After suing Coppell ISD alleging educators were breaking state law by teaching critical race theory, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Wednesday he “resolved” the case with the district.
The lawsuit, filed in March, based its claims on a hidden-camera recording originally published in 2023 by a group called Accuracy in Media. Video appeared to show a Coppell ISD administrator discussing ways to get around the state’s anti-CRT laws. District officials insisted in a court filing that the footage was “heavily edited and manipulated so to be grossly misleading.”
Critical race theory is an academic framework that probes the way policies and laws uphold systemic racism — such as in education, housing or criminal justice. In recent years, many conservatives conflated it with work aimed at making schools more equitable for students.
Related:How ‘critical race theory’ came to dominate education debates in Texas
In 2021, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a law aiming to eliminate critical race theory from public schools, though it did not use those three words.
In Wednesday’s announcement, Paxton said the lawsuit was resolved after district officials “voluntarily took measures to ensure that unlawful critical race theory (“CRT”) will not be taught in its classrooms.”
Those measures included disavowing the theory and circulating to staff Texas laws surrounding the teaching of race and the importance of being fully compliant with state law, according to the news release.
Coppell ISD spokesperson Amanda Simpson said district officials are waiting to issue a statement until after the judge officially drops the suit.
