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Susan Curlee went on a media frenzy for Spring Break.
On Friday the 13th, Curlee gave a speech before an “online conference” of the “Concerned Educators Against Forced Unionism.” Ms. Curlee announced that she has unraveled what the Daily Caller reporter (and we use that term very generously) called a “vast left-wing conspiracy to indoctrinate children.” The Daily Caller itself named Williamson County the most conservative county in America in 2010. Who knew a vast left-wing conspiracy was underway right here!
In addition to being a front group, Ms. Curlee said we are trying to indoctrinate children into a progressive ideology and that we “live to intimidate.”
Ms. Curlee then reprised her statements for Fox and Friends. In her Fox appearance, Curlee said Williamson Strong is affiliated with a national group called “Strong Schools, Strong Communities.” This is false. She elaborated that this indoctrination that we are allegedly responsible for is pushing the message that “the government is the ultimate provider.”
Remember, this isn’t the first thing Curlee has accused us of. Curlee has previously accused us of pushing the agendas of Pearson, Microsoft, and Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros. She has also accused us of attacking her and her family, harassing her children (whom we’ve never met), and viciously slandering her and her family. These claims were what parents asked about during the Let’s Talk Schools event last fall. Curlee repeatedly said that parents connected to Williamson Strong had harassed and attacked her and her family. The audience pressed for specifics. (You can find the details of the exchange in our Open Letter from October.)
We suspect there’s nothing we can say to shake Ms. Curlee from the grip of this delusion. We are all parents who have spent many years engaged with making our kids’ schools better, but for whatever reason this kind of parent volunteerism is so foreign as to be unbelievable to Ms. Curlee. Given past experience, there is no reason to think that actual facts will affect her vitriol or inaccuracies.
We are not in the business of banging our heads against a brick wall, so we’ll leave it at that.
The real question is this: what is this all about? Is this a search for a new gig? A run for a bigger office? A taste for the bright lights? We really have no idea.
This kind of media foray might be good for Ms. Curlee, but these kinds of negative circus-level allegations don’t serve the residents and businesses of Williamson County. Most importantly, these actions do not serve the boys and girls of the Williamson County Schools. That’s the job she was elected (and is paid) to do.