Wake County Math Parent Legal Defense Fund

Father of 3 Sued by Utah MVP Math Vendor for Criticizing Math Curriculum 

I am a parent in Wake County, NC, which includes Raleigh. We are home to the Wake County Public School System, one of the 15 largest in the US.

On Saturday, July 27th, 2019, I was served a summons written by Strong & Hanni, PC, of Salt Lake City, UT, for a complaint against me from Mathematics Vision Project, LLC (MVP), of Lehi, UT. The complaint alleges "libel and slander" and "tortious interference with business relations" related to statements I've made about MVP either on Facebook, my blog, or at our county school board meetings. I am innocent of all allegations and can defend each and every point made in the summons.

The case was filed in the Utah Fourth Judicial District Court as Case number 190401221.

This is an attempt at intimidation and bullying to silence my and other parents' free speech advocating for our children's education.


BACKGROUND
MVP creates curriculum resources for mathematics, and was adopted by my county beginning in 2017. My son was a 10th grader taking MVP Math 2 in 2018 when I noticed his grades suddenly declining. He went from being an A-B math student to a D-F math student almost instantly. I later found that this was largely related to the nature of how MVP is taught. It is considered a "discovery methodology" where students work in groups to try to figure out the math while the teacher facilitates. MVP is strongly supportive of Common Core math standards.

I soon found that my son was not alone. Many other parents in our county were complaining about MVP in various parent Facebook groups I saw. In February, 2019, I created a Facebook group dedicated to supporting parents of students in MVP. The group now has over 1400 members. I also created a web page and a blog where I and others gathered research and resources and documented cases where I analyzed data related to districts which adopted MVP. Many parents attended protests and spoke at school board meetings and some have been featured in our local news. Over 400 students at my son's school conducted a student walkout in protest of MVP. Working with an attorney, 16 parents filed a formal complaint with our school system alleging 10 policy violations related to MVP in our county. The school system denied the complaint in June.

I am not alone in this fight. However, I am being singled out by MVP in this lawsuit because I am one of the originators of the social media campaigns and much of the research advocating against using the MVP curriculum.

Thank you for your prayers and support during this time.

Blain Dillard