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FIRST ON FOX: The National Education Association, which - with 3 million members - is one of the largest teachers' unions in the country, conducted a training session last month filled with far-left political messaging, a watchdog group has revealed. The revelation comes as the union continues to face criticism for prioritizing activism over student needs.
The NEA event on Feb. 23, billed as an "Advocacy and Free Speech Rights for K-12 Educators" training, promoted a variety of leftist causes and criticisms of the Trump administration in slides obtained by Defending Education, a national organization that monitors political content in schools.
The NEA training argues that the Department of Education is "now actively committed to violating civil rights," and that educators need to protect "vulnerable students."
In the slide presentation, the NEA claims that "Democracy itself is at stake" due to an "unprecedented push to criminalize speech and political opposition."
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The teachers' union appears to take issue with the Trump administration's designation of Antifa as a terrorist organization given slides that show screenshots with the headlines: "Trump Signs Order Targeting Antifa Movement" and "White House Use of 'Domestic Terrorist' Doesn't Match Legal Reality."
The training made clear the importance of adhering to gender pronouns and the specified gender identity of K-12 students, saying that educators "can (and should address) students in the way they identify themselves," regardless of whether the way they "identity" differs from school records.
The training also took aim at Republican-led states, saying, "It's not just the Trump Administration… it's Red State governments as well" in a slide with headlines lamenting banning DEI in schools, Texas wanting to "punish" students who protest ICE, and a headline that said, "Charlie Kirk's death prompts Iowa bill revoking teacher licenses for celebrating political violence."
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The presentation to members also includes a scenario providing potential responses to teachers who face backlash for displaying Black Lives Matter or Pride flags in their classrooms, instructing them to push back and ask questions like "was there a pre-existing policy?" and "is the policy viewpoint-neutral and applied in a neutral manner?"
Educators are told in the agenda for the training that they will learn about threats to educators' voice and freedom, as well as guidance "for when legal protections will be more robust or when educators may be more at risk."
"This is not, in any sense, a training on educator rights," Chloe Hunt, investigative reporter for Defending Education, told Fox News Digital. "It is a political framing of the classroom, in which all Republicans are demonized and conservatives are portrayed as threats to education."
Fox News Digital reached out to the NEA for comment.
In recent months, the NEA has faced strong pushback from conservatives and parents' rights activists over the millions of dollars it has funneled to left-wing groups, with critics pointing to the number of students struggling with poor test scores at the same time.
In January, an employee within the NEA, spoke out against the "toxic" politics inside the union's headquarters.
"It's a very liberal place. There's only a handful of conservatives that work at NEA, and if you are, it's like you just don't say anything, because it's a very toxic environment if you do say something," an NEA employee, who is remaining anonymous due to concerns of retribution, told Fox News Digital. "It's crazy, they'll send out this weekly newsletter of 'Trump's a fascist' and blast it to all the states."
"It's a cult. It's 100% a cult and if you don't have their mindset, you're the enemy."
