Senators on Ketanji Brown Jackson's School Indoctrination: What Did She Know and When Did She Know It?

John Binder and Breccan F. ThiesMarch 25, 2022

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are alarmed by Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s role on the Board of Trustees of Georgetown Day School — the private Pre K–12 school that steers students toward critical race theory, left-wing activism, and adult sexual content.

Jackson, who is currently being considered to fill retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s seat, sits on the board of the Washington, DC, private school that boasts of its commitment to social justice causes and indoctrinating children with critical race theory, saying, “Everyone will engage in the work of social justice within all aspects of school life.”

During her confirmation hearings this week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) raised the issue with Jackson but she claimed to have no “control” over the school’s curriculum as a trustee. When asked by Cruz if critical race theory was taught in schools across the United States, Jackson said:

Senator, I don’t know. I don’t think so. I believe it’s an academic theory that’s at the law school level. [Emphasis added].

Jackson also said she did not know if critical race theory was taught at Georgetown Day School despite her role on the board of trustees “because the board is not, the board does not control the curriculum, the board does not focus on that, that’s not what we do as board members so I’m actually not sure.”

Senate Judiciary Committee

Cruz, however, went through a laundry list of evidence showing the ideology being taught at Georgetown Day School, including some materials provided on its lengthy “Family and Educator Anti-Racist Resources” list.

The list, Cruz pointed out, recommends to eight- and nine-year-olds Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, a book that asks, “Can we send white people back to Europe?”

Other “Books for Kids” include a list of 40 “picture books for young activists,” “31 Children’s books to support conversations on race, racism, and resistance,” and 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice by Corinne Shutack.

In light of the revelations, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) told Breitbart News in a statement that critical race theory “is a toxic ideology that has no place in schools” and that “Judge Jackson needs to answer questions about what she knew and when she knew it” in regard to her role as a trustee at Georgetown Day School.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told Breitbart News that she finds Jackson’s comments on Pre K–12 education “deeply concerning.”

“At a time when parental rights are under assault by the radical left, Judge Jackson’s public comments about ‘the transformative power of progressive education’ are deeply concerning,” Blackburn said. “Judge Jackson’s public endorsement of this kind of progressive indoctrination of our children causes me great concern when it comes to how she might rule in cases involving parental rights.”

Georgetown Day School prides itself on its “progressive education” and attempts to tie its origin as the first racially integrated school in Washington, DC, to its current indoctrination scheme that pushes outrightly false history and race essentialism as paramount to a child’s education.

As Breitbart News reported, despite Jackson’s testimony to the opposite, the Board of Trustees does, in fact, deal with curriculum and the broader push for the radical racial doctrine on a school-wide basis.

Georgetown Day School’s Board of Trustees, of which Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is a member, plays a “critical” role in the implementation of critical race theory at the school, despite Jackson testifying to the opposite. https://t.co/MKtpa0PvD2

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 24, 2022

In a letter from Board chair Lisa Fairfax, who introduced Jackson to the Senate at the onset of her confirmation hearings, the Board recognized the “critical role in ensuring that we fulfill the GDS mission” to implement “anti-racist” action into all aspects of school life. “Anti-racist” is a term used by the left to surreptitiously refer to critical race theory in order to benefit politically from being able to deny its existence at a K–12 level.

“We understand the Board must engage in this work,” the letter from the Board chair continued, while pinpointing “concerns about the GDS curriculum” as an area of focus in its commitment to “doing better” to implement critical race theory.

Part of “doing better” has been a push to create “affinity groups,” a pet name proponents of critical race theory have given to segregation — typically racial — as they are focused on exclusively bringing together persons based on immutable characteristics.

In addition, the school called on members of its “white community” saying ultimately that the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd are “what occurs when we do not view the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion as all of our work.”

Georgetown Day School’s agitation for critical race theory has resulted in its commitment to the “Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action,” which teaches children Marxist principles such as “destroying the Western nuclear family,” in favor of “black villages” — or the “collective village” — as well as being “transgender affirming” and “queer affirming” to create a “network where heteronormative thinking no longer exists.”

Georgetown Day School has also exposed its students to adult sexual content and pushed them directly to agitate toward social justice.

Indeed, the school’s drama department put on a musical rendition of the sexually explicit 1906 German play Spring Awakening, which explores adolescent sexual experimentation.

The musical “is not only about sexual awakening, but perhaps more so about self-discovery,” Georgetown Day School High School Performing Arts Department chair Laura Rosberg said in a Disclaimer to potential audience members. “I’ve enjoyed the irony of a story about intimacy at a time when kids can’t be intimate.”

The play that featured songs such as “Touch Me,” “The Word of Your Body,” “Totally Fucked,” and “The Bitch of Living” kept “counselors [sic] on call” for the student actors, according to Rosberg.

According to the student paper, some students and staff had “reservations” about doing the play.

“Being more exposed and immersed in what we were doing, I got a little bit desensitized,” one of the actresses, a junior, said. “But the subject matter is still very heavy.” Technical Director Christal Boyd also voiced concerns.

The school’s fourth-graders were also forced into performative, left-wing activism in “Free to Be Me,” an assembly aimed at celebrating “LGBTQ+ voices,” which also compared the Black Lives Matter movement to the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.

After explaining what the acronym “LGBTQ+” means, one fourth-grader said, “there are many, many more identities in the LGBTQ+ community that we haven’t learned enough about yet. They are important and we will learn more.”

One of the central themes of the presentation was that being an “ally” was not enough, favoring activism.

“Now let’s look at a quote from Audrey Lorde, a famous poet and activist who described herself as black, lesbian mother, warrior poet,” one fourth-grader said. “She said, ‘You do not have to be me in order for us to fight alongside each other.’”

Yet another fourth-grader said, “Being an ally is all about showing up pushing back and taking action.”

Questions about Jackson’s connection to critical race theory abound as her Senate confirmation process, which has also called into question her apparent sentencing leniency in child pornography cases, continues. She has thus far maintained her position that the Board of Trustees on which she sits is not involved with these types of issues at the school and that she is unaware of critical race theory being taught there.

To score a spot on the Supreme Court, Jackson needs 50 votes in the Senate as Vice President Kamala Harris can break a tie. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Susan Collins (R-ME), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Joe Manchin (D-WV), and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) are all considered potential swing votes.

On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) vowed to oppose Jackson’s confirmation. Senate Republicans need Murkowski, Collins, and Romney, as well as either Manchin or Sinema to block Jackson’s appointment.

Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.