Let’s set the record straight: No, Wheeling Park High School is not West Virginia’s epicenter of Critical Race Theory teaching. Students are not being indoctrinated by the writings of Ibram X. Kendi or others, or being made to feel as if they are responsible for actions that happened in the past.

Instead, what is being done at Wheeling Park High School — and, we surmise, at most other high schools in West Virginia and across our great nation — is that teachers are introducing topics and discussions that force students to think and to question. That’s what good teachers have always done ­– prepare their students with the tools needed for life. Who can argue with that?

Delegate Chris Pritt believes he can.

Pritt, R-Kanawha, is a sponsor of House Bill 4011, which takes aim at curriculum transparency and prohibiting the teaching and discussion of specific racial and non-discrimination topics often labeled by politicians as Critical Race Theory. Last week, Pritt, when asked what evidence he had that CRT was being taught in West Virginia, pointed to a video he saw of Wheeling Park literature teacher Isabella Droginske discussing how she uses Kendi’s writings in her class.

“I use anti-racism literature by Dr. Kendi to integrate with and get a full view on so we can talk about racism in the classroom and actually work towards anti-racism in our discussions,” Droginske told a student video news crew.

So, in reality Droginske is talking with her students — her class is for Wheeling Park seniors who likely will be heading to college — about how not to be a racist.

Wheeling Park Principal Meredith Dailer was quick to defend Droghinske after Pritt’s comments: “We are about teaching critical thinking, and analytical thinking is part of the class,” Dailer said. “We want our kids before they leave us … to be critical of what they are reading and hearing, and what we are trying to create are well-thinking adults.

“… It is really important to note Critical Race Theory is not part of our curriculum,” Dailer added. “It is part of a higher education analysis of the legal system, and that is not covered in our curriculum.”

So there it is — CRT is not part of the curriculum at Wheeling Park. A simple phone call by Pritt to Dailer or any other official in Ohio County Schools could have stopped him from attempting to pin all the state’s education woes on Wheeling Park High School. But instead, thinking he had a smoking gun with a teacher who dared even mention Kendi, Pritt succeeded only in displaying his own ignorance while casting a shadow on the good work being done by a high school teacher.

We need to be better than this.