Colleyville Heritage director speaks out against racist comments and critical accusations of racial theory

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Updated at 7:50 a.m. on August 4, 2021, with comments from a spokesperson for Grapevine-Colleyville ISD.

Colleyville Heritage High School principal James Whitfield is responding to what he claims are racist and fanatic attacks, including online and public accusations that he is a supporter of critical race theory.

In Whitfield’s long Facebook post on July 31, he wrote that he couldn’t ask others to speak up if he didn’t want to and just because I’m a school administrator who doesn’t deprive me of my rights and my ability to be human and defend myself.

I’m not the Boogeyman CRT (Critical Race Theory). I am the first African American to assume the role of principal of my current school in its 25 year history, and I am keenly aware of the fear that this strikes in the hearts of a small minority who would much prefer let things return to the way they were, he writes.

The program, an academic framework that says racism is a systemic problem perpetuated by policies and government institutions, is not taught at Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, district sources said.

The accusations, he said in the post, relate to a 2019 presentation on Breaking the Barriers that spoke about the differences between people, which he participated in when he was principal of Heritage Middle School. The presentation was used to vilify my colleagues and I, he wrote, even though it was approved by the district.

Whitfield did not respond to a request for comment, but spoke to KXAS-TV (NBC 5), telling the station the problems started two years ago, when he was promoted to manager of Colleyville Heritage Middle School.

Shortly after his promotion, Whitfield received an email from a school administrator with a photo of him and his white wife, Kerrie, kissing on a birthday trip. He had posted the photo on Facebook and the administrator had asked him to remove it so as not to stir things up, according to Whitfields’ Facebook post.

We hid the photo, no one from above ever said anything else about it, but the damage was done to us in a deep way. It was then that I knew the attack we are currently undergoing was going to happen, he wrote on Facebook.

In a statement to NBC5, the district said it has a responsibility to review social media when it comes to the attention of the district and that some of the photos contained questionable poses for an educator, especially a principal. or an administrator and had absolutely nothing to do with race.

The photo that appeared in early media reports was not the only photo the district received, Kristin Snively, district executive director of communications, wrote in an email to the Dallas Morning News. If this photo had been the only image, there would have been no request for deletion.

Whitfield now says he can no longer keep my silence in the face of this hatred, this intolerance, this racism and this fanaticism.

For most of the last year I’ve been told repeatedly to just get around the fact that there are racist people and deal with them and stay positive whenever racist tropes have taken their toll. appearance, but I will no longer remain silent, he wrote.

A petition supporting Whitfield is circulating in the district, according to NBC5.

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