March 2, 2025- You hear me say this often based on my years of investigating the chaos in America’s school boards: Whatever seems new in the Trump administration’s targeting of federal employees or educators is not new at all. This includes recently launched federal government tip lines to identify people and institutions involved in diversity, equity and inclusion work.
This targeting method was key to fomenting the chaos we’ve watched unfold throughout America’s public school systems, and it has an ugly history in global totalitarian regimes.
Reporting portals or tip lines are methods by which you can “tell on” teachers and districts for implementing a redefined and often non-existent theme we’ve chalked up to a “culture war” battle cry. We’re talking the political (and mostly White) right’s definition of Critical Race Theory, diversity, equity and inclusion, basic and accurate American history, books, etc…These portals -which allow the tipster to remain anonymous or unidentified to the public- were created by newly-formed conservative non-profits as early as 2021. If you pop into your secretary of state’s incorporation records, you can see how these parental rights non-profits took off early that year.
I’d first come across these groups and portals in early 2022 while working on this1 investigation into the harassment campaign launched against an accomplished Black educator. She was chased out of two school districts by White community members here in Georgia. They’d come up with fantastical ideas about her intentions and teaching methods when the district asked her to apply and then hired her from Maryland to fill its first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion administrator job. I want you to keep in mind that this was before DEI was the hitman term of the hour. We were still in the CRT hysteria at this point, so testing the next public outrage terminology was happening during harassment campaigns like this.
Before the educator could take the job, she’d become a target and focus of a secret in-person meeting and Facebook groups, rumors, harassment and ultimately people who were members or leaders of these groups that curated tip line portals.
This was around the time when I started to conclude and say aloud that of all the “anti” fights in public schools, it was the vast ranging anti-DEI hysteria that would stick and morph into campaigns to dismantle racial, gender, and accessibility measures for people beyond the schoolhouse. Higher education and private corporations would be next because we were dealing with a method tied to not just conservative politics, but white supremacy seeking to maintain a power structure. This is a concept I wrote about in an earlier edition of Fortify. And this is where we are today with the Supreme Court’s rollbacks of affirmative action in college admissions, Black venture capitalist funds taken to the federal courts and accused of discrimination, and women, trans and Black military servicemembers fired or on the brink of firing by newly-installed Trump loyalists-those servicemembers’ hard-earned promotions and appointments or actual evidence of wrongdoing be damned.
In that initial story (the first of seven I reported and had published in this area), I touched on the anonymous reporting “portals” that I monitored regularly. Some of the links are broken now, but groups like Parents Defending Ed2 created “indoctrination maps” to visually track and post where they’d received tips about violations of students’ personal freedoms (i.e. mask and vaccine mandates) . Or one could flag the teaching or implementation of concepts according to conservatives’ definitions. This included social, emotional learning, critical race theory, DEI, books they were attempting to ban, LGBTQ student rights, so on and so forth . Requested tips have now expanded to include complaints about ethnic studies, immigration, and affinity groups ( by the way, don’t be surprised if Black fraternities and sororities become the next big targets).3
The tipster is not required to publicly identify themselves, but the alleged violator and details of the complaints, framed as cause for real concern whether that’s true or not, are free for the Internet to take off and propagate through a rumor mill, harassment or a public character assassination attempt. It can also create the framework for the mass claims we’ve seen filed against districts across America. This can be the beginning of the ultimate disinformation campaign if or when the complaints are exaggerated or twisted into something they are not-something framed as inherently wrong.
Hold on for examples of those tips for one second while I bring you to today’s news and a bit of history behind these “snitch” lines in today’s Fortify.
On Friday, sociologist Victor Ray posted on Bluesky this link4 to a Reuters story headlined “US launches ‘end DEI’ portal for public complaints about diversity in schools.” The news brief notes that the Department of Education will use e-mail addresses, school district names and incident reports to identify potential areas to investigate. What’s not reported in this particular story is the fact that the person quoted in this federal department press release and promoting the tipline is not even a federal government employee, rather a woman who co-founded Moms for the Liberty. It’s the largest most influential and really well-funded groups of primarily White women to drive the modern-day movement coined “parental rights.”
“Creating snitch lines where citizens can report one another for wrong-think is totalitarian stuff reminiscent of the Gestapo and Stasi.” Ray wrote of the news.
Ray, who has authored this essential read on Critical Race Theory, is spot-on, especially considering how these types of tip lines-with no requirement to report a clearly-defined violation-have already been used to target educators and civil servants in history and in real-time, in foreign and domestic scenarios.
We’re reminded of how Nazi Germany took a page out of America’s Jim Crow playbook to move its evil forward by examining the works of researchers like journalist-historian-author Isabel Wilkerson. Wilkerson makes this connection crystal clear in her novel Caste: The Orgins of our Discontent and during this 2020 Democracy Now video appearance.
“The Nazis needed no one to teach them how to hate,” Wilkerson says in the Democracy Now interview. “But what they did was they sent researchers to the United States to study Jim Crow laws here in the United States, to study and to research how the United States had managed to subordinate and subjugate its African American population.”
We should also consider the ways in which America is ripping a page out of Nazi Germany’s playbook as it targets educators and civil servants. This is a clear attempt to shift power dynamics, rewrite history, alter reality and campaign against individual rights through Executive Orders, the textbook, intimidation tactics, legislation banning the teaching of accurate history and matters of race.
This image from a 1934 race science textbook was curated from the Wiener Holocaust Library collection which holds Britain’s largest archive on the Nazi era . Its introduction to the medical science exhibition notes the following:
“Nazi policy eroded the legal basis for the protection of individual rights, including control over one’s own body…” It also relied on anti-scientific researchers to conclude whether a group of people deserved to exist.
We can easily draw parallels between those policies and today’s abortion bans that have made poor and Black women of any socio-economic status the face of maternal care death. 5 Those policies —which the site notes relied on anti-science “experts” -should remind us of the countless harmful medical science experimentations conducted on Black Americans (see this recent Teen Vogue feature on how mostly Black inmates were scarred when used as lab animals to test retinol effects on our skin so you can pamper yourself with today’s popular self-care products).
The caption below the race science textbook image comes from the website6, Holocaust Explained dot org, which lays out the following point:
“Following the Nazi rise to power, new textbooks were introduced to make sure that all content taught by teachers was in line with the Nazis’ beliefs,” the website explains. This page is taken from a Nazi racial science textbook published in 1934. In the bottom right corner, someone has added another side profile with stereotypical Jewish features and written ‘Jüden’, meaning Jews, next to it.”
Key to the point about textbooks and forcing certain teaching or removing teachers who would not get on with pushing the hate and ideology , is the fact that punishment was dependent on an informant system. To Ray’s point, the whole Gestapo enforcement was enabled by a network of people who would tell on neighbors, teachers, friends for going against well, whatever the Nazis said they should do or think.
The informant’s motives, the site points out, included everything from job security to self-preservation, meaning people would snitch on others to advance their own power, remain employed or stay in the good graces of tyrants rather than prioritize humanity.
In January, the Office of Personnel Management called itself rooting out diversity initiatives by requiring federal employees to report any contractors or colleagues who were involved in its enforcement.
It came two days after Trump signed an Executive Order “Ending Radical and Wasteful DEI Programs and Preferencing.” I’ve mentioned the Black and women and trans leadership purged from the highest military offices, but the EO also outlined initiatives like “environmental justice,” as if this nation’s history of redlining, Black and Brown cancer alleys and Flint water crises don’t exist.
"There will be no adverse consequences for timely reporting this information," an OPM e-mail provided to NBC News read7. "However, failure to report this information within 10 days may result in adverse consequences."
The dark tone, unclear directives and fast-moving government coup should not be taken lightly or normalized as history has shown us the adverse consequences of cowering in these times.
This method of allowing people to submit “proof” of something they believe should not be taught or to “tell on” a colleague or educator for what they’ve done to mythically harm society or your child by disobeying an ideology is an old method that advances dangerous pressure and harassment campaigns.
Now that the reporting portal is open to the public from the Department of Ed, we should look at how it’s already been scaled by so-called grassroots organizations.
Returning to the indoctrination maps that I mentioned earlier in this post and in my reporting, let’s examine the type of “violations” or points of concern being reported to Parents Defending Ed via that anonymous submission portal.
Here are some of the most recent examples that end of up on that nationwide indoctrination target map above. They include accusations of educators attacking President Trump and his anti-DEI orders. One “incident report” includes a February 2025 complaint8 that a teacher in Massachusetts “appears to compare (the) Trump administration to the Holocaust.” The educator spoke about Elon Musk’s Nazi salute during a state hearing (the salute has been called everything from a hand gesture or signal by American media outlets. Germans have no question9 about it being a Nazi salute).
Another complaint10 included the “Staff of Color” newsletter sent out to teachers of color in a Missouri District. While the person who submits to the website has no obligation to reveal themselves, their portal complaint is crafted into something that looks like a press release on the PDE site. It includes the newsletter with a photo of the veteran Black educator who crafted the following message:
“This school year I have seen more progress in our teachers of color staff hirings and equally excited that we have now hired eight administrators of color across the district,” the passage reads. “ This increase in staff of color definitely shows that as a district we are valuing our Priority Goal: Equity, Diversity & Inclusion. With that said, “DEI” has become increasingly controversial in recent political discourse, even though the outcome is to promote inclusivity and fairness.”
Part of the complaint beyond defying Trump DEI orders is that affinity groups, aka a Staff of Color support group, exists.
How plastering that educator’s photo on this website or elevating a campaign against the group that publishes the newsletter and advocates for educators of color will have impact on people’s lives can vary. It can depend on how fast the incident report picks up speed locally, in school board candidate campaigns, discrimination lawsuits, internet harassment, etc…
We’ve also seen the method backfire against those launching the tiplines.
While I was reporting that situation in Georgia, Glenn Youngkin was running a Virginia gubernatorial campaign. Much of that campaign relied on riding the wave of fury in the parental rights movement.
Fresh off his 2021 victory, Youngkin launched an anti-CRT tip line. The instructions for the statewide portal called for Virginians to report “any instances where they feel that their fundamental rights are being violated” or “inherently divisive practices” in schools.”
As USA Today reported11, the tip line was a flop. It shut down the following year, and garnered few tips about CRT or divisive concepts.
But tip lines like these were used by conservative civil liberties law firms to craft some of the reverse discrimination and free speech complaints launched against individuals and districts. So-called concerned parents would step up to school board podiums to shout about what they’d “heard” or the public documents they’d discovered to prove divisive concepts were being taught in class. They championed book bans. When chaos ensued during their speeches and they were asked by board members to stop talking, they’d claim their free speech rights were being violated.
Those arguments, some of which I covered, often prevailed. But the issue they’d complain about, like banning a book, didn’t necessarily have merit according to school district investigations
As I pointed in this 2023 interview on Scripps National News,those were points that went largely uncovered by media, instead the legal free speech victories were headlined making it seem as if there was merit whatever claim was made at the school board podium.
We saw that when a Department of Ed investigation centered on a Georgia group that won a free speech argument settlement, also slapped the school district on the hand when it concluded leaders failed to protect or put measures in place to protect students from a racially and sexually hostile environment amid its book removal process.
You can read the Ed department’s investigative finding here and watch my television segment below.
There’s a larger point when we get to a rise of power demanding you tell on or target citizens for doing their jobs, recognizing inequality or defying some unclear directive steeped in ideology.
This method doesn’t come out of nowhere. It has a dark history, and it appears history is so many ways is not just bound to repeat itself- it’s already in some sort of repetition.
“Do not ignore the patterns you’ve seen in the attacks on educators or curricula because they provide us a blueprint what’s happening and a roadmap for what’s ahead.” -Nicole Carr
Do not ignore the patterns you’ve seen in attacking educators or curricula because they provide us a blueprint what’s happening and a roadmap for what’s ahead. It’s a concept I wrote for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month in a piece that argues the school board was the testing ground for the fall of the democracy.12
What better place to launch such attacks than on the one institution most of us will pass through in our lifetime? Remember, education is the great equalizer and the public school system is where you largely shape an electorate. If you want to shape society, you start with the schools. That can be a wonderful concept if carried out in good faith and virtue. It can also be a recipe for the destruction of a civil and democratic society when power is in the hands of people who seek to maintain the caste system that’s foundational to the development of this nation.
Thanks for reading or listening to this edition of Fortify.
References that are not embedded
Carr, N. (2022, June 16). White parents rallied to chase a black educator out of town. then, they followed her to the next one. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/georgia-dei-crt-schools-parents
Natick Public Schools - Massachusetts, Washington, Massachusetts, Mexico, N., Fairfax County Public Schools - Virginia, Sequoia Union High School District - California, & Kirkwood School District - Missouri. (2024, August 19). Indoctrination map - what’s happening in your state? Parents Defending Education. https://defendinged.org/map/
Natick Public Schools - Massachusetts, Washington, Massachusetts, Mexico, N., Fairfax County Public Schools - Virginia, Sequoia Union High School District - California, & Kirkwood School District - Missouri. (2024, August 19). Indoctrination map - what’s happening in your state? Parents Defending Education. https://defendinged.org/map/See Aboce
US launches “end Dei” portal for public complaints about diversity in schools | reuters. (n.d.). https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-launches-end-dei-portal-public-complaints-about-diversity-schools-2025-02-28/
Surana, K. (2024, September 16). Under Georgia’s abortion ban, she died after delayed care. ProPublica. https://www.propublica.org/article/georgia-abortion-ban-amber-thurman-death
German collaboration and complicity. Informants – The Holocaust Explained: Designed for schools. (n.d.). https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/resistance-responses-collaboration/german-collaboration-and-complicity/informants/
NBCUniversal News Group. (2025, January 23). Federal workers told to name DEI colleagues or risk “adverse consequences.” NBCNews.com. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/federal-workers-told-name-dei-colleagues-risk-adverse-consequences-rcna188871
Massachusetts Teachers Association president defends organization promoting antisemitic materials in classrooms; teacher appears to compare Trump administration to the Holocaust. Parents Defending Education. (2025b, February 18). https://defendinged.org/incidents/massachusetts-teachers-association-president-defends-organization-promoting-antisemitic-materials-in-classrooms-teacher-appears-to-compare-trump-administration-to-the-holocaust/
Bennhold, K. (2025, January 24). What Elon Musk’s salute was all about. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/world/europe/elon-musk-roman-salute-nazi.html
Kirkwood School District continues to push Dei and affinity groups in “staff of color” newsletter despite president Trump’s executive orders. Parents Defending Education. (2025, February 19). https://defendinged.org/incidents/kirkwood-school-district-continues-to-push-dei-and-affinity-groups-in-staff-of-color-newsletter-despite-president-trumps-executive-orders/
Wong, A., Shah, N., & Penzenstadler, N. (2022, November 3). Virginia’s governor set up a tip line to crack down on CRT. parents used it for other reasons. USA Today. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2022/11/03/youngkins-critical-race-theory-tip-line-virginia-parents/10655007002/
Carr, N. (2025, February 13). The school board was the testing ground for the fall of our democracy. ajc. https://www.ajc.com/education/get-schooled/the-school-board-was-the-test-ground-for-the-fall-of-our-democracy/K6RAN5KZUBD4NIQOICRRIJ6YYU/
Share this post