The nonprofit group Fair Education organized a “Breaking the Social Justice Stranglehold on Public Education” forum on Tuesday at the Reagan Ranch Center. About 100 people, largely white and older than 50, were in attendance. While the overarching theme across several presentations was social justice, the group focused heavily on Just Communities, a Santa Barbara nonprofit under contract with the Santa Barbara Unified School District to provide implicit-bias training to district faculty and staff. Fair Education formed late last year to sue Just Communities and Santa Barbara Unified in federal court, alleging their material was anti-white, anti-male, and anti-Christian. The suit was dismissed in early March for lack of legal standing.
On April 8, Fair Education filed a new complaint in Santa Barbara Superior Court, this time naming Fair Education cochairs James Fenkner and Sheridan Rosenberg as plaintiffs — both have children in the district. The two were commended several times throughout the presentations for deciding to be named in the suit. In the complaint, they allege discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, and gender, among other things.
“These laws were designed to protect minorities. Now they have to be used to protect white Americans because that’s what we’re living in,” said Fair Education attorney Eric Early. He encouraged attendees to continue fighting against “alt-left social justice warriors,” whom he characterized as victimizing teachers, students, and parents who wanted to speak up. “They know how to shut people like us up,” he said. Early was adamant that racism is used against white people, which audience members responded to with enthusiasm.