Coppell Chronicle Vol. 5, No. 5
Coppell ISD Sued Over Critical Race Theory • City Leaders Testify Against Sales Tax Shift • Activists Host Town Hall Without Van Duyne • One-Man Crime Wave Crossed Into Coppell
If you don’t like reading about politics, then I’m afraid you might not enjoy this edition very much. Apologies in advance.
Coppell ISD Sued Over Critical Race Theory
A hidden-camera interview recorded more than two years ago prompted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to sue Coppell ISD.
The lawsuit was filed on March 13, but Paxton’s office didn’t announce it until March 19, in the middle of Coppell ISD’s spring break. The named defendants are Superintendent Brad Hunt, all seven of the district’s trustees, and Evan Whitfield, who is Coppell ISD’s Director of Secondary Mathematics and Science.
Whitfield has been in the crosshairs of an organization called Accuracy in Media since 2023. In February of that year, Accuracy in Media published a video about Critical Race Theory that features Whitfield as well as footage of employees in Edgewood ISD, Lancaster ISD, McKinney ISD, Mesquite ISD, North East ISD, Richardson ISD, and South San Antonio ISD. None of them appear to be aware that they are being recorded.
Whitfield was wearing a COVID-era mask in the footage, which was recorded in the lobby of Coppell ISD’s Vonita White Administration Building. The person wielding the hidden camera asked him, “So, the Abbott, like, orders or whatever from a few months ago aren’t really going to affect anything?”
Whitfield replied, “I don’t think so. The bottom line is we’ve gotten around it by saying, ‘Well, we’re just not teaching that.’”
The video was hosted by Adam Guillette, who has been Accuracy in Media’s president since 2019. Near the end of the clip, he said this: “We’ll never know exactly what is happening in these schools, but what we do know for sure is that the governor’s ban clearly carried no weight. The only solution to this problem is school choice where the money follows the child.”
In March of 2023, Accuracy in Media published a second report featuring footage of Whitfield as well as employees of Austin ISD, Bastrop ISD, Calallen ISD, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD, Keller ISD, Plano ISD, and South San Antonio ISD. Here’s what Whitfield said in that one.
Whitfield: “We kind of dance, tap dance around calling it anything, because, that’s, if I were to say Coppell is teaching the NGSS science standards, the national Next Generation Science Standards, if I were to publish that on our website, that’s when we would get a call from TEA.”
Hidden camera: “Really?”
Whitfield: “Yeah. But are we still teaching NGSS-ish? Absolutely.”
Hidden camera: “So they can’t really control what’s happening?”
Whitfield: “No. We just, we just do the right thing at the end of the day.”
A third video featuring Whitfield was published in May of 2023. It included some of the same footage from the first two videos, in which Whitfield was wearing a mask. But it also featured a separate hidden-camera interview in which his face was uncovered.
Hidden camera: “At the end of the day, can’t the teacher just close the door and teach what’s right?”
Whitfield: “That’s what we do. And I think that’s what I told you before. We teach what’s right.”
That report also featured footage of employees in Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD, Keller ISD, Lancaster ISD, McKinney ISD, Mesquite ISD, Plano ISD, and Richardson ISD.
Last August, Guillette showed up at Denton Creek Elementary and talked to parents about his reports. He brought a mobile billboard that played the previously released footage of Whitfield.
Paxton’s lawsuit stems from footage that seemingly was not published until last month. On Feb. 25, Corey A. DeAngelis, a self-described “school choice evangelist” and senior adviser to Accuracy in Media, posted clips of Whitfield on X, formerly known as Twitter. They are taken from the same hidden-camera interview featured in the original reports, but they include this exchange that I didn’t see in previous videos:
Hidden camera: “Our concern is more that they’re gonna — I don’t know where you are politically, but it’s, like, have to learn a MAGA version of history instead of an accurate depiction of real world events.”
Whitfield: “One thing that I love about this district is, despite what our state standards say and despite what, you know, is going on, we do what’s right for kids.”
The next day, Accuracy in Media posted an article about DeAngelis’ tweets under this headline: “BUSTED: Coppell, Texas school admin admits to defying Abbott’s CRT ban.” The video embedded in that article concludes with a declarative statement: “Enacting universal school choice is the only way to reform education in Texas.”
Paxton’s lawsuit says the state is not seeking monetary relief or attorney’s fees; all it seeks is “injunctive relief prohibiting future ultra vires acts.” In case you’re not aware, “ultra vires” is a legal term that means “beyond one’s legal power or authority.”
On Wednesday, the day the lawsuit was announced, I sent an email to the attorney general’s designated address for media inquiries. After pointing out that the lawsuit seeks to prohibit Coppell ISD from teaching Critical Race Theory, developing CRT materials, and distributing CRT materials, I said this: “Given the fact that Superintendent Brad Hunt and Board President David Caviness have publicly stated that Coppell ISD does not do any of those things, how can this suit be resolved? Is the AG seeking a trial at which Dr. Hunt and Mr. Caviness would have to say these things under oath?” My inquiry has not been answered.
On Thursday, Paxton, Gov. Greg Abbott, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — all of whom are proponents of school choice, also known as vouchers — were at the White House to watch President Donald Trump sign an executive order calling for the dismantling of the federal Department of Education.
City Leaders Testify Against Sales Tax Shift
In what has become a biennial affair, Coppell leaders traveled to Austin last week to testify against a bill that would take millions of dollars from the city.
Morgan Meyer, who resides in University Park and represents District 108 in the Texas House, has filed a bill that would switch the state’s policy on sales taxes from “origin sourcing” to “destination sourcing.” Here’s what HB 134 says about orders that are not placed in person: “... the sale is consummated at the location in this state to which the item is shipped or delivered or at which possession is taken by the purchaser.”
Meyer filed similar bills in 2021 and 2023. Like those bills, his latest legislation was the subject of a hearing before the Ways & Means Committee, which Meyer chairs. As the nearly three hours of testimony began on Monday afternoon, Meyer opened with a bit of sarcasm.