
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Coppell ISD, alleging the district has shown a pattern of disregard for state law by teaching what he calls critical race theory.
The lawsuit follows an undercover video posted by the group, Accuracy in Media, showing that administrator discussing the district's curriculum.
In the video, someone posing as a parent says, "Our concern is more, I don't know where you are politically, but it's like they'll learn a 'MAGA version' of history instead of an accurate depiction of real-world events."
"One thing I love about this district is, despite what our state standards say and despite what's going on, we do what's right for kids," the administrator, Director of Curriculum and Instruction Evan Whitfield, responds in the video posted online.
The lawsuit names Whitfield, Coppell ISD Superintendent Brad Hunt and school board members as defendants.
"As a sovereign entity, the State has an intrinsic right to enact, interpret, and enforce its own laws," the lawsuit reads.
The suit says the video shows a "continuing pattern for disregard for state law and executive direction." During the video, Whitfield says Coppell ISD "tapdances around" describing its curriculum and follows Next Generation Science Standards.
"That curriculum had never been approved by the State Board of Education and textbooks have been rejected for including similar approaches to environmental education," the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit does not seek any monetary relief or attorneys' fees; instead the suit seeks an injunction 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."
Coppell ISD is on spring break and has not responded.
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