Edmond Public Schools Responds To Parents’ Claims Of Indoctrination, Teaching About Ted Bundy
Beverly Cantrell - November 4, 2021 6:34 am
EDMOND, Oklahoma – News 9
District administrators at Edmond Public Schools issued a statement to refute claims made by parents and community members at a Monday public board meeting.
The statement, released Tuesday, addressed a range of topics including the district’s mask policy, critical race theory, Ted Bundy, EPS finances, book assignments and more.
“As I listened to the claims and criticism against our district, I was greatly distressed,” Edmond Public Schools Superintendent Angela Grunewald wrote in the online statement.
Grunewald said she wanted to post an online response to the claims made by parents because of the negative effect the comments have on teachers.
“I first felt like teachers were under attack as far as saying our teachers are teaching students to hate America, our teachers are teaching this in the classroom. That disturbed me,” she said.
One woman complained to the board that her granddaughter’s 4th-grade teacher included Ted Bundy in a lesson about the U.S. Bill of Rights.
“This garbage is what’s happening in our schools,” the woman said.
Grunewald said the district followed up on the claim and found students brought up the serial killer during a lesson on the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“We are not teaching about Ted Bundy in 4th grade,” the district’s statement said.
Multiple parents at the Monday meeting claimed EPS is “indoctrinating” students by using critical race theory, a framework of legal analysis that is not taught in Edmond schools.
“Critical race theory has just become such a buzzword that people just throw around. Everyone has developed their own definition of what it is,” Grunewald said.
Grunewald said she wanted to publicly respond to the claims to refute misinformation and to stand up for teachers.
“Our teachers who work so hard, and do everything they can to take care of students, are being accused of doing things I know they are not doing,” she said.
