of the Naperville 203 Community Unit School District attended the Countywide Equity Institute - a training on systemic racism - where Dena Simmons Ed.D, gave the keynote speech. Her speech did not go over well with everyone in the audience.

An attendee of the event has spoken up to say that as part of Simmons’ keynote speech Simmons pointed out that “our education is based on a foundation of whiteness.”  

“At one point she was talking even about how snow removal is affected by systemic racism. She totally lost me on that one. I even texted that to my [partner],” said the concerned attendee. Simmons may have been referring to a column that ran in the Los Angeles Times in early February, where the Democratic author didn't know how to react when her Republican neighbor plowed her driveway.

Simmons’ speech also included a suggestion that if people are not actively anti-racist, they are indeed racist, even if they believe they are treating others with respect.

There were 10 speakers, including Simmons, who discussed how implicit bias and microaggressions show up, as well as ways that educators can work toward equity and inclusion for students who could be called “marginalized and/or underrepresented.”

But Simmons isn’t the only speaker whose content raised eyebrows.

Valda Valbrun spoke on “Leading for Equity: Efficacy and Action in Schools” and presented imagery that alluded to connections between systems of “structural institutional racism. Valbrun spoke on “overt” and “covert” white supremacy, including the language people use every day, and noted that denying white privilege, and celebrating Columbus Day means that an individual is a racist.

The event has caught the attention of reporters on a national level, including Asra Q. Nomani, who has written for The Wall Street Journal and conducted research on critical race theory in education.

“The Naperville Community School District 203 has given a platform to the toxic and divisive ideology of critical race theory. Ms. Dena Simmons is one of the many prophets of this cult-like ideology that looks at children by the color of their skin, not the content of their character,” said Nomani. “As parents, we need to ask the bottom-line questions. How much was Ms. Simmons paid? Was there a competitive bidding process to get speakers on the topic?”

This event happened after the state’s approval of “Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards, which require teachers to embrace progressive viewpoints and assess how their biases might affect their own behavior. 

It is also not the only training of this sort that Naperville educators have attended. There was a training on Feb. 22 where educators listened to lectures on implicit bias, equity and racism in education, and microagressions.