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(WASHINGTON) — Since 2020, legislation on race education has popped up across the country. A total of 35 states so far have signed into law or proposed legislation banning or restricting the teaching of critical race theory, the academic discipline at the center of the debate.

Critical race theory, mostly taught in universities and colleges, seeks to understand how racism has shaped U.S. laws.

Many legislators have been invoking critical race theory broadly in their attempts to restrict discussions of race in the classroom and in government agency diversity training.

These Republican-led efforts have continued to move forward in many states across the country. However, in some states, the bills have fallen short.

A total of 16 states so far have signed into law bills restricting education on race in classrooms or state agencies.

There are currently 19 states that are considering bills or policies that restrict race education in schools or state agencies.

Six states failed to pass this type of legislation.

Eight states have yet to introduce any legislation on this topic.

Officials who back these bills argue that educators are indoctrinating students with certain lessons on race that make people feel “discomfort” or “shame.”

“We won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has introduced restrictions on diversity education for schools as well as private corporations.

He continued, “Finally, we must protect Florida workers against the hostile work environment that is created when large corporations force their employees to endure CRT-inspired ‘training’ and indoctrination.”

Educators and some parents argue these bills would censor teachers and students, as well as place restrictions on discussions on racial oppression.

Proponents of critical race theory say that some opponents are portraying “critical race theory” as something harmful to reverse progress made in diversity and racial equity.

“There’s long-term resentment against people of color speaking up for civil rights,” Justin Hansford, a law professor at Howard University, told ABC News. “If you don’t see race, that doesn’t really help anybody. It’s ignoring the truth.”

Lawsuits against anti-CRT laws have already popped up in two of the states that passed them, Oklahoma and New Hampshire.

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(COLUMBIA, South Carolina) — A man’s family is speaking out after he was shot and killed by a law enforcement officer in Columbia, South Carolina.

Irvin D. Moorer Charley, 34, whose family said he had various mental illnesses, was shot and killed by a sheriff’s deputy after police responded to a domestic violence call.

“The officer was very aware of my son’s condition,” Moorer Charley’s mother, Connie Craig, told reporters at a press conference. “They had been to the home many times, several times.”

While Moorer Charley’s family said he was having a mental health episode, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said the 911 call did not identify Moorer Charley as a person experiencing a mental health crisis.

“I tried to tell them that I’ve been dealing with him for a long time, and I probably could have gotten him to stop,” Craig said. “They said ‘Get back.’ I begged them. I begged them not to do that to him. I couldn’t do any more, and I dropped to the ground, but my son didn’t deserve this. He did not deserve this.”

The sheriff’s department released part of a dash cam video Tuesday in efforts to be “completely transparent with the community” and to provide “clarity to misstatements that this was a mental health call for service.”

In the released clip, the deputy who shot Moorer Charley is seen yelling at him multiple times, saying, “drop the weapon,” as Moorer Charley approached officers while holding a sharp wooden object. A second officer tried to use a stun gun on Moorer Charley, but according to Richland County Coroner Naida Rutherford, it was ineffective.

“It did not stick in the skin, and so it did not stop him as you would expect,” Rutherford told reporters at a press conference Sunday.

After the stun gun was deployed, officers said Moorer Charley charged at them, and one of the officers shot him.

The department defended the incident at the press conference.

“We can’t expect these deputies to go out here and be killed,” Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told reporters. “They have to protect themselves.”

While some of the body cam video has been released, Moorer Charley’s family is calling on the department to release the video in its entirety.

“We are just calling for transparency and for actions to be taken not only in South Carolina but across the country to address these tragic and preventable mental health deaths,” Brendan Green, who is representing Moorer Charley’s family, told reporters.

Lott said that while he believes the officers’ actions were justified, “It’s sad all around,” he said.

“Mental health is a problem in our community,” the sheriff said. “We do not need to continue to ignore it. When someone cries out for help, they need to get help.”

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(NEW YORK) — The executors of the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have listed for sale the two private Caribbean islands the late financier owned off the east coast of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, an attorney for the estate told ABC News on Wednesday.

The asking price: $125 million, according to two sources.

Epstein purchased the private island, Little St. James, in 1998 for about $8 million and established his permanent residence there in 2010, around the time he was released from his first jail sentence in Palm Beach, Florida. He liked to refer to his estate there as “Little St. Jeff’s,” according to testimony that emerged last year during the criminal trial of his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Epstein later acquired ownership of a larger, neighboring island, Great St. James, and he was in the process of building a new estate there at the time of his arrest in 2019, according to court and property records in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Wall St. Journal first reported news of the listing.

The islands are currently encumbered by “criminal activity” liens placed by Denise George, the U.S. Virgin Islands’ attorney general, who in early 2020 filed a civil racketeering lawsuit against the estate. The suit alleges that Epstein created a network of shell companies, charitable organizations and individuals that participated in and conspired with him in a decadeslong pattern of criminal activity tied to alleged sex trafficking of minor girls and young women.

“Epstein, through and in association with defendants, trafficked, raped, sexually assaulted and held captive underage girls and young women at his properties in the Virgin Islands,” the complaint said.

ABC News reported earlier this month that lawyers for the Epstein estate are in settlement talks with the U.S. Virgin Island government. One estate attorney described the two sides as being “extraordinarily close” to reaching a negotiated resolution.

A lawyer for the estate, Daniel Weiner, confirmed to ABC News Wednesday that the properties have been listed for sale. The proceeds of any sale, Weiner said, would be used by the estate “for the resolution of outstanding lawsuits and the regular costs of the Estate’s operations, and will be subject to potential claims by tax authorities, creditors, and other parties.”

The proceeds will be held in liened accounts, Weiner said, pending the resolution of the government’s lawsuit

The estate has previously unloaded two of Epstein’s other properties, his Palm Beach Island seaside home and his Upper East Side Manhattan townhouse. Two other properties, Zorro Ranch in New Mexico and an Avenue Foch apartment in Paris, are also for sale.

The marketing of the islands is being handled by New York firms The Modlin Group and Bespoke Real Estate in partnership with U.S. Virgin Islands-based Christie’s International Real Estate The Saints, Weiner said.

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(KENOSHA, Wis.) — A police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, resigned from his off-duty role at the local school district amid an investigation into the tactics he used to restrain a young girl while stopping a fight in which she was involved.

Officer Shawn Guetschow, who was working part-time as a security officer for the Kenosha Unified School District, came under fire after a viral video appeared to show him putting his knee on the neck of a 12-year-old girl at Lincoln Middle School on March 4, while trying to stop a fight.

Guetschow resigned from his role with the school district on March 15, Tanya Ruder, chief communications officer for the Kenosha Unified School District, confirmed to ABC News.

Kenosha police Lt. Joseph Nosalik confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday that Guetschow is still employed by the police department and is currently on desk duty amid the investigation.

In his resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News, Guetschow cited the “mental and emotional strain” that the public attention surrounding the incident has brought on his family, as well as what he says is “the lack of communication and or support” that he has received from the district.

The incident was the subject of a heated discussion at the school board meeting on Tuesday, with some community members calling for the district to suspend its contract with the Kenosha Police Department, while others argued that police officers are needed in school to keep students safe.

The 12-year-old girl’s father, Jerrel Perez, spoke out against the officer’s tactics in a press conference last week and called for criminal charges to be filed against him.

“She’s humiliated. She’s traumatized. Every day I gotta hear, ‘Daddy, I don’t wanna go to school,'” Perez said Wednesday.

“It breaks me, because I wasn’t there to help her,” he added. “I felt helpless.”

A charge of disorderly conduct was referred to juvenile court for both students involved in the fight, police told ABC News.

Attorney Drew DeVinney, who represents the girl and her father, said during a press conference Wednesday that the family plans to take legal action against the police and the school soon.

Ruder told ABC News that the Kenosha Unified School District could not provide any more information.

“As it appears that this incident may lead to litigation, the district will provide no further details at this time,” she said.

A video of the incident taken by one of the students at the school was obtained by ABC News and shows the officer responding to a fight between two students during lunch time in the cafeteria.

The 12-year-old girl, whose name has not been revealed as she is a minor, pushes the officer, and then he pins her to the ground amid shouting from students who have gathered to watch.

The clip is 10 seconds long, and it is unclear what happened before or after.

“We continue our investigation, paying careful attention to the entire scope of the incident. We have no further update at this time,” the Kenosha Police Department said in a statement Saturday.

Last week, the Kenosha Unified School District released a redacted version of school surveillance video of the incident.

In the video, Guetschow pushes the girl’s head to the ground and then appears to kneel on her neck for over 20 seconds.

Perez expressed outrage over the police officer’s tactics and compared the image to George Floyd, the Minnesota man who was killed when a police officer placed a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Amid a push for police reform after Floyd’s death, Wisconsin banned the use of police chokeholds in June 2021 except in life-threatening situations or in situations where police officers have to defend themselves. Chokeholds include various police neck restraints.

DeVinney told ABC News earlier this month that the girl “suffered injuries to her head and neck and is currently receiving medical treatment.”

He said that since chokeholds have been banned in Wisconsin, the “incident should never have occurred.”

“The family hopes to find out why this happened, so that it does not happen again to anyone else’s child,” he added.

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(DUMAS, Arkansas) — A man was arrested in connection with a mass shooting at an Arkansas car show that left more than two dozen people injured and one dead.

Brandon Deandra Knight, 22, of Jacksonville, Arkansas, was arrested after being released from the hospital Wednesday morning, state police said. It was unclear why he was hospitalized.

He was charged with first-degree battery and aggravated assault, police said. He is being held at the Dumas City Jail and will make his first court appearance Thursday. It is unclear if he has an attorney.

“The state police investigation remains in an active status and no further information regarding the arrest is available at this hour,” the Arkansas State Police, which is leading the investigation into the shooting, said in a statement.

The incident occurred Saturday evening in a parking lot in Dumas, about 90 miles southeast of Little Rock, when gunfire “swept across a crowd attending a local car show,” state police said.

Arkansas State Police, in addition to other state and county authorities, soon arrived at the scene, and first responders transported the injured to five different Arkansas hospitals.

Twenty-six people were wounded by gunfire, including five children ranging in age from 19 months to 11 years old, state police said. Additionally, one person, identified by police as 23-year-old Cameron Shaffer of Jacksonville, died at the Dumas hospital.

Police initially said 28 people were shot in the incident, including the fatality, though later amended that number to 27.

Authorities said earlier this week they believed that two people were involved in a gunfight, and that a mass shooting was not intended. There was no prior intelligence that violence was to take place at the car show before the shooting took place, authorities said.

There is no indication that Shaffer was involved in the gunfight, state police said.

Earlier this week, authorities indicated they were looking for two suspects in the shooting and have been urging anyone with information about the events leading up to the shooting to come forward.

The Dumas Police Department arrested one person who left the scene and fit the description of one of the suspects on “unrelated charges,” Col. Bill Bryant of the Arkansas State Police said during a press briefing Sunday.

“It’s shocking,” he told reporters. “We have a small community, a farming community in Dumas — 5,000 people. And then we have an incident of multi victims. It’s just, you don’t expect that from small-town Arkansas.”

ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.

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(NEW ORLEANS) — A deadly tornado tore through homes and knocked out power in the New Orleans area on Tuesday night, killing one person and injuring multiple others, authorities said.

The twister was one of more than 60 tornadoes reported in five southeastern states in two days, officials said.

A funnel cloud caused damage in St. Bernard’s Parish, in the eastern part of New Orleans, including the Ninth Ward, Chalmette and Arabi areas of the parish. It hit at around 7:30 p.m. local time Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.

One person was killed in Arabi, St. Bernard’s Parish President Guy McInnis told ABC News.

“It’s pretty bad. We have about a two-mile stretch of where this tornado tore through our community,” McInnis said in an interview Wednesday on “Good Morning America.”

McInnis said that in addition to one death in Arabi, seven other people in the community were hospitalized with injuries. He called it a “miracle” that more people weren’t killed or injured given the swath of destruction.

“We have houses that were lifted up and now they sit in the middle of the street,” McInnis said. “We have, you know, houses in an area that are totally leveled.”

The National Weather Service said it is surveying the damage in St. Benard’s Parish and that a preliminary review of the destruction indicates the tornado that hit the area was at least an EF-3, the third strongest twister on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. EF-3 tornadoes usually pack winds of more than 130 mph.

McInnis said rescue crews searched the hard-hit areas overnight and again on Wednesday.

“We have no reports of anyone missing at this time and no one trapped in homes,” McInnis said.

Raymond Theriot, chief investigator of the St. Bernard Parish Coroner’s Office, confirmed to ABC News that Connor Lambert, 25, died after the tornado hit his home in Arabi. Authorities later found him a block away from his home, and the cause of death was multiple blunt force trauma, according to Theriot.

A second suspected tornado touched down in Lacombe in Tammany Parrish, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, according to the National Weather Service. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage to homes in Lacombe.

After touring Arabi and St. Bernard Parish on Wednesday, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards described the damage as “tremendous,” adding that “we can be very thankful that there was only one death.”

Early spring storms churned up tornadoes in Texas and Oklahoma one day earlier. A 73-year-old woman was killed while another 10 people were injured in Grayson County, Texas, according to Sarah Somers, the director of the county’s office of emergency.

On Monday and Tuesday, a total of 63 tornadoes were reported in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma.

The strongest tornado hit Monday night in Jacksboro, Texas, and was rated as a strong EF-3 twister with winds reaching 150 mph, according to the National Weather Service. An EF-2 tornado packing 130 mph winds was confirmed in Sherwood Shores north of Dallas on Monday, according to the weather service.

ABC News’ Matt Foster, Jim Ryan and Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — It’s extremely rare to find a complete skeleton of a dinosaur.

It’s rarer still that such a skeleton needs to be found twice.

Such is the fate of “Stan” the T. Rex, a massive, mostly complete skeleton of one of the most legendary species of dinosaurs known to Earth.

The enormous fossil was sold in October of 2020 for more than $30 million to an unknown buyer. It subsequently vanished from public view — leaving the paleontological community and dinophiles the world over clamoring for clues as to its whereabouts and fearing its potential loss to science.

National Geographic’s Michael Greshko revealed Wednesday that Stan is bound for a museum in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu Dhabi — potentially putting to rest widespread concerns that the invaluable fossil would be rendered inaccessible to study.

“Outside scientists’ biggest hopes for Stan hinge on reliable long-term access to this fossil,” Greshko told ABC News. “I know that scientists are hoping for a happy ending, not just for the fossil but for the science that depends on that fossil.”

Stan the T. Rex, an enormous T. Rex skeleton, vanished after being sold at auction two years ago.

Stan’s story begins in the early 1990s, when a nearly 40-foot long Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton was unearthed in South Dakota. The skeleton stood at a private institute in the state for two decades before a legal dispute forced its sale.

That auction in 2020 was nearly as eye-popping as Stan itself. The skeleton sold for $31.8 million to an anonymous buyer — making it the most expensive fossil auction ever.

As chronicled by Greshko, the price tag enraged scientists and scholars. They not only feared the fossil would be sealed behind closed doors, but worried its price tag would accelerate the gold rush of fossil privatization, which threatens to remove more and more bones from the realm of research and education.

“This is terrible for science and is a great boost and incentive for commercial outfits to exploit the dinosaur fossils of the American West,” one paleontologist told Greshko of the sale in 2020.

Since then, sleuths have searched for Stan’s whereabouts, with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson making perhaps the strangest cameo. A giant T. Rex skull was spotted by the The Rock during a television interview earlier this year, leading to speculation that he’d purchased Stan.

“I am not the mystery buyer,” Johnson later conceded in an Instagram post. “If I was the proud owner of the real STAN, I sure as hell wouldn’t keep him in my office 🤣🦖 I’d keep him in a museum, so the world could enjoy, study and learn from him.”

Greshko spotted a clue in monthly U.S. export totals — specifically an entry for $31,847,500, Stan’s precise price, due for the United Arab Emirates.

“Because Stan is such as high value item and this is such a niche commodity, Stan casts a long financial shadow on these data sets,” Greshko said.

“I was very confident it had been exported to the United Arab Emirates, and then the UAE happened to reach out to me about this museum project … and everything fell into place from there,” he said.

BREAKING: I tracked down Stan, the T. rex that vanished after it was sold for $31.8 million in a record 2020 auction. It’s going to be in a huge natural history museum being built in Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s capital.https://t.co/GfUGwUNYkZ

This story was a wild ride. THREAD

— Michael Greshko (@michaelgreshko) March 23, 2022

Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi announced Wednesday it will house Stan as part of an ambitious exhibit and research program to chronicle and study the history of life on Earth.

The identity of the anonymous buyer, however, remains unknown. And the effects of Stan’s colossal price could still reverberate throughout the bone hunting world.

“It remains to be seen how Stan’s record-breaking price will affect thee global legal and illegal trade in fossils,” Greshko said. “I know that academic paleontologists around the world are watching that very closely.”

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(NEW YORK) — A 26-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday in the fatal shoving attack of an 87-year-old woman earlier this month on a New York City street.

Lauren Pazienza, of Port Jefferson, New York, was charged with manslaughter in connection to the March 10 incident, police said.

Pazienza turned herself in to the 10th Precinct in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, ABC station WABC reported. She was seen being escorted out of the 10th Precinct with her hair covering her face and did not respond to any questions from reporters about the charge.

Pazienza was arraigned Tuesday in New York Criminal Court on manslaughter and assault charges. A judge set her bail at $500,000 cash or $1 million bond. She is scheduled to appear in court again on Friday.

Pazienza’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.

The victim was walking in Chelsea on the night of March 10 when the assailant approached her from behind and pushed her, “causing her to fall and hit her head,” the New York City Police Department said following the incident. She was transported to an area hospital in critical condition. She had suffered a traumatic head injury, her family said.

The victim, who officials identified as Barbara Maier Gustern, died from her injuries on March 15, police said.

The NYPD released surveillance video of the suspect walking along a sidewalk as it called on the public for help in solving what police said appeared to be an unprovoked attack.

“We’re asking the public’s help in solving this disgusting, disgraceful offense committed against a vulnerable, elderly female who was doing nothing but walking down the streets of New York City,” NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said during a briefing last week.

A motive in the attack remains unclear.

Gustern was a well-known and beloved member of the city’s cabaret scene and a vocal coach, and condolences from the theater community have poured in in the wake of her sudden passing.

“We are waiting for the legal process to run its course and look forward to a resolution of the matter,” her grandson, AJ Gustern, said in a statement to ABC News. “While we appreciate the outpouring of affection for my grandmother, the family is still grieving. We ask for respect for our privacy during this difficult time.”

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(NEW YORK) — A federal lawsuit accuses the New York Police Department of surreptitiously taking DNA samples without obtaining warrants and storing the genetic material in perpetuity in an illegal and unregulated database.

The database turns thousands of people, primarily Black and Latino people, into “permanent criminal suspects,” according to the lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Manhattan.

Plaintiff Shakira Leslie was one of the nearly 32,000 individuals who had DNA taken without her knowledge, the lawsuit says.

In 2019, Leslie was 23 and had left a cousin’s birthday party when police pulled over the car she was riding in for a traffic violation, the lawsuit says. There was a gun in the car and everyone was arrested, it says.

At the precinct, the lawsuit says, officers deprived Leslie of food and water for more than 12 hours so when she was finally offered a cup of water, she immediately drank it.

Leslie was released and the charges against dropped, but not before the NYPD collected her drinking cup and took her DNA, according to the lawsuit, which was filed by the Legal Aid Society on behalf of Leslie and a second plaintiff. It names as defendants several top officials at the NYPD and the city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, which maintains the DNA database.

“Ms. Leslie never offered, and was never asked for, her consent to have her DNA taken. And the NYPD did not obtain a warrant or court order before secretly taking her DNA and sending the sample to OCME to perform DNA testing,” the lawsuit says, arguing the DNA collection and analysis violates the plaintiffs’ rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The police routinely offer people who are being questioned about a crime a beverage, a cigarette or chewing gum and then collect DNA from the items, the lawsuit says. The suit claims the genetic material is stored and cataloged in a “suspect index” that puts people’s DNA profiles through “a genetic lineup that compares the profiles against all past and future crime scene DNA evidence — all without obtaining a warrant or court order to conduct these DNA searches.”

“Thousands of New Yorkers, most of whom are Black and brown, and many of whom have never been convicted of any crime, are illegally in the City’s rogue DNA database, which treats people as suspects in every crime involving DNA,” said Phil Desgranges, an attorney at the Legal Aid Society. “We simply cannot trust the NYPD to police itself, and we look forward to judicial review of these destructive practices to bring our clients the justice they deserve.”

The New York City Law Department told ABC News it would review the lawsuit.

A spokesman for the NYPD, Sgt. Edward Riley, said the department would also review the lawsuit but said that DNA collection is among the best practices of law enforcement.

“Behind every time the NYPD collects DNA from a suspect in a criminal investigation, there is a crime victim who is suffering and seeking justice. The driving motivation for the NYPD to collect DNA is to legally identify the correct perpetrator, build the strongest case possible for investigators and our partners in the various prosecutor’s offices, and bring closure to victims and their families,” Riley said in a statement provided to ABC News.

“The local DNA database complies with all applicable laws and is managed and used in accordance with the highest scientific standards set by independent accrediting bodies that have regularly reapproved the existence of the database,” the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said in a statement.

The Legal Aid Society says in the lawsuit that the database violates state laws that limit DNA indexing and “hoards the DNA of arrestees and suspects” without oversight and often at the expense of people of color.

“Black and Latinx people make up the vast majority of arrestees who are subject to the City’s DNA taking and indexing practice,” the lawsuit said. “Plaintiffs seek injunctive and declaratory relief to end the City’s practice of targeting thousands of individuals, many of whom have never been convicted of a crime, to take their DNA and turn them into permanent suspects.”

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(LOS ANGELES) — The second-largest school district in the nation has reached an agreement with its teachers to end its indoor mask mandate as new COVID-19 cases in the Los Angeles area plunge.

The Los Angeles Unified School District, which has more than 600,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, came to a resolution with the teachers’ union regarding mask mandates and regularly scheduled Covid-19 testing.

Members of United Teachers Los Angeles voted 84%-16% to approve the agreement, the union announced Monday.

The new policy is scheduled to begin on Wednesday.

In the agreement that was announced on Friday, United Teachers Los Angeles and the school district agreed to have weekly PCR testing for all students, staff and faculty until the end of the 2021-2022 school year.

“I strongly support ending the indoor mask requirement and am committed to continuing to uphold our science-based approach to COVID-19 safety and protocols,” Alberto M. Carvalho, the school district’s superintendent, said in a statement.

Carvalho added, “I want to personally thank our students, employees and families for their support and patience. We know some in our school communities and offices will continue to wear masks, while others may not. Please consider your situation and do what is best for you or your child. Now that this important issue is behind us, it is time to focus on each student’s full academic potential.”

“UTLA educators, parents, and our school communities have fought for LAUSD to be the vanguard of health and safety in public education across the nation during this pandemic — an accomplishment due in large part to the weekly testing program and the strong safety protocols we’ve bargained with the district,” UTLA President Cecily Myart-Cruz said in a statement.

Masks requested by employees will be provided by the school district, including KN95 or N95 masks. Although masks will be optional, they are strongly recommended when indoors, officials said.

The school district will also continue to have a public COVID-19 dashboard recording positive cases in the event the policies need to be adjusted or changed based upon the data.

The agreement will remain in effect until June 30.

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