Round Rock used to be a refugee from the leftwing madness controlling Austin. But as Austin grew, Austin leftism expanded out into the suburbs, and Williamson County got a lot more purple.
While parents weren’t looking, social justice and critical race theory snuck into Round Rock ISD.
A discussion of so-called “antiracism” is causing a stir in one of Texas’ most hotly contested school board races.
In 2020, incumbent Round Rock ISD school board vice president Tiffany Harrison moderated a taxpayer-financed book discussion. “How to Be an Antiracist” by Henry Rogers (who writes under the nom de plume Ibram Kendi) was the work under consideration.
The discussion focused on “collective guilt” where “no one is exempt” from the work of “antiracism.” From the speaker’s perspective, this is the natural conclusion when “everything in our world is racialized.”
The ultimate, destructive end to this ideology comes when you “push at all the nodes [of society] and pull them apart.”
This is the school board that when two parents spoke out against mask mandates, the left-wing majority had them arrested. This is the school district where parents had to sue the board for violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act. This is the school district that had a Texas Education Agency monitor installed over complaints against the board. And this is the board that thinks it’s a swell idea to force girls to shower with biological males.
Two current board members, Danielle Weston and Mary Bone, are conservative reformers. The other five (Tiffanie Harrison, Amber Feller, Amy Weir, Kevin R. Johnson, Sr., and Cory Vessa) are leftwing social justice advocates.
A conservative slate of candidates has stood up to run against the social justice warrior board members of RRISD. Calling themselves One Family Round Rock, they are:
John Keagy for Place 1. He’s running against left incumbent Kevin Johnson Sr., hard lefty candidate Estevan Jesus “Chuy” Zarate (who has a lot of signs out next to The Usual Suspects that actually mentions “Equity,” the codeword for hard left Social Justice), and Apple software engineer Yuriy Semchyshyn, running as a critic of the board. (Note: Because this is a special election, it appears below the other races on the ballot.)
Orlando Salinas for Place 3. He’s running against lefty incumbent Amber Feller and far lefty Maryam Zafar.
Jill Farris for Place 4. She’s running against incumbent lefty Cory Vessa, hard lefty Alicia Markum (whose website mentions “equity”) and board critic Linda Avila.
Christie Slape for Place 5. She’s running against incumbent lefty Amy Weir, RRISD Assistant Principal Stefan Bryant (for whom I cannot find a campaign website) and Joshua Billingsley (who says he’s dropped out and is supporting Weir).
Don Zimmerman for Place 6. He’s running against incumbent social justice warrior queen bee Tiffanie Harrison.
Note that there’s no runoff for RRISD elections, so whoever manages to earn a plurality in a 3- or 4-candidate race wins.
All campaign on a variety of issues, including parental rights, opposing lockdowns, an emphasis on academic fundamentals, conducting a “forensic audit,” and opposition to the deeply suspicious hiring of superintendent Hafedh Azaiez despite several red flags. But all are also united in opposing wokeness, critical race theory, and transexual madness in Round Rock classrooms.
I had a chance to talk with most of the slate at a campaign event a few weeks ago. All agreed that Tiffanie Harrison was the biggest source of woke militancy on the board. Zimmerman, her opponent and the highest profile politician of all those running, calls Harrison “the tip of the spear” for wokeness in RRISD.
Zimmerman is the one most outspoken about campaigning against social justice, with signs proclaiming “ABCs and 1-2-3s, NOT CRTs and LGBTs.”
He and several others indicated that woke principals were the ones sneaking CRT, Black Lives Matter, and gay agenda materials into the classroom. “No one seems to be responsible for it. It just shows up.”
We know from San Francisco and elsewhere that woke social justice and transgenderism is deeply unpopular, and when parents speak up against it, they frequently win.
Note that the Round Rock Board of Trustees is meeting tomorrow, Thursday, October 20, at 5:30 PM at the Round Rock High School 100 lecture hall (300 North Lake Creek Dr., Round Rock, TX 78681). (Open Board Meeting rules.)
Early voting for the Texas general election starts Monday, October 24. Williamson County early voting locations can be found here, while Travis County early voting locations can be found here.
