Parent removed from Fort Worth ISD meeting while seeking answers about teaching methods

Video shows the moment Daniel Woolford’s frustrations boiled over during the meeting.

Woolford said he attended because he expected the superintendent and chief of staff to be there and saw the meeting as an opportunity to raise concerns about the district’s transition under the state takeover.

“The Superintendent would be there; the chief of staff would be there. It sounded like a great opportunity to, again, voice our concerns,” Woolford said.

Woolford said he is particularly concerned about teaching methods being used at his daughter’s school, including what he says his kindergartener is experiencing in her dual language program.

“Five-year-olds like my daughter being subject to, say, through 4 hours straight of PowerPoints every single day,” Woolford said.

Woolford said the meeting agenda did not address the concerns he wanted to raise. He told WFAA that the meeting agenda included interactive exercises for parents but not an opportunity for dialogue with district leaders.

“I used the F bomb or dropped the F bomb one time,” Woolford said.

Another video of the moment shows Superintendent Dr. Peter Licata shaking his finger at Woolford for his choice of words.

The grassroots group Fort Worth ISD Watchdog posted a video showing police escorting Woolford from the meeting.

When WFAA asked the district about his removal, a district spokesperson provided a statement saying, “A parent was asked to leave the community meeting because he was disrupting the meeting, including the use of profanity.”

Jessica Morrison, another FWISD parent, watched as Woolford was removed.

“Lily B. Clayton is a tremendous asset to our community,” Morrison said, “I went to Lily B as a student many years ago. So, when our kids were getting to be school age, we actually moved back to the neighborhood specifically so that our kids could attend Lily B. Clayton and actually have Ms. Daniels, my 2nd grade teacher, as their 2nd grade teacher, because she had had such an incredible impact on my life.”

Morrison encouraged other parents to continue speaking up about what they are seeing in their children’s schools.

“I would encourage people to speak up about how things are going for their students, be an advocate for our teachers,” Morrison said.

Zach Leonard serves as the Vice President of Advocacy for the Fort Worth Council of PTAs. He also witnessed the disruption involving Woolford. The PTA is also concerned about the direction of classroom instruction by the state-mandated leadership at Fort Worth ISD.

“So, I didn’t like seeing the gentleman removed,” said Leonard, “Where the PTA is, is we’ve developed a resolution, as a council of PTAs across Fort Worth, to share what we feel is the most important things in terms of our own specific guardrails, what are important to us, holistic whole child education, not over focusing on star testing, not reducing our children just to a test score.”

Leonard is also encouraging more Fort Worth ISD parents to take a closer look at what happens in their children’s classrooms, and more importantly, he says to get involved in the PTA because of their message to Superintendent Dr. Peter Licata.

“Our message is to meet us at the table, listen to the concerns of the teachers and parents, and help us collaborate on solutions,” said Zach Leonard.

Woolford said parents continue to have questions about the state takeover and the teaching methods being implemented in Fort Worth ISD.

“Ability to have a conversation, a dialogue with them,” Woolford said.

Despite being removed from Tuesday night’s meeting, Woolford said he hopes to have another opportunity to sit down with district leaders and discuss his concerns.