Education Week - August 17, 2022 - 10

Backlash, Hostility, and Safety Fears: What It's Like
To Be a Chief Equity Officer in the Anti-CRT Era
An inherently tough
job is even harder now
By Eesha Pendharkar
When Dena Keeling started her job as chief equity
officer at Orange County Schools in North
Carolina in 2019, she felt like there was a wave of
enthusiasm for addressing inequities in schools.
Even with the disruptions brought on by COVID19,
Keeling was able to offer diversity training for
staff and partner with organizations focused on
racial equity work. But in spring 2021, a Republican-led
movement alleging schools were teaching
" critical race theory " began whipping up outrage
nationally. And when it came to her district, she felt
like her work started unraveling.
Over the past two years, Republican state lawmakers
in 42 states introduced legislation to restrict
conversations and lessons about race and
racism in schools. In many cases, they mislabeled
any lessons about the country's history of racism
or contemporary struggles with race as critical race
theory, or CRT. Critical race theory is an academic
framework explaining that racism is not just a result
of individual bias or prejudice, but is also perpetuated
by laws and policies. The academic theory, for
the most part, is not directly taught in most K-12
schools.
The national uproar against critical race theory,
however, resulted in many anti-racism and school
district equity initiatives being banned or thrown
into question in the 17 states that passed anti-CRT
laws. Even in states that do not have these laws,
local school board meetings were flooded by
parents and community members who opposed
teaching race, racism, sexuality and gender identity,
or offering books that included those topics.
Many districts were trapped between the push toward
equity and fierce opposition from local parent
groups.
One such district was Keeling's former employer,
Orange County Schools, in Hillsborough, N.C.
Keeling, along with two of her chief equity officer
peers in other school districts, spoke to Education
Week about the backlash and criticisms they experienced
on the job-opposition that heightened and
at times made them feel unsafe when the anti-CRT
movement began.
'No one wants to go along with change'
Orange County is located near Durham, which is
part of North Carolina's Research Triangle. About
76 of the county's population is white, 11 percent
is Black and about 8 percent is Hispanic or Latino.
In September 2020, Keeling informed the district's
staff of her plan for an " affinity space " to support
Black employees following the Aug. 23, 2020,
shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man in
Kenosha. Wis., by a white police officer.
" An affinity space is a safe space where people
who share an identity can talk and support each
other through individual and collective healing, "
Keeling wrote in an email, sent out by the school
district's public information officer. " It is not a
space to organize around hate, instead the purpose
is to reduce racial harm and increase harmony and
community. "
The following March, an organization called Parents
Defending Education filed a complaint against
the Orange County district with the federal Office
of Civil Rights, alleging that the district's affinity
10 | EDUCATION WEEK | August 17, 2022 | www.edweek.org
"
What I know is
if you're doing
this correctly,
there will be
pushback,
because no one
wants to just
go along with
change. "
DENA KEELING
Former chief equity officer,
Orange County Public Schools,
Hillsborough, N.C.
group for Black staff was unlawful because it constituted
segregation.
" As the Department of Education is no doubt
aware, segregating on the basis of race at a public
school has a long and unpleasant history in this country, "
wrote Nicole Neily, the president of Parents
Defending Education, in the complaint. " And we ask
that OCR promptly investigate the allegations in this
complaint, act swiftly to remedy unlawful policies
and practices, and order appropriate relief. "
Keeling said the complaint caught her off guard.
" But at the same time, " she added, " what I know is
if you're doing this correctly, there will be pushback,
because no one wants to just go along with change. "
The complaint was eventually referred by OCR
to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
in Raleigh, N.C., according to Neily. Neily
sent EdWeek the response from OCR but did not
respond to requests for comment.
Over the past couple of years, Keeling has also
dealt with right-wing groups, such as the Proud
Boys, coming to school board meetings. There
were emails from parents criticizing the development
of gender support guidelines for transgender
students undergoing transition (whom the emails
called " disgusting " ), and complaints against her to
her superintendent and school board.
Once the backlash to critical race theory started,
parents who were against equity efforts in North
Carolina started making public records requests for
emails between Keeling and equity officers in other
districts, who supported each other professionally
and discussed their work. Sometimes, those email
exchanges among the equity officers were posted
publicly in right-wing social media groups, she
said.
" I feel like for most of us who are equity officers,
we are people of color. Or we are people who sit in
identities that have been marginalized, " she said.
" So I think it does feel personal because I can't disconnect
from my identity. Every day I ask, do I feel
like engaging in this fight? And some days, I don't
have the energy. "
This month, Keeling left her job at Orange
County schools. She said she did not feel like she
was able to do equity work anymore because she
lacked support when she tried to pursue those initiatives
following the national pushback to critical
race theory, which she thought had made her district
more cautious. Orange County Superintendent
Monique Felder initially requested Keeling
and her district be kept out of this article and twice
declined to comment further.
Equity officers have a job to do
Equity officers in school districts are generally
hired to change or institute policies and practices
that make sure students who have been historically
disadvantaged can get the same opportunities
as their more-privileged counterparts. Many
districts have had people who are responsible for
this for years, but widespread use of the term " equity "
and therefore people being hired as equity
officers is more recent, and in large part can be attributed
to the Black Lives Matter movement, said
Meredith Honig, a professor of education policy,
organizations, and leadership at the University of
Washington.
" Many superintendents create these positions
to elevate the importance of racial equity for work
across the entire system, " she said.
" Part of it is symbolic, to say our work on equity
is so important, it's now a cabinet-level position.
And a lot of the hopes behind it are strategic, that
the people in these positions can leverage the kind
of deep changes throughout district systems that
really getting to educational equity are going to
take. "
It's hard to estimate how many equity officers
there are in school districts across the country, but
dozens of large districts employ someone to oversee
diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Equity officers' roles can encompass a wide variety
of objectives, but to achieve their goals, they
are often required to analyze and reform the sysKate
Medley for Education Week
http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - August 17, 2022

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