District 49’s Board of Education on Thursday voted to approve a measure with potential to change the way history and current events are taught in its classrooms.

In a 3-2 vote during its monthly meeting, the board passed a resolution prohibiting the teaching of “critical race theory” in D-49 schools. The 25,000-student district is thought to be the first in Colorado to approve such a ban.

Board members John Graham, Ivy Liu and Rick Van Wieren voted in favor of the measure. Kevin Butcher and Dave Cruson voted against it.

The theory has been the subject of impassioned debate among legislators, educators and parents across the country in recent years. Locally, Air Force Academy political science professor Lynne Chandler Garcia sparked outrage in conservative circles when she spoke out in support of critical race theory, writing in an opinion article that the theory is crucial in helping military leaders “understand the history of the racism that has shaped both foreign and domestic policy.”

Rep. Doug Lamborn, a staunch opponent of the use of critical race theory in the military, publicly criticized Gacria, stating that “Critical race theory is an anti-American ideology rooted in Marxism” and has no place in the U.S. military.

During the Thursday night board meeting, several district parents and community members spoke for and against the ban, mostly rehashing arguments that have been offered at every meeting since the resolution was proposed on June 10.

But Matt Balk, the first resident to speak during the open forum, suggested board member Ivy Liu had tainted the proceedings by publicly stating her opinion of critical race theory on social media before the topic had been formally discussed.

After reading several posts from Liu’s personal Facebook page, Balk declared, “These are not the words of an undecided board member. These are the words of an individual with an agenda.”

In response, Liu said, “As long as I’m a District 49 school board member, it will be my single-minded mission to ensure that D-49 remains one of the top-notch districts, and protect it from any infusion of insidious indoctrination.”

Rachel Sims, who has two children attending D-49 schools, recalled the history instruction of her youth and said it fell short when it came to race.

“I was not taught about the direct line that can be drawn from Jim Crow property laws, to redlining (denial of goods and services to members of certain groups), to the generational wealth issue in the Black community,” Sims said. “But it’s our history. It informs our present and our future, and if we refuse to talk about how the echoes of that past reverberate in today’s laws and today’s society, we are being willfully ignorant.”

Derrick Wilburn said teaching critical race theory actually does race relations more harm than good, pitting students against each other on the basis of skin color.

“I can think of nothing more damaging to a society than to tell a baby born today that she has grievances against another baby born today, simply because of what their ancestors may have done two centuries ago,” said Wilburn, who is Black. “There is simply no point in doing that to our children, and putting critical race theory into our classrooms, in part, does that.”

Critical race theory focuses on institutional racism rather than individual discrimination, according to Jeffrey Montez de Oca, a sociology professor at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

“The basic premise is that racism in the United States goes beyond individual prejudice and discrimination,” de Oca said. “(The theory) says that racism is woven into institutions and organizations.”

De Oca said many people oppose the theory, in part, because it questions deeply held beliefs about what it means to be an American.

“If you believe that you’re a good person because you are part of a good society, and the reality contradicts that image, it can make you begin to question yourself,” de Oca said. “That’s pretty scary for some people.”

Board member Cruson and Chief Operating Officer Pedro Almeida cautioned against the ban, saying it was unnecessary because the theory is not directly taught to students in the district.

“I feel that this is a solution to a problem that does not exist,” Almeida said.

De Oca echoed Almeida’s assertion and suggested the resolution could prove difficult to enforce.

“If you talk to middle school and high school history teachers, they will tell you that critical race theory is not being taught at that level,” he said. “So you wonder how much legal impact a resolution like that can really have.”

Van Wieren allowed that the theory is probably not being taught in D-49 schools, and said the resolution should keep it that way and serve as the district’s final word on the topic.

“I would like this not to be something we have to talk about all year long,” Van Wieren said. “I would like us to get on with the business of teaching kids math, and science and history, and all that good stuff.”

District 49 board edges closer to ‘critical race theory’ ban