Missouri’s education commissioner told state senators Tuesday the only DEI at her agency is a committee – but a quick glance at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) website appears to show otherwise.

Though the word “equity” is used in DESE’s policies, Education Commissioner Karla Eslinger claimed in an annual address to the Senate Committee on Education that diversity, equity and inclusion is just one committee’s name. 

Yet, a slide presentation on the DESE website called “Promoting Inclusion: A Culturally Responsive Toolkit for Health Professionals [Who] Work with Transition Age Youth” is rife with far-left DEI- and Critical Race Theory-style indoctrination on race and gender, including fringe recommendations on how to address people.

The presentation was taken down from the DESE website after inquiries from The Heartlander. A spokesperson called it “an old file that should have previously been removed from the DESE website.”

The spokesperson said in a statement to The Heartlander that the presentation was from a voluntary “three-day Transition Training Institute in 2021” put on by DESE’s Office of Special Education to help students transition out of K-12 education, adding that, “Commissioner Eslinger was not at DESE in 2021, so she was not aware of this document.”

Committee Vice Chairman Sen. Brad Hudson, R-Cape Fair, who led the questioning of Eslinger on the presence of DEI in her agency, said he’s extremely troubled by the revelation of the slide presentation, and told The Heartlander there should be an audit of every state agency to root out such divisive ideologies.

“It appears to be full of DEI and CRT language,” he said of the presentation discovered by The Heartlander. “Very concerning to me. …

“It’s troubling to me that the commissioner was not evidently not aware of this type of thing on the website, when you’ve got a slide show that’s saying things like ‘don’t call boys boys, don’t call girls girls.’

“This is the kind of woke stuff that my constituents and the citizens of Missouri do not want their tax dollars going to prop up.”

While the slide show doesn’t explicitly mention DEI or CRT or white privilege, it does mention “privilege,” and is awash in the language of far-left ideology, particularly on gender.

“This toolkit will help you understand how you feel and think, examine your biases, and become more culturally responsive,” the presentation says. “Creating cultural responsiveness is a crucial part of advocating for competent, inclusive healthcare for all young people.”

The presentation’s passages  include:

Understand How Discrimination, Including Racism, Homophobia, and Transphobia Affect Youth

Do you understand the power structure of society and how less powerful groups are treated, especially LGBTQ young people of color?

Do you intervene promptly and appropriately on behalf of people when they receive negative attention due to their sex, culture, race/ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or gender expression?

Week 3: The Role of Privilege

Do you intervene promptly and appropriately on behalf of people when they receive negative attention due to their sex, culture, race/ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or gender expression?

Does your organization recruit, retain, and promote staff that reflect the cultural diversity of the community you serve?

Assess your policies, website, forms, and interpersonal communication to ensure appropriate and inclusive terms are being used. It is important to let people decide how they want to be identified.

The presentation’s dos and don’ts of communication further include instructions not to use:

• boy, girl, daughter, son. (Use child, newborn, baby)
• husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend (Use partner, spouse, significant other, loved one)
• aunt/uncle (Use parent’s sibling, cousin)
• Girls and boys, you guys (Use Youth, students, young people)
• Ladies, gentlemen, sir, girls, guys. (Use friends, folks, everyone, you all)
• Illegal immigrant, illegal alien (Use a person who is undocumented)

The presentation goes on to instruct not to use gender-specific references to private parts, but instead use external and internal genitalia, and don’t refer to breasts or breastfeeding, but use lactation or nursing.

“Include your pronouns in your email signature, and if possible, in your username when hosting Webinars,” it advises.

In grammar and punctuation that stands out glaringly on an education website, the presentation at one point lists a number of “identities” – including sexual orientation, political affiliation, religious affiliation, gender expression, gender identity and immigration status – and instructs:

“CHOOSE THE IDENTITY THAT YOU FEEL THE MOST SAFEST?”

“There needs to be an audit of all departments to look for this kind of stuff,” Hudson told The Heartlander. “And we need to dig as deep as we possibly can. We’re going to have to root this out, and I am supportive of anyone who wants to join us on that mission.

“I support Gov. [Mike] Kehoe in his mission to remove DEI from all state departments. And from looking at this, it looks like the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is a good place to start.”

The DESE spokesperson said conference attendees are routinely advised that, “This event may provide information and resources from outside speakers whose views are their own and may not always reflect the views of DESE.”

The presentation is one taken from the organization Advocates for Youth (AFY), which says it “works alongside thousands of young people here in the U.S. and around the globe as they fight for sexual health, rights, and justice.”

In its mottos and slogans the organization nearly promotes the emancipation of minors and the marginalization of parents. AFY says, among other things:

• “Young people are leading the movement toward just and safe communities for all.”
• “Our Bodies. Our Lives. Our Movement.”
• “Young. Powerful. Taking Over.”

In other settings, AFY promotes birth control, Planned Parenthood and “emergency” after-the-fact contraception, and envisions “a society in which … youth sexual development is normalized  and embraced.”

https://x.com/AdvocatesTweets/status/1882823230525735052

The organization also weighed in on X with its views of President Trump’s inauguration, calling it “a tough day – especially for those of us who commit ourselves to fighting for racial justice, reproductive health, and LGBTQ+ rights 365 days of a year.”

https://x.com/AdvocatesTweets/status/188134183097063028

In another post, AFY wrote, “This is not how we wanted to start 2025 but here is to turning anger into action. 💪,” along with instructions on how to do it.

Hudson says he hopes The Heartlander’s investigation will “shed light” on how entrenched DEI/CRT is in state government.

“When you’ve got a commissioner of a department that is questioned about this issue and not aware of this, it makes you wonder how many other things are out there that department heads are not aware of – and not just in DESE, but in other departments.”

The slide presentation, he said, “definitely will shine some light on the fact that we have an issue with this kind of thing being pushed by Missouri departments that are funded by tax dollars.”