A California teacher who publicly criticized her school district’s investment in a “wake kindergarten” program announced Thursday that she has been placed on administrative leave.
Tiger Craven Neely, a teacher in the Hayward Unified School District, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he was asked to hand over his keys and laptop and not return to his classroom at Grassbrook Elementary School until further notice.
Craven Neely told the newspaper that school officials told the teacher he had been placed on paid leave due to “allegations of unprofessional conduct” but did not provide any other reason.
“We do not comment on private personnel matters,” district spokesman Michael Bazley said in an email in response to questions from Fox News Digital. He denied that Craven-Neely was placed on leave for “retaliatory purposes” or that he was punished for speaking to the press.
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Grassbrook Elementary School teacher Tiger Craven Neely said he was placed on administrative leave after publicly criticizing the school’s Walk Kindergarten training program. (Tiger Craven Neely/Facebook)
Craven Neely was placed on leave within days of raising concerns about Walk Kindergarten, the for-profit company Grasbrook Elementary School hired to train teachers.
According to the Chronicle, the school spent $250,000 in federal funds provided by a program aimed at improving test scores in some of the nation’s lowest-performing schools, but after two years at Walk Kindergarten, , students’ scores reportedly worsened even further.
At Grassbrook Elementary School in Hayward, Calif., the number of students at Grassbrook Elementary School in Hayward, Calif., has declined by 4% in the past two years in both areas, with less than 12% of students reading and writing at grade level and less than 4% proficient in math, according to the Chronicle. It is said that there is. .
Walk Kindergarten describes itself on its website as “supporting children, families, educators, and organizations dedicated to abolitionist early education and advocacy for Black, gay, and trans liberation.”
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Panoramic view of Grassbrook Elementary School in Hayward, California. (Google Street View)
The organization also has “woke” words of the day, including: ”ceasefire” “abolish” and “Woke Wonderings” about challenging the “legitimacy of the Supreme Court” and abolishing police, money, and the military.
Grassbrook is predominantly Latino/Hispanic, and more than 80 percent of its students are English learners, the Chronicle reported. While some teachers had complained anonymously about funds being spent on educating children to be “abolitionists” despite low reading achievement, Craven-Neely noted that I raised my voice about it.
He said a trainer at Walk Kindergarten told him to try to “disrupt whiteness” in the classroom.
“What does that mean?” Craven Neely told the Chronicle. “I want to know, what does this mean for her third grade classroom?”
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Other teachers defended the program, arguing that a strict focus on academics would not improve learning and a new approach was needed.
“We need to try something different,” kindergarten teacher Christina Aguilera told the Chronicle. “Focusing only on schoolwork will not work. There is no silver bullet to improve test scores.”
Since the Chronicle report and subsequent national media coverage, Grasbrook Borough has received dozens of “threatening and racist” messages, district spokesperson Michael Bazley confirmed to Fox News Digital. .
Craven Neely, who said he supports discussing racism in the classroom, told the Chronicle that he tried to voice his concerns at Wednesday’s staff meeting before going to the press.
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He described the meeting as tense, recalling the moment another teacher allegedly stood up, pointed a finger in his face, said, “You’re a danger to our school and community,” and left the room. .
Another teacher at Glassbook, who requested anonymity for fear of repercussions from the school, admitted that the teacher put his hand on Craven Neely’s face and called him a disgrace and a threat to the school. The Chronicle reported. The teacher also said Craven Neely did not raise his voice even when others were arguing or talking loudly.
“There was a lot of anger towards me,” Craven Neely said. “I was explaining my point of view. They were talking about me.”
He said he was eventually asked to leave the meeting by district administrators.
“I was shocked. This is my school. I didn’t do anything inappropriate,” he told the Chronicle. “I left. I was very upset.”
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When asked if the district disputed Craven Neely’s account of what happened, Bazley told Fox News Digital, “I don’t comment on what happened in the faculty meeting.” .
After the meeting, Craven-Neely said she received an email telling her not to go to school the next day and to attend a video conference with district officials. During the video conference, he was informed that he had been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into the charges of unprofessional conduct brought against him.
He told the Chronicle that officials were “trying to justify retaliation, or trying to appease staff, or because staff were tired of me being a whistleblower and all that. “They are trying to twist the situation,” he said, expressing concern.
“I can say unequivocally that we do not place any employee on leave for retaliatory purposes, nor have we ever attempted to limit an employee’s right to free speech.” “The leave was not in response to any contact with the press.”
Fox News Digital’s Brie Stimson contributed to this report.
