Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, schools and universities were just as radical—if not more so—than before. From Critical Race Theory, to gender ideology, to straight-up viewpoint discrimination—conservative students and parents bore the brunt of the Left’s unrelenting push to fully woke-ify education. We count down the 9 worst politically correct offenses in 2021:
The editor-in-chief of The O’Colly newspaper at Oklahoma State University was forced to resign by her peers on the paper after expressing an opinion skeptical of masking and COVID-19 protocols in an Op-ed. They went so far as to issue a “correction” for her column. “…It is not something representing the thoughts and opinions of The O’Colly Media Group,” they wrote.
Farmington Public Schools in Michigan encouraged students, teachers, and families to take part in a “21 Day Equity Challenge” urging participants to campaign and vote for candidates fighting “racial injustice,” to join protests sponsored by Black Lives Matter, and to donate money to bail rioters out of jail. If that weren’t enough, the activity also told students that the ideas “America is a land of opportunity,” or “I believe the most qualified person should get the job” are “microaggressions.”
See our list of the worst of the worst Critical Race Theory indoctrination of 2021 here.
In September, a pro-life YAF activist was assaulted during a demonstration about the new Texas abortion law. According to the Iowa State University Young Americans for Freedom chairman Kyle Poen, “…one student ran up to the member of the club who was holding the sign and proceeded to punch through the sign into the club member.” He then ran off with YAF’s sign. A while later, the student returned and called the campus police on himself. Despite turning himself in, the student took to Twitter weeks after the incident to dispute his own admission, arguing that YAF was lying to the police.
The University at Buffalo held an event aimed at erasing and uncovering “The Real History of Thanksgiving” in November. The event’s description read: “Why is Thanksgiving still celebrated in America when the truth behind the holiday is the massacre of Indigenous communities? How can we erase this whitewashed history for good? Come out to the [Intercultural and Diversity Center (IDC)] to discuss the real history of Thanksgiving and what America should do in place of this celebration.” The university refused to answer questions as to why they were sponsoring an event attempting to “erase” Thanksgiving and responded by closing the event to all press. Instead of accepting responsibility, they attempted to shift blame by claiming the event was student-run, despite being sponsored by the IDC.
This fall, Saint Mary’s College, a Catholic institution, held multiple woke events including “God is Proud of You: LGBTQ+ Catholicism” and “Menstrual Justice.” In a post promoting one of the events, the Campus Ministry said, “Looks like God put a perfect little rainbow on our campus, and maybe it could serve as a reminder of our ‘God is PROUD of you: LGBTQ+ Catholicism’ event tomorrow at 7 PM in Stapleton Lounge in Le Mans!” One alumna told YAF, “I feel horrible for the faithful Catholic families who are paying obscene amounts of money to have their children indoctrinated with this type of cultural Marxism.”
When parents raised concerns about a first-grade teacher reading students a book glorifying transgenderism, their pleas fell on deaf ears. Both the school’s administrators and the school board refused to take any action. The book in question highlights the story of a boy whose parents began “transitioning” him to a girl at just two years old. It’s not surprising that the school board refused to act, considering the president is the owner of an “all-ages” sex toy shop. After YAF’s reporting, the school district doubled down and defended both the teacher and the school board president, even accusing YAF of “prompting hate speech and harassment.”
Palomar Community College in California “adopted a policy to require all interviews for admin and staff to require an antiracist question pre-interview to assess new applicants’ dedication to antiracism,” according to the college’s website. The faculty also created a video featured on the school’s homepage in which they declare the need for anti-racism. One professor claimed that America “is a country that was founded on racism.”
See our list of the worst of the worst Critical Race Theory indoctrination of 2021 here.
During Young America’s Foundation’s nationwide initiative, the 9/11: Never Forget Project, a student senator at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, was caught on film destroying the school’s display. He had reportedly attempted to steal and trash the flags on multiple occasions and showed absolutely no remorse when questioned. He claimed the stunt was to “protest against American imperialism and the 900,000 lives lost as a result of post 9/11 war.” The vandal was found guilty by WashU and placed on probation. He was also ordered to pay $500 in restitution to the WashU College Republicans. According to the WashU CRs, the student was not removed from his student senate leadership position–where heads the finance committee, in charge of doling out more than $1 million in student organization funding.
A student at Saint Louis University in Missouri was threatened with suspension and expulsion for “failure to comply” when administrators asked him to stop hanging posters off-campus. The posters were advertising a YAF event with Matt Walsh that had faced so many obstacles from the administration that YAF was forced to hold the event off-campus. The Office of Student Responsibility and Community Standards (OSRCS) informed the student of the charges of “failure to comply” and “inappropriate conduct” and scheduled a hearing for finals week.
Through exposing these stories to the public, filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and providing students with the resources to advocate for their beliefs on campus, YAF works to shift campus culture across the country and support conservative students. To see all of YAF’s reporting and successes check out our tipline map here!
Students have a direct line to YAF through the Campus Bias Tipline, where they can report on these egregious incidents and reveal the indoctrination that schools are doing their best to hide.
Report a tip here.
