A fourth grade student in the Sartell-St. Stephen school district in Minnesota informed the school board students were required to complete an “equity survey,” and told not to “repeat any of the questions to our parents.”
“My teacher said that I could not skip any questions even when I didn’t understand them,” Haylee Yasgar, who attended Riverview Intermediate School, said at a recent school board meeting, reported Alphanews Minnesota.
“One question asked us what gender we identify with,” Haylee added. “I was very confused along with a lot of other classmates.”
Haylee said students were also told they were not permitted to “repeat any of the questions to our parents.”
“Being asked to hide this from my mom made me very uncomfortable, like I was doing something wrong,” Haylee told the school board.
Parents in the district are concerned about the push to teach concepts associated with Critical Race Theory (CRT), a Marxist ideology.
According to Alphanews, the school district hired Equity Alliance MN (EAM), a left-wing activist group, to conduct an $80,000 audit on “racial inequities” within the district.
EAM describes itself on its website as a group that has been “leading culturally relevant learning since 1995.”
“Equity Alliance MN is working to make the educational ecosystem across Minnesota equitable for every single student,” the group states, adding its mission is to be “the leading force for systemic educational equity and integration through collaborative learning and advocacy.”
Alphanews reported a standing room group of “more than 100 people crowded into the oldest gym in the district” to attend the meeting.
“Defenders of the audit aimed their claims at enforcing anti-bullying rules and combating mental health issues,” the report continued. “They did not specifically reference CRT.”
Parent organizer Chris Yasgar, who opposes the audit, said:
Bullying is going unchecked because discipline isn’t there, since the audit is taking away money and time from mental health issues. CRT advocates pretend the debate is about teaching racism and slavery. It’s designed to do the opposite. I think it’s a sign of their position’s weakness that they keep returning to this line.
During public comments, Yasgar reportedly said the parents’ group has been requesting a copy of the “equity survey” from the school board for “weeks,” and that the requests have “gone unanswered.”
David Switzer, an economics professor at St. Cloud State University, analyzed the equity audit conducted by EAM, observing “deficiencies in the data, methodology, and reporting,” including details of “all the omissions and errors.”
Switzer wrote in his report:
In virtually every case, the omission/error makes it impossible to understand what was found, aggregates information so that it cannot be used for school-level improvements, or misrepresents the data to imply that there is a racial or gender disparity in the data that statistical analysis of the data shows does not actually exist. In short, the graphs are flawed and the results are frequently misinterpreted to imply problems that the data do not prove exist.
I would also note that little if any evaluation of Community responses is contained in this audit evaluation, as there is no way of verifying whether those who answered the survey are actually in the district and not someone outside the district or even possibly someone from EA-MN.
Kelsey Yasgar, Haylee’s mother, appeared with her daughter on Fox & Friends, stating that, while parents were “informed that the equity audit was taking place, they were not informed on the date of the activity and not given other details,” including the questions their children would be asked.
Breitbart News reached out to Sartell-St. Stephen Superintendent Dr. Jeff Ridlehoover for comment on the equity survey and is awaiting a response.
