By Reagan Reese
The principal of a Massachusetts high school that limited play auditions on the basis of race was paid thousands to consult other schools on racial equity, according to invoices obtained by Parents Defending Education (PDE), a parental rights organization.
In the 2021-2022 school year, Marblehead Public Schools paid Newton North High School Principal Henry Turner a total of $10,000 to host several workshops for teachers, students and their families on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), according to invoices obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. Turner’s high school recently came under fire after the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights opened an investigation into the school for limiting auditions for a play on the basis of race.
“There’s big money in pushing racial division and gender ideology on other people’s children by way of the public school system,” Mailyn Salabarria, director of community engagement for PDE, told the DCNF. “The Newton principal has abandoned academic excellence in his own school and is now helping other districts do the same, all under the guise of diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Turner hosted four workshops throughout the 2021-2022 school year at Marblehead Public Schools including one for English teachers titled “discussing race and racism” which helped prepared educators “to select and integrate two additional texts about the lives of people of color” into their lessons, the invoices showed. Turner taught a two hour session titled “diversity, equity and inclusion workshop 1.0″ and another four hour seminar for students called “racism, cultural appropriation and n-word.”
Turner also hosted an hour-long workshop for families to teach why DEI is important for students and how to support the efforts within the school district, the invoices showed.
In 2021, Plymouth Public Schools paid Turner $7,000 to train faculty through a “full day workshop” on “what it means to be an antiracist educator,” according to PDE. Turner gave teachers a description of “whiteness” and “the role the culture plays to uphold systemic racism.”
Turner is also the co-author of the book “Change the Narrative: How to Foster an Antiracist Culture in Your School,” a novel that teaches educators how to “put into action” antiracism values within their classroom, according to a book description.
Turner and Marblehead Public Schools did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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