James Whitfield, a Black high school principal in Texas, was placed on paid leave after being accused of teaching critical race theory by the school board.

A school board member admitted recently firing Whitfield for pushing critical race theory in a letter sent out to the school community.

A video posted on Facebook during a Republican National Committee-sponsored school board panel in June revealed a newly elected board member named Tammy Nakamura discussing that the former principal was fired for his anti-racist activism.

Whitfield’s letter was “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Nakamura said, leading to his end at Colleyville Heritage High School.

According to Texas Tribune, Whitfield wrote a letter to the school community following George Floyd’s death declaring that systemic racism is “alive and well” and that as a community, they needed to achieve “conciliation for our nation.”

“Education is the key to stomping out ignorance, hate and systemic racism,” Whitfield wrote. “It’s a necessary conduit to get ‘liberty and justice for all.'”

Then, Whitfield recalls the reviews being all positive and leaving him with a sense of consensus in the community. But almost two years later, his letter would deem him a disruptor in the district.

On July 26, at a Grapevine-Colleyville ISD school board meeting, Stetson Clark, a former school board candidate at Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, accused Whitefield on multiple instances of teaching critical race theory.

“He is encouraging the disruption and destruction of our district,” Clark told the crowd. 

According to Texas Tribune, an audience member yelled out, “How about you fire him?.”

During the board meeting, Whitfield defended himself and spoke before board members and parents asking for answers as to why the board decided his fate behind closed doors.

The 43-year-old said he felt his peers’ attitudes had changed toward him after being accused of teaching disruptive concepts on Jul 26.

“The attacks from people outside is one thing, but the outright silence and direct actions taken toward me by the GCISD leadership team are absolutely heartbreaking,” Whitfield said.

A 28-year resident of GCISD named Beverley Mavis said she views this two-month “witch hunt” trial on Whitfield as her community’s lowest point.

“That hatred, divisiveness and bigotry have no place in GCISD,” Mavis said. “Choose to support decency, diversity, inclusiveness and reinstate Dr. Whitfield,” she added.

In August 2021, Whitfield resigned and was put on two-year administrative leave.

Whitfield is viewed as a “total activist” by his supporters like Nakamura, who claims that teachers like him are taking down the school’s broken system.

“They have to be stopped now, we cannot have teachers such as these in our schools because they’re just poison, and they’re taking our schools down,” Nakamura said.

In February the Board of Trustees approved the hire of Julia Stephen as the Colleyville Heritage High School Principal.

According to Insider, census data shows that Colleyville’s population is a majority-white city, with only 1% of Black or African American residents with a median household income of $150,000.

black prinicpalBlavity-UBlavity-U-NewsHigh SchoolSystemic-RacismTexas