A School Board Banned Ideology From Classrooms. The Schools Simply Ignored It.

After politics in the classroom got out of hand in one center-right Oregon town – with some students even allegedly forced to pledge allegiance to the gay pride flag – the school board sought to return to the basics by declaring that school should be politically neutral. But administrators and educators simply declined to enforce the policy, while progressive activists tried to destroy the board members’ lives, a Daily Wire investigation has found. 

Last year, four Newberg Public Schools (NPS) board members drew a line in the sand against what they viewed as indoctrination. After years of schools proudly flying the “progressive flag,” a version of the gay pride flag with shades of black and brown to communicate minority oppression, as well as Black Lives Matter (BLM) flags, the members voted in August 2021 to ban “political” flags, signs, and clothing. 

Leadership at NPS is defying the policy. The board members are being targeted by a mob of wealthy progressives, and one has been fired from his job after being doxxed. 

Teachers in Yamhill County are not facing repercussions for continuing to prioritize propaganda over learning. “I’ve filed complaints,” said Robyn Wheatley, who has two kids in NPS. “I’ve emailed so many different teachers. And they literally ignore me every time.”

Teachers unions are seeking to remove the board members from office, as well as suing them. Outside cash from Hollywood celebrities has bankrolled a recall effort, for which voting ends January 18 – this Wednesday. 

What follows is a story about a small town on the outskirts of Portland. It is a story of an educational “deep state,” cancel culture, and how the rich and famous are trying to capture it. 

A Summer of Rage

Newberg has voted red in every presidential election since 2000. But judging by its schools, you wouldn’t know it. Over the last several years, BLM and progressive flags began to decorate the halls and classrooms. 

At the same time, schools suffered a decline. The district has lost students each year since 2018, shrinking from nearly 5,000 students in 2018 to 4,338 last year. One fed-up mother says this is because schools have embraced indoctrination over academics. 

In June 2020, the then-NPS board passed an anti-racism resolution like many other districts nationwide. A month later, a group called Newberg Equity in Education (NEEd) launched with a private Facebook group. The group, which includes teachers union members and elected officials, declared that it wishes to convince the then progressive-majority school board “to adopt Critical Race Theory.”

In August 2020, NEEd members created something called The Antiracism Family Book Club in schools. Contentious books were taught, such as one titled Stamped and other works by prominent critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi. “I did not fully realize that the only thing extraordinary about White people is that they think something is extraordinary about White people,” Kendi writes in the introduction of Stamped. 

A student union was also formed for only those “who identify themselves as black” at Newberg High School. Sources familiar with the situation indicate it is used for the whole district.

“It was very evident that teachers had an agenda to push,” Amber Dawson, a mother who now drives her kids 35 minutes to school each day after pulling them out of NPS, told The Daily Wire. 

“My kids are no longer in a place where learning is the focus,” wrote a Newberg mother in an op-ed describing why she pulled her kids from the district. “Doesn’t it feel like the kids, regardless of identity or color, are being used as pawns to further the divide? This is about learning, and our schools are failing our kids and generations to come. We owe it to our children to do better and be better.”

To some parents, it seemed clear there was no choice but to eradicate politics from the classroom in a clear and overarching way. In 2021, Trevor DeHart decided to run for school board. 

“Our hope was to get back to a neutral learning environment and then, you know, pivot to focus on improving academic performance and opportunities for kids,” DeHart, a manufacturing engineer and military veteran who pulled his kids from NPS, told The Daily Wire. “We were inundated and barraged with all this other distracting stuff.”

Renee Powell, a freelance artist, ran on a similar platform – saying she wanted to “be there for all children and get the schools back to focus on academics and not politics.” 

“Our academics have dropped and our test scores have dropped and all the focus seems to be on politics,” Powell said. 

Voters agreed. In July 2021, DeHart and Powell won seats on the board, joining Dave Brown and Brian Shannon, who had similar views. Progressive incumbent Ron Mock was ousted and Tai Harden-Moore, a CRT consultant who conducted an “equity assessment” for the city of Newberg, lost her bid for

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases