Coppell ISD officials called Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit against the district “political fodder” aimed at public schools. The suit, which claimed the district violated state law that bans critical race theory from being taught, was alleged to be based on a manipulated hidden-video recording, according to court filings.
In the lawsuit filed in March, the attorney general’s office cited a hidden camera recording filmed by conservative outlet Accuracy in Media that appeared to show a Coppell ISD administrator avoiding restrictions on “the use of CRT in state policies and curricula,” according to a statement from the attorney general’s office.
“Texas children deserve to receive the best education in the world, not have woke ideology forced upon them,” Paxton said in March. “My lawsuit aims to put an immediate end to this illegal and hateful curriculum and immediately stop the blatant refusal to follow state law by certain officials at Coppell ISD.”
In a counterclaim filed Tuesday, district officials alleged that the attorney general’s actions are meant to fuel debates over private school vouchers and public school funding, The Dallas Morning News reported.
District officials denied teaching CRT in classrooms, according to Coppell’s counterclaim. They noted that even though the video of the Coppell administrator existed for over two years, Paxton filed the lawsuit on March 13. That same week, the Texas House of Representatives also began working on its version of a school choice bill.
Coppell school officials claim that the old video recording referenced in the suit was “heavily edited and manipulated so to be grossly misleading,” insisting that the administrator’s comments “were not related to questions about teaching CRT.” The filing also notes that some of the administrator’s comments were made in May 2021, months before the state law prohibiting critical race theory went into effect.
In a recent message to parents and staff, Coppell ISD Superintendent Brad Hunt, one of the defendants in the suit, said the district is “committed to providing a high-quality education that follows the state curriculum.” Hunt announced his retirement last Thursday but did not cite a specific reason behind the decision.
Read more at The Dallas Morning News.
