NC Superintendent Attempts To Shut Down GOP Speaker At A Campaign Stop
Catherine Truitt loses her cool on video while a JOCO School Board Member highlights the Superintendent's disastrous record.
Catherine Truitt attended a Johnston County GOP meeting last Thursday night as part of her re-election campaign.
The current superintendent boasted to about a hundred voters that she helped Republicans in the General Assembly pass conservative legislation. Truitt explained that her power to stop CRT in the classroom was limited given the Democratic majority on the State School Board.
"CRT and DEI is a strictly local issue - when people say they can get rid of CRT in the schools they are LYING," Truitt told the crowd.
Following Truitt's presentation, Johnston County School Board member Michelle Antione presented her version of the superintendent's record. Antione began her statement by saying that both Truitt and her primary challenger were "fabulous women" and that the GOP would support either candidate in the general election.
But the second Antione mentioned Truitt's staffing the DPI's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office, Truit erupted in an angry rage. Truitt is heard screaming at Antione in a video provided by an attendee, accusing Antione of lying. Truitt continued to shout at Antione until the superintendent reportedly left the meeting in a dramatic huff.
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Truitt's behavior contradicts the DPI's expectations for K-12 students in the state.
The superintendent should model civility and decorum as North Carolina's chief K-12 education officer. At a minimum, she should live up to the benchmarks she sets for children in her Portrait of a Graduate, such as engaging in productive discourse to resolve disagreements and demonstrating understanding, concern, and respect for others.
Congressional candidate in District 13 Kenny Xu posted on X that he was at the Johnston County event and witnessed Truitt's breakdown.
Xu, a nationally renowned expert on the racism of Diversity Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), dissected each point of Truitt's presentation.
Xu issued this biting criticism:
"Flatly, Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt "flunks" her attempt to defend her record on CRT, DEI, Equity, and has presided over a decidedly middling educational period during her time, while remaining cozy to the DEI/CRT lobbyists at the center of this national educational disaster. She deserves to go."
Truitt is running against long-time education advocate Michele Morrow who has pledged to remove CRT and DEI from North Carolina’s academic standards. From Morrow’s campaign website:
Thanks to state and federal policies, North Carolina schools prioritize teaching children racially divisive and sexually explicit content instead of reading and math. Our current system rewards individuals who embrace these ideologies, instead of encouraging healthy competition, academic excellence, and personal responsibility.
We are depriving our students of their constitutional right to a sound, basic education.Â