School Board Resolution on discrimination

After an incident that made National News, the Beaverton School District came out with a resolution to our commitment to providing a safe, positive, caring and productive learning and working environment. We made a resolution as a board and then were each given the chance to make a personal statement. I wanted to share mine,

We are dealing with a complex and emotional topic with moral, political and legal implications. Let me state unequivocally my full support for removing discrimination in all of its ugly forms from our system. Abraham Lincoln declared “those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves”. The security, safety and liberty of our children and teachers should and must be protected. When the line moves beyond protecting from discrimination into actively endorsing and promoting personal opinions and views on religious, political, social or moral standards, I believe this crosses a line of what should be taught in our schools. I will not support changes to the curriculum aimed at such advocacy. I will fully support and embrace changes to ensure safety and equality in our school district.

I would like to encourage the board, administration and community to remembers that it is not any one person’s or group’s personal beliefs that should be controlling this district; that we are here to move the educational success of all our students forward. We have a commitment to making our students feel safe, but this is not our only goal, and we must not let one incident become so all consuming that we lose sight of the other needs and challenges we are facing. I hope we can work with our entire community to strengthen their involvement and help them to not only understand our challenges and the reasons spurring our suggestions for change but provide positive solutions that benefit our system as a whole.