The Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) district in northern Virginia, widely seen as one of the most radical and far-left public school systems in the nation, is now forcing parents of students to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in order to view the new curriculum that will be taught to students, the Daily Caller reports.
As part of LCPS’s push for a more left-wing agenda to be taught to students, the district has spent over $7,700 to become a “licensed user” of a race-based system called the Second Step Programs, a program started by the left-wing Committee for Children. The Second Step Program focuses on the concept of “social-emotional learning” (SEL), which the Committee for Children describes as “fundamental to achieving social justice.”
Committee for Children also describes itself as an “anti-racist organization” in pursuit of “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” and also aims to create a “common language” in order to “create lasting systematic change.”
“When we all use the same words, for emotions, situations, and behavioral dynamics,” the curriculum reads, in part, “it promotes empathy and understanding between students, teachers, staff, parents, and the community. Second Step provides a shared emotional vocabulary that can create lasting systemic change.”
However, “eligible parents” who wish to read further details of the curriculum must sign a form that is similar to an NDA, which forbids them from copying or publicly sharing the information “in any manner whatsoever.”
“I understand that the Authorized Presentation of Second Step Materials I am about to view is not a public event,” the form explains, “and that copying, broadcast or recording of any kind is not permitted. I agree to comply with the terms of the above Special License.” As a result of this forced non-disclosure, the information contained within is not susceptible to a standard Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in the state of Virginia.
Furthermore, LCPS confirmed in a newly-released PowerPoint presentation that the district will force all elementary schools to implement the Second Step Program by 2022. The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is also working to incorporate elements of Second Step at a statewide level.
Other states with districts that currently teach Second Step include Washington, Illinois, Utah, Texas, Florida, Colorado, and Kentucky, among others.
Loudoun County, located in the northern Virginia suburbs just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., has become one of the national hotspots for protests against increasing left-wing indoctrination of students in the public school system. The district has recently pushed Critical Race Theory, the debunked far-left notion that all White people are automatically racist, and that America is an inherently racist nation; the district is also mired in controversy over its pro-transgender bathroom policy, which allowed a male student to rape two different female students in restrooms at two different schools.