SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah State Board of Education on Thursday voted to file an effective date notice for an educational equity rule following a six-hour meeting in which board members were grilled by a group of parents opposed to the rule.

The rule, which is a response to a pair of resolutions passed by the Utah State Legislature earlier this year asking school officials to identify the “risks” of critical race theory, emphasizes the importance of “acknowledging differences by looking for the good in everyone, including oneself, and showing due regard for feelings, rights, cultures, and traditions.”

The rule also emphasizes “collaborating with diverse community members to understand, recognize and appreciate what we all have in common as humans” and “implementing principles and strategies of inclusion, as they pertain to students and educators with diverse abilities and backgrounds.”

During a public hearing on Thursday, multiple parents opposed to the rule scorned the school board, arguing that the rule does not achieve what is outlined in the Legislature’s resolutions.

“And if it was the intent of this board to eliminate and prevent the application of this ideology from Utah schools, you’ve failed in a catastrophic way,” one woman said. “However, if it was your intent to install CRT theorems, practices and pedagogy within our institutions, you did a great job. Kudos to you.”

A parent in the Murray School District said she and other parents filed public records requests “to find out all about equity, critical race theory, intersectionality and comprehensive sexuality education,” which she said they had to pay over $3,000 for.

“We believe that this should not be part of our education in Utah schools, and we believe that this new rule that you have proposed does not do anything to change this teaching that is trying to come through,” she said.

Harmony Vanderhorst, a Utah Parents United representative from southern Utah, urged the state school board to address “teacher accountability,” noting that the group sent over 100 pages of testimonials from parents with examples of educators “promoting” anti-racist ideologies.

“Allowing this under the guise of the marketplace of ideas is unacceptable,” Vanderhorst said. “There are some things, ideas, activities and behaviors simply not appropriate for K-12 education. For example, we do not show pornography to school children. Why would labeling a children’s character based on skin color be any different?”

Al Jackson, who is Black, spoke against the educational equity rule and asked the school board to “incorporate targeted measures that build in accountability so we can find out the effectiveness as it relates to better classroom performance.”

“Instead of guiding the child to the challenge, we pat them on the head, treating them as victims or the oppressed,” he said. “Ask any average parent of color, and that parent will acknowledge that racism and discrimination do exist, and it will always exist. But that is an external problem that can be overcome through hard work and perseverance.”

Board member Natalie Cline proposed an amendment to the rule to broaden the definition of critical race theory and prohibit Utah educators from teaching concepts like action civics, diversity, equity and inclusion, culturally responsive teaching, abolitionist teaching, anti-racism, anti-blackness, and conscious and unconscious bias.

Other concepts it would prohibit include social change, social justice, restorative justice, systemic racism, white privilege and white supremacy.

“One of the dangerous things about critical race theory, or the way it’s being practiced by some teachers, not all, is the disparaging of our constitution and of our American heritage, and instead elevating all other cultures above that, to the diminishment or disparagement of our constitution,” Cline said on Thursday.

Other board members proposed passing the rule as written, including James Moss, who said the rule strikes a “great balance” between different viewpoints, adding that he understood the concerns of parents opposed to CRT.

“And so somewhere in there, I think, there is some factual nuance and some discussion and agreement and balance that we can find that really allows us to get to a place where we support every student,” he said.

“The rule is not perfect, no document written by committee ever is,” added board member Molly Hart. “But overall, it’s a well-balanced rule that is a great starting point for districts to make policies that are appropriate for their communities. I firmly believe in local control.”

The Utah State Board of Education ultimately voted to file an effective date for the educational rule without adding Cline’s amendment. Cline was the only board member to vote against the motion.