Texas AG Paxton Sues School District for ‘Illegally Teaching’ Critical Race Theory 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Coppell Independent School District for “illegally teaching woke and hateful critical race theory curriculum,” his office said in a Wednesday press release. 

The lawsuit follows an undercover video revealing Coppell school district’s Director of Curriculum and Instruction Evan Whitfield admitting to defying Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on teaching critical race theory, according to the statement. 

Conservative watchdog group Accuracy in Media released the footage on Feb. 26. 

When asked by an undercover journalist if Abbott’s anti-CRT orders would affect the school’s current curriculum, Whitfield replied, “I don’t think so … We’ve gotten around it by saying, ‘Well, we’re just not teaching that.’” 

In a subsequent meeting, Whitfield said, “At the end of the day, can’t the teacher just close the door and teach what’s right? Shh, that’s what we do.” 

Abbott in 2021 signed legislation, HB 3979, into law banning concepts related to critical race theory in public schools. 

In response to the video, Paxton said in his office’s press release, “Liberal administrators who want to ignore state law and unlawfully push divisive and racist CRT curriculum in classrooms will be held responsible for their actions.”  

He continued, “Texas children deserve to receive the best education in the world, not have woke ideology forced upon them. My lawsuit aims to put an immediate end to this illegal and hateful curriculum and immediately stop the blatant refusal to follow state law by certain officials at Coppell ISD.” 

Paxton sent letters to Hutto and Richardson school districts in February following an earlier Accuracy in Media video in which a Texas school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion director was recorded discussing ways to circumvent Texas state law regarding transgender student athletes, as reported by The Daily Signal. 

Abbott wrote an X post calling for the DEI director to be “fired on the spot” and for civil and criminal investigations into Irving school district.