Detractors have problem with diversity, suspended Colleyville Heritage principal says
The Colleyville Heritage High School principal who was put on paid administrative leave after he was placed at the center of a critical race theory debate said he has been given no rationale for his suspension.
Principal James Whitfield was put on leave Monday, more than a month after a July 26 school board meeting where he was publicly named and accused of teaching and promoting critical race theory by Stetson Clark, a former school board candidate.
Kristin Snively, spokesperson for the Grapevine-Colleyville school district, did not provide information on the reason for the decision or whether the leave is indefinite. She said the district will not comment further because it is an ongoing personnel matter.
Whitfield said he was not given any clear reasoning behind the decision and was not given a timetable regarding further steps. He said he was simply told that it was in the best interest of the district.
Whitfield said that all he knows is that during the July 26 meeting, Clark was allowed to single Whitfield out by name, which he said is against board rules.
During the meeting, Clark said he became concerned about Whitfield’s views when he saw a letter the principal sent to parents and students last summer.
“In this letter he promotes the conspiracy theory of systemic racism ...” Clark said. “He is encouraging the disruption and destruction of our districts.”
Clark mentioned Whitfield by name twice and spoke specifically about him for about a minute before being told by school board president George Rodriguez that they prefer he not mention an employee by name.
Then a person in the crowd screamed, “How about you fire him?” multiple times.
Clark alluded to Whitfield several more times, mentioned him by name twice and called for Whitfield’s firing, which received applause from some crowd members.
“That behavior was allowed,” Whitfield said. “A month later, here we are. I’m placed on administrative leave.”
Whitfield said he had not taught critical race theory and that his goals are to be accepting to everyone.
He said the group that has spoken out about him has a problem with inclusivity, with embracing diversity and with providing equitable experiences for all students.
“This group has a problem with essentially the core of who I am as an educator,” he said. “I’m about stepping up for those that are experiencing injustice. ... Every single kid that walks through those doors, I want them to feel loved, supported, welcomed and given all the opportunities to have a wonderful, equitable and excellent education. This group of people is not about that.”
In a July 31 Facebook post, Whitfield said he had been criticized for speaking out after the death of George Floyd and had experienced racial attacks in the past several months.
Whitfield was named the first Black principal of Colleyville Heritage High School in May 2020.
“I am keenly aware of how much fear this strikes in the hearts of a small minority who would much rather things go back to the way they used to be,” he said in his Facebook post.
Since the July 26 meeting, students, parents and teachers have rallied in support of Whitfield. A petition urging the school board to keep Whitfield as principal received more than 1,500 signatures, dozens of students protested outside of the district administration building last week to support him and about 100 Twitter posts contributed to the #istandwithdrwhitfield hashtag.
In that post, Whitfield also shared that in 2019, when he was named principal at Heritage Middle School, district officials asked him to take down Facebook photos of him and his wife, who is white, embracing on a beach.
“As I read the forwarded email it said, ‘Is this the Dr. Whitfield we want as an example for our students?’ And the picture attached was a picture of my wife and I kissing on the beach in Mexico during a trip we took for our 10-year anniversary. I showed my wife and I could tell she was already getting upset — tears were welling up,” Whitfield wrote.
His Facebook post received more than 3,000 reactions and his comments were covered by People Magazine and The New York Times.
The Grapevine-Colleyville school district said the request to remove the photos had nothing to do with race.
In a Monday email to parents, superintendent Robin Ryan named Dave Denning, former principal of Grapevine High School, as interim principal for Colleyville Heritage.
This story was originally published August 31, 2021 at 5:29 PM.
