As we’ve been telling you the whole time, DEI will be hidden, renamed, and will rear its ugly head again. However, this was a victory against a horrible discriminatory policy.
Unfortunately, some people just couldn’t accept this and continue, to this day, to deny the DEI officer position is perpetually vacant. It wasn’t ‘eliminated’ they say. It was just left vacant indefinitely and funding for it ceased with no plans to ever revive the position or its funding.
Totally not the same thing folks.
Today is back-to-school for PHM, and they do not have a DEI officer for the district.
On June 26, 2024, Real News Michianapublished an article about Doug Chaffee. Doug Chaffee is the former Principal of Penn High School and is currently running for PHM school board. Doug Chaffee is also the father of current PHM school board member Matt Chaffee. RNM recently published an article about Matt Chaffee as well.
In the article about Doug Chaffee, RNM claimed that Doug Chaffee engaged in a “terrifying attack” against Matt Chaffee’s girlfriend at the time.
Doug Chaffee reached out to me asking if I’d be willing to publish his response. He expressed that he felt I was the only media outlet that would be fair to him and publish his response without taking sides.
Here’s Doug Chaffee’s statement on the Real News Michiana article about him:
Clifton French of RNM has taken our conversation from September of 2023 out of context. He has not provided the full text messages between us, and he has completely twisted my words to him to create a “hit piece” on myself and my son. I am guessing Mr. French has not released the full audio recording he claims to have due to threats he made about killing his ex-wife and others on that same call. My son and I are no longer going to entertain these defamatory articles as our focus is serving the PHM community and its constituents. Thank you to everyone who supported and continues to support the Chaffee family in our endeavors to better our community.
– Doug Chaffee
I can not verify the claims made by Doug Chaffee, but I’m told his attorneys approved the release to me. I’m also told there’s more to come in future releases.
There's time to change their mind but my sources say that would be a deviation from the current plan.https://t.co/cqycvEQZHv
— Casey Hendrickson 🎙 Syndicated Radio Host (@caseythehost) April 16, 2024
Since the school board had not yet voted to officially eliminate the position, a few people took issue with my story. Some said I was wrong, some said I was lying and spreading “fake news.” Ultimately, as I said in the original story, they were arguing semantics. My sources were clear … the current DEI officer was being moved to a new job and there were no plans to ever fund or fill that position again in the district. It was eliminated. Arguing over whether the position was permanently vacant or if a vote officially eliminated it was silly and petty. The DEI position at PHM was no more.
The PHM board’s dislike of me is well-known. This led to one of my sources saying that they’d probably keep the DEI officer position around just to make me look bad after the story was published. I also joked about this on social media.
Then the proposed changes to PHM student handbooks came out.
DEI was being stripped from the student handbooks in PHM. If PHM wasn’t eliminating the DEI officer position, this would be an odd development. Instead, the changes to the handbooks further confirmed my exclusive story was correct.
Then today:
On May 20, 2024, Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Jerry Thacker confirmed my story was correct by saying: “We have no intention of filling that position.”
Dr. Thacker’s response was to Board of Trustees member Matt Chaffee’s direct question about that position being eliminated.
This was true in April, but every doubt has now been eliminated … just like the DEI officer position. The board voted to remove DEI from the student handbooks later that evening.
This does not mean the principles of DEI are going away. They will always be around but DEI is on the retreat … at least in an official capacity. This is something that would have been celebrated by nearly everyone just a few short months ago.
This is a very big deal and I can’t wait to see the local media coverage of it. Especially since the media has recently taken a newfound interest in PHM school board issues. So much so, that the board set seats aside for local media to attend the meetings.
Too bad no media showed up to the meeting today.
I wonder why the media didn't show up to the PHM school board meeting tonight. pic.twitter.com/9ZSONZ1EBn
— Casey Hendrickson 🎙 Syndicated Radio Host (@caseythehost) May 21, 2024
Exclusive: PHM Board Member, Matt Chaffee, Responds To Demands He Resign
Penn-Harris Madison school board member, Matt Chaffee, has responded to last night’s special session vote demanding he step down from the school board with an exclusive press release to me.
In an exclusive press release to me, Matt responds to the vote and hints at what’s to come regarding the allegations against him.
Last month, Real News Michiana published a story accusing Matt Chaffee of hypocrisy in demanding PHM board members resign in the wake of numerous violations by their members. The claim is that Matt was himself engaging in activity that warranted his resignation.
Most local media outlets showed up to last night’s vote to call for Chaffee’s resignation. The media was disinterested in previous press releases they received highlighting several examples of the board president, Chris Riley, and his actions, and the subsequent calls by Matt Chaffee for Chris Riley to resign as a result.
These previous issues included, but are not limited to:
The board losing an illegal SAC complaint with the state.
A parent winning a Civil Rights complaint against the board.
The harassing of parents critical of the board. Including police and employer harassment.
Board President Chris Riley committing several policy violations.
And refusal to punish PHM faculty caught violating policies.
None of those well-documented issues have caught the attention of local media. This angle, however, did.
The same goes for the teacher’s union representatives who circulated an email recruiting people to be at last night’s meeting. They were never interested in showing up to address proven issues with the PHM school board previously.
I wanted to point out that the media has been completely disinterested in corruption and abuse on the PHM board, but the moment a conservative member faced criticism, they showed up.
Here’s Matt Chaffee’s response to what happened last night and the allegations against him:
This is the PHM high schoolstudent handbook proposed changes for next year. The school board will have first reading of these proposed revisions publicly this coming Monday. On May 20, the board will vote to approve potential changes.
Page 18 might be of particular interest. Notice the red ink?
You can read the full proposed student handbook here.
A recent district-wide email went out to PHM employees notifying them that current DEI officer, Derrick White, will leave that post and take over as Director of Alternative Education and Special Projects starting on July 1. This leaves the PHM DEI officer position open and vacant. I wrote about this change recently.
In my previous article, I wrote that PHM is eliminating the DEI officer position. People took issue with my using the word ‘eliminate’ because the board hasn’t voted to officially eliminate it yet, and may not vote to do so. This was a fair criticism. However, numerous sources inside PHM tell me there are no plans to fill the DEI officer position in PHM. This would effectively leave the position open indefinitely and it would only remain in derelict status. Given that DEI is being rolled back all over the country right now due to political pressure, I can see this position remaining vacant and effectively being eliminated. Arguing over semantics about whether a perpetually vacant position is actually ‘eliminated’ seems like a waste of time and energy. My sources say the position won’t be filled. If that changes, I’ll tell you.
In 2023, DEI jobs fell 5%, and so far they are down 8% in 2024. 30 states have introduced legislation to ban DEI in public education at all levels. Many have succeeded and DEI is being rolled back in many states. In last years Indiana legislative session, HB 1338 would have effectively banned DEI in Indiana education. It didn’t pass, but SB 202 did pass in the 2024 session. DEI has become politically toxic and is in retreat in the corporate world as well as public education.
Now, that doesn’t mean the battle is won. As I’ve highlighted on the show for many years, DEI, CRT, etc. are hidden within other programs like SEL. Just because PHM appears to be leaving the DEI officer post vacant and striking DEI language from the high school student handbook doesn’t mean the tenets of DEI are going away. A point highlighted by Accuracy In Media’s deep-dive investigation into Indiana public schools hiding DEI and CRT from not only parents and the public, but from school boards as well.
Alternative media, activists, and parent groups pushing back against DEI are effectively driving it underground but the fight is long from over.
