The Battle Over Critical Race Theory in Tennessee’s Wealthiest School District

Andy Spears
3 min readJun 23, 2021

As tensions heat up in Williamson County over the process of instilling principles of diversity and inclusion in the system’s schools, one parent group continues to highlight the work in the community being done on the issue.

Here’s more from One WillCo regarding some of what happened at this week’s school board meeting:

Last week, One WillCo joined with five other local organizations with a joint statement supporting Superintendent Jason Golden, and Williamson County School’s diversity efforts with “Fostering Healthy Solutions.” Tonight at the school board meeting several parents involved with One WillCo shared their experiences and thoughts during public comment.

Alanna Truss, a clinical psychologist and parent of a Woodland Middle School and Kenrose Elementary School student, spoke in support of “Fostering Healthy Solutions” and Superintendent Golden. “Recent efforts by some individuals to push back against DEI efforts have included the claim that children are being traumatized by exposure to factual representations of history. In my years serving this community, I have yet to see a child in my practice due to being traumatized by our county’s curriculum choices. I have however, seen several students experiencing trauma due to being discriminated against and bullied within our schools, due to race, religion, gender and sexuality. As a parent and psychologist I am grateful for the ongoing efforts of our school board to make…

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Andy Spears

Writer and policy advocate living in Nashville, TN —Public Policy Ph.D. — writes on education policy, consumer affairs, and more . . .