There are “new examples of DoDEA teachers eager to promote sexually explicit content to children” and the report “reveals training materials designed to get children to cry.”
House GOP Chairwoman Elise Stefanik and other GOP House members responded to new revelations that administrators for the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) are attempting to "indoctrinate [America's] service members' children with divisive gender, racial, and cultural ideology" after the DEI division of the DoDEA was "disbanded." The DoDEA is largely responsible for the education of children whose parents are in the military and serves around 70,000 "children of active duty military and DoD civilian families" internationally and in the US. It is a federally-operated school system.
Stefanik's letter follows a report from OpenTheBooks, which revealed "new examples of DoDEA teachers eager to promote sexually explicit content to children." Commenting on the report, Chairwoman Stefanik said, "Protecting our service member’s children from the Biden-Harris Administration’s DoDEA remains one of my top priorities which is why I successfully led calls to dissolve their office of DEI and have my legislation, the Service Members’ Parents Bill of Rights, signed into law."
The letter said that the report "reveals training materials designed to get children to cry, and classroom content ingrained with Social and Emotional Learning practices intended to turn students into radical activists."
In 2023, former Chief DEI Officer for the DoDEA, Kelisa Wing, was removed from her position after oversight from the House GOP. Wing had made left-wing, racially charged social media posts online, and the DoDEA Executive Director Thomas Brady supposedly disbanded DoDEA's DEI office.
The letter from lawmakers added, citing recent reports on the DoDEA, "It is evident that the dissolving of the DEI Office and the removal of Kelisa Wing only served as coverups to enable DoDEA to further integrate DEI into every aspect of our nation's military schools."
"It is completely unacceptable that once again House Republicans must remind you and the entire DoD that the mission of DoDEA is to provide our service members' children with an education that instills high academic standards and patriotism, not to manipulate and radicalize the minds of our youth," the letter adds, emphasizing the importance of patriotism in America as well as service to the country.
The letter demanded greater "transparency and accountability" within the DoDEA as well as leadership changes to fix the issues with DEI and radical gender ideology. The GOP House members demanded that the required report on the Parents' Bill of Rights in Sec. 589 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2024 be completed. They requested a written response from the department from the DoDEA no later than Aug. 16.
"I’m calling on Secretary Austin and the Biden-Harris Administration to completely end all efforts to indoctrinate our service members’ children with Far Left DEI propaganda. Our service members face many challenges and ensuring their children receive a high-quality patriotic education should not be one of them. I am proud to lead my colleagues in demanding that the Department of Defense remove radical Far Left ideology from their classrooms," Stefanik added in a statement.
Rep. Jim Banks added, "It is shameful and unsustainable that while our servicemen and women are risking their lives to defend our nation, their children are being taught that America is a racist country not worth fighting for. My House Republican colleagues and I will continue to expose and eradicate the woke indoctrination that is destroying our service-members’ trust in DoDEA schools."
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