Newly elected conservative school board members in South Carolina ‘clean house’ – banning Critical Race Theory, firing superintendent

Six newly elected members of a South Carolina school board chose to immediately “clean house,” passing a resolution banning Critical Race Theory in classrooms and firing the liberal superintendent.

In their first two hours after taking office following election wins Nov. 8, the six parents – endorsed by parental rights group Moms for Liberty – had passed a resolution to ban CRT and formed a committee to review books flagged for sexually explicit material. They also fired superintendent Deon Jackson and the district’s lawyer Tiffany Richardson, according to a Daily Caller report.

The board then appointed a new superintendent, Dr. Anthony Dixon, and a new board chairman, Mac McQuillin.

While many in the major media lamented the new board’s decisions, including the firing of the district’s “first black superintendent,” the newly appointed superintendent is also black. 

“Within two hours, the school board had voted to fire the district’s first Black superintendent, terminate the district’s lawyer, ban critical race theory and set up a committee to decide whether certain books and materials should be banned from schools,” reported NBC News.  

“In addition, the board voted to replace the chair with Mac McQuillin, a local attorney and one of the board members backed by Moms for Liberty. The rapid moves Tuesday in the Berkeley County district, the fourth-largest in the state, showed the impact of Moms for Liberty’s focus on electing conservative school board members, and prompted uproar among some community members in attendance.” 

When some audience members vocally expressed dissatisfaction, new chair McQuillin took control and stood by the board’s decision.

“All right, listen up,” he said. “We’re going to be respectful in this meeting. You may not agree with our votes, but I ask that you please be respectful and calm. What kind of example are you setting for our kids, disrupting a meeting like this?” 

Not all board members were happy with the swift action taken by the new conservative majority. 

Previous board chair David Barrow decried the moves as a “political witch hunt,” and Yvonne Bradley, one of the three board members to vote against the firings, seemed to blame those in attendance, saying they voted for “these people,” and had been “fooled.” 

“Ladies and gentlemen, you are being fooled by these six. Unbelievable, what the chairman would do. It is so unbelievable how this is going. And we voted for these people. You did.” 

NBC reports Bradley and Crystal Wigfall, another board member, abruptly walked out of the meeting at that point, with some members of the audience following.  

While some blasted the community for electing the new board members, Moms for Liberty celebrated their decisions as a victory for parental rights, safety and transparency, posting on Facebook Wednesday, “6 new board members clean house first night on the job.” 

“In the community many people know that these candidates support parental rights, but not only that, they support transparency,” Christi Dixon, Berkeley County Moms for Liberty chairwoman, told the Daily Caller. “They want to make sure schools are safe. They want to make sure that financially [the school] is responsible with all the funding. They also want to make sure that our teachers get the support, and all their needs are met in the classroom.”

As parental rights have risen in importance across the country, so has Moms for Liberty, which endorsed more than 500 school board candidates. An astonishing 49% of them won their elections, 76% of whom were first-time candidates, according to the organization’s website.