Scattered applause and booing marked the end of a divisive 5 1/2-hour long Paso Robles Joint Unified School District board meeting.
The majority of that Aug. 23 meeting was spent discussing a resolution stating that the district would not support any “mandate which replaces traditional gender-specific names such as mother and father, Mr. and Mrs., ladies and gentlemen, and boys and girls.”
The resolution stemmed from a leaked, but unadopted, proposal from the National Education Association that would have pushed educators to use “LGBTQIA-plus inclusive” language.
“The intent of the resolution is to clarify for staff, parents, and students guidance for addressing individuals or class or a group of students or parents with traditional titles. Individual students who have changed their name and gender must be afforded that right. But a staff member who mistakenly or inadvertently misuses the name, will not be disciplined unless the misuse is intentional,” district superintendent Curt Dubost said.
The resolution comes amid controversy surrounding questions from the parents and the school board about teacher training at the high school following a LGBTQ-targeted hate incident in 2021.
Earlier this month, school board members discussed proposed changes to the district’s policy on harassment and discrimination that would erase most specific references to LGBTQ-plus students in the policy. At the Aug. 9 meeting, the district alluded to the explicit protections as unnecessary because state and federal law already protect those students, but it ultimately opted to push the decision to a later date.
Teachers expressed their frustration in an open letter signed by 17 teachers, calling out the school board for its actions.
“The proposal was tabled pending a study session. The board continues to reveal an indifference to anti-gay bullying. Moreover, the board’s next proposed action is a resolution affirming the use of traditional nouns and pronouns, which was adjusted,” the open letter read. “With a board like this, who needs bullies? Teachers are frustrated. We want to know why the board would take away policies that further protect our students who are hurt by these protections?”
Students such as Paso Robles High School senior Tyler Perez advocated for the school board to stop making changes to the existing rules.
“I’m just here to let you know that the rules already in place are doing nothing and harming no one. So why remove them. It makes no logical sense. Leave them alone,” he told the board. “Instead focus on adding new things like education for staff and students so that they become aware and educated of who we are and what we identify as. There is no benefit in removing these roles. Instead they will bring fear to the already scared community.”
Others, like board member Frank Triggs who supported the resolution, thought it was a good first step.
“A student accepts the reality of who they are and how they were born and has the proper self-esteem. No one should be bashed, and that’s atrocious. We need protections to keep that from happening. But suicide is not caused by using the terms mother, father, ladies, gentlemen, boys, girls. And we need to help everyone that has suicidal tendencies. It’s not just gay people, it’s heterosexual people [too]. The cause of [suicide] is not because we use mom, dad, or whatever,” Triggs said. Δ
This article appears in Aug 25 – Sep 4, 2022.
To use gender-specific language, the Paso Robles school board majority are a bunch of dicks.
Giving a teenager the power to force adults to use their chosen term of address is a lousy idea. At that age, and as a child of the 1960’s, I would have demanded that I be addressed as “Your Most Exalted Grooviness” or some other such honorific.