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Lake Highland’s Bud Lite Moment?

May 28, 2023


Dear Friends of Lake Highland,

At the end of another school year, we want to express our gratitude for all the hard-working teachers and staff at Lake Highland who have made the school the elite prep school that it remains. We are also grateful for the numerous parents, teachers and alumni who have expressed support of our website, LHPSWatch.com. LH’s Board of Trustees first smuggled the radical left wing DEI ideology into our school during the 2020 Covid lockdown our purpose has been to alert you of this occurrence, document it and encourage you to let LH leadership know how you feel about the changes. We have received hundreds of signed petitions and emails in support of our efforts.


We also encourage parents, alumni, and the school’s leadership to do their own research into what the substantive ideology of DEI (and more broadly Woke) is and how it seeks to transform our children, our institutions, and our culture in demonstrably harmful and patently unjust and immoral ways. Our experience is that those who are apathetic to this important issue in education (or zealously hostile to our exercise of our free speech rights at LHPSWatch.com) simply have never bothered to self-educate. If you’re new to this blog LHPSWatch.com is a great place to start that journey.


Unfortunately, LH leadership still refuses to discuss publicly or privately any of these changes. These include:


-replacing “Christian Values” with DEI in its self-description on its website;


-fabricating a slanderously false origin story of the school to justify this embrace which it still refuses to correct on Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Highland_Preparatory_School ;


-removing parents’ ability to see the content of the entire curriculum;


-creating a DEI administration and hiring multiple DEI enforcers;


-issuing DEI edicts (E.g., to kindergarten teachers not to call children “boys” and “girls”);


-creating ethnically and racially exclusionary student group policies; and

-publicly celebrating-then hiding when exposed-its embrace of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS).


As LHPSWatch.com documents, the NAIS’s agenda is to instill in children, teachers, and private schools across America the dogma that every person should view themselves and everyone around them through the lens of race, sex and sexual/gender orientation. NAIS’s own literature categorically rejects the Christian-cum-Enlightenment concepts of colorblindness and the unique individuality of the soul. Instead, NAIS promotes group identities and a moral and social hierarchy of those identity groups with oppressors (white people) at the bottom and the oppressed (everyone else) above. One of the ingenious methods of infiltrating children, teachers, and private schools-like LH- is the NAIS’s flagship People of Color Conference (PoCC) and Student Diversity Leadership Conference (SDLC) held every December. LH leadership encourages teachers and students to attend and did so again in 2022.


As reported in the LH student online newspaper, Twice Told Tale, the administration sent out emails encouraging students to apply to the PoC/SDLC in Austin, Texas. Students were chosen by lottery. Upon arrival, LH students were greeted by a man in drag. Here is how it is described by the reporting student: “We arrived…[and]…were greeted by a speaker brandishing neon nails, heels boldly clacking on the floor…he told us to sit down and have a conversation with a stranger” Students Dive Into Diversity, (2023, Feb 6) Twice Told Tale. https://twicetoldtale.org/1537/special-feature/students-dive-into-diversity/ Keep in mind, while SDLC is for students, NAIS’s PoC is held simultaneously for teachers and administrators. More importantly, both conferences are described as events designed so that teachers, administrators, and students will bring NAIS’s concepts, ideas and practices back to their respective schools.


For the record (and before any previously referenced DEI zealot launches the usual invective and name calling), we are not opposed to LH students sitting down and having conversations with strangers. In fact, we have been trying to get LH’s leadership, especially the Board of Trustees and new President, to have conversations with us. Furthermore, we’re not opposed to people wearing whatever clothes they wish. We do oppose introducing men in drag into our children’s education, whether that is at LH or at LH sponsored activities. The reasons are too numerous to elaborate here, but are grounded in established science, medicine, morality, and sound pedagogy, all of which are easily accessible to anyone with an open mind. Again, LHPSWatch.com is a great starting place for such research. Unfortunately, LH leadership is not opposed to exposing our children to men in drag.


LH leadership notwithstanding, one encouraging development is that, just like the friends of Lake Highland, citizens across the United States are “Waking up to the Woke” and categorically rejecting it. We see this in the political leadership-not just in the state of Florida-finally taking steps to expose and rid public schools of the provably racist, Marxist, scientifically absurd dogmas, and pedagogy of DEI and protect our children. Moreover, millions of Americans are expressing their distaste for (more like creeped out by) corporate America’s embrace of these grooming practices directed at our children in their marketing. Bud Lite, Target and Disney’s failing movies are, hopefully, just the start. Perhaps LH’s leadership’s decision to expose our children to men in drag will be its “Bud Lite” moment.

LHPSWatch.com


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April 14, 2023


On March 17, 2023, we sent an email detailing The True History of the Founding of Lake Highland Preparatory School and received multiple replies from parents including the following:

“Thank you for shining the light of truth of the founding of LHPS!”

“I had no idea that this went on during Admiral Harms tenure. I agree with the plan to remove the association with the NAIS as well as the changes made to the school’s procedures by this DEI movement.”

“We’ve withdrawn our children from LHPS, and they will be going to different schools next year. Over the years I’ve taken the personal sacrifice to pay massive amount of cash for private school to specifically keep my kids away from wokeism and to allow for Christian values education. LHPS is no longer that school.”

After our March email that included Harms’ 2021 letter, several emails were sent to President McIntyre concerning that letter and more importantly the Wikipedia description of LHP’s founding as an all-white school. Please see this corrected link Lake Highland Preparatory School - Wikipedia Lake Highland Preparatory School - Wikipedia click on the history tab.

Also in the last month, alumni have met with President McIntyre and Crystal Raphael, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) concerning the revised history of the school. Obviously, Jim McIntyre was not here when Harms sent his letter. Ms. Raphael claims no participation in its origin. The fact remains that the school continues to promote this false narrative sent by Harms and published on the Internet for the world to see.

Admiral Harms and the Board of Directors revised the history of the school to justify the changes they were making and no one in the current leadership is willing to challenge it or the changes. The most notable change was the establishment of a DEI Department. Other changes include the lack of transparency on the school website including abbreviated class descriptions, limited parental online access to the school libraries, and no parental access to all class descriptions or to online courses. DEI has replaced Christian Values on the school website in the dropdown menu under the About tab. Teachers are adding pronouns to their names in email correspondence. LHP sends teachers and children to the NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) People of Color and Student Diversity Leadership Conferences. Some traditional awards and celebrations have been discontinued such as the 100th Day of School. Kindergarten students are not referred to as boys and girls. These and other changes expand each school year.

It is inexplicable that Lake Highland would describe its founding as it has on Wikipedia. There is so much to be proud of about our school. We should revere the people who had the vision to create LHP on the grounds of a closing college in the heart of Orlando. Their foresight allows us to enjoy all that Lake Highland has become. To question their motives with no facts is not only false and egregious but frankly, irresponsible. The school admitted they made up this story when they stated in Harms’ letter, “we found no definitive documents that indicated discrimination...” Yet they proceeded to surmise the motives of the founders along with the parents who enrolled their children there.

To date and to our knowledge, no one who recently sent correspondence to the school concerning our March 2023 email has received a reply. In 2021, numerous letters, emails, and requests for meetings about Harms’ letter were blatantly ignored by the school President and Board. Currently, the Wikipedia page continues to slander the history of our school. We ask that the school leaders, specifically the Board of Directors, address these untruths and correct the fabricated depiction of Lake Highland Prep as racist. You, the parents and alumni, have the power to demand they do so.

LHPSWatch.com

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March 20, 2023


The True History of the Founding of Lake Highland Preparatory School

We can all agree that Lake Highland Prep is a superior school. The education, athletics, and arts as well as the faculty and facilities compel us to send our children there, support the school financially and imbue the alumni with pride. From its humble beginnings in 1970, with 325 students to over 2,000 students today the school has succeeded in “instilling Christian values, inspiring patriotism, developing leaders, and preparing students for college and lifelong learning” – Mission Statement

In March of 2021, that pride in their school was sullied for many alumni by a letter sent from then President Harms. The letter (below) was sent only to LHPS’s alumni in support of the new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives. It’s curious that they didn’t send the letter to all parents. As such, LHPS leadership revised the history of the school’s founding with “no definitive documents” and stated, “given the mid-century political and cultural climate in America and especially Florida, it seems undeniable that some parents’ strong desire to remove their children from segregated (sic) public schools influenced the birth of Lake Highland Preparatory School.”

This premise gives rise to many questions:

  1. If LHPS was founded as a segregated school, why has our school always accepted students of all Races, Color, Religions, and National Origins?

  2. If a school offers a superior education, how can one question a parent’s motives for sending their children there?

  3. Are there parents today that send their children to Lake Highland to avoid public schools?

  4. What is the reason for questioning the motives and mind-sets of the founders and parents of 50 year ago?

The answer to the last question is clear. The motive for rewriting the school’s history is to undermine its foundation to justify adding DEI to a school that has always been inclusive and successfully practiced its Mission Statement that reads, “Within an atmosphere of love, concern, and mutual respect…” This rewriting of LHPS origins and instituting DEI ideology was introduced during the COVID Pandemic without parent input using methodologies obtained from the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS).

How do we know their claims on LHP’s founding are erroneous? Because we have reviewed the documents that the school’s leadership used to make their claims. We have talked to alumni and a leader and former board member who were there when the school was founded. We found no proof that LHPS’s founding was for racial purposes. In fact, we found just the opposite.

Lake Highland Preparatory School is in the top ten of private schools in Florida per the website, Niche.com. Lake Highland (#9) ranks up there with Ransom Everglades School (#1), Berkley Preparatory School (#5) and Trinity Prep (#10). Each of these schools has a comprehensive website that affirms its attributes. Non-associated sites like Wikipedia also promote the positive aspects of the schools typically including a brief mention of their founding. Lake Highland’s Wiki page is the exception to that norm.

Lake Highland’s leadership has tarnished its history by rewriting the school’s founding history. A visit to Wikipedia’s Lake Highland Preparatory School page shows the school described as: “… founded as an all-white school in 1970 by the board of a whites-only, Christians-only junior college. Click on this link to your: Lake Highland Preparatory School - Wikipedia, Wiki page continues with extensive detail under the History tab to infer that since the previous school on this campus was a segregated private college (Orlando Junior College or OJC) then Lake Highland Prep must have followed the pattern of a “segregation academy.” Not true!

Let’s clear up Orlando Junior Colleges (OJC) relationship to the founding of LHPS. LHP’s founders purchased OJC for the sole purpose of obtaining the property to start a new school. OJC and LHPS were totally separate entities. LHPS is its own non-profit with by-laws and a mission statement that have maintained the same nonracially biased integrity from the very beginning.

One can only assume that Lake Highland provided the detailed information published on Wikipedia. The same school that wrote in President Harms March 25, 2021, letter: “Although many leaders of OJC were responsible for founding LHP, we found no definitive documents that indicated discrimination in either LHP’s establishment, its inaugural administrative policies, or its admission process.” While other top ten schools applaud their founders, Lake Highland denigrates theirs. What is the purpose of exposing unsubstantiated theories about the establishment of your school if not to discredit its foundation and vilify previous leaders to justify current doctrines?

For over fifty years, Lake Highland has grown and prospered. It wasn’t until interim-president Alfred Harms (2017-2022), that the school embraced the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) ideology of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The DEI Department at Lake Highland has grown from a single director to four people including an administrative assistant to the director, a Middle School Division Coordinator, and an Upper School Division Coordinator. The latter two are also teachers. All these workers to ensure diversity at a diverse school with no history of racial bias is a misuse of valuable resources.

It is well and good that our school continues to evolve, and we talk about and teach our students about prejudice and racism. Schools have been doing this for years and each generation improves in their acceptance of others. We should all be judged by the content of our character. The ideology of classifying people by their identities and then using those classifications to be diverse, equitable and inclusive is as prejudiced and racist as the intolerance DEI purports to correct.

Lake Highland must get back to the founding principles and established practices that contributed to its long-term success. The changes made during COVID do not move the school forward, rather they indoctrinate our students with identity ideology and reduce the number of parents that want to send their children to Lake Highland. The recent changes in the school’s procedures including DEI and its association with the NAIS need to be removed.

For more information on NAIS clink on this link: News Blogs | LHPS Watch




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