I am hoping to shed some light on an email sent out to CUPE members regarding this past weekend’s vote for the trustee election for School District 57. As district employees we receive emails to personal accounts rather than our given @sd emails and now I realize why that is. It is so they can send out information that is not quite appropriate to send to our SD email.
We tend to read all different sources of media content and listen to our family and friends’ opinions and it all heavily influences our decisions daily. I do not feel that our CUPE president (or any voted members) should be using these resources or the professional forum to show preferential treatment or trying to influence people on which way to vote. Isn’t it convenient that the union got their hands slapped during the last election due to printed materials sent out that showed bias content? They retracted it then, went around and picked said materials up and we all moved on from it. And I wish now that I had that too.
Because for the second time in my short district life I am questioning the CUPE union.
Imagine being someone who didn’t spend much time paying attention to this election and reading “Endorsed Candidates” from the email of the CUPE President herself, why wouldn’t you vote for the only two names listed on the poster?
I stood by and watched as candidates tried to navigate their way through this election and all I can say is that I had a hard time wanting to vote for anyone. When did trustee positions become about what a person “stands for” personally? Shouldn’t these positions be focused on those who have knowledge and would add value to supporting the students’ educational needs? I purposely left out education and chose knowledge because I feel that education and understanding can come from the people you least expect.
Everyone has been so wrapped up in making people look bad as humans. They are forgetting the important piece is the students. SOGI & Indigenous Reconciliations have been the focal point of every argument and schools don’t have enough textbooks.
While I applaud the efforts made by probably 17 strategic planning committees that were paid an obscene amount of money, to try and make the appropriate and necessary changes to the Indigenous Education Requirements, the presentation of these requirement changes is so misunderstood that they cause people to be bitter and divided. While I do feel that this is on a positive path forward, someone needs to clearly present it so that kids and parents understand why it is so necessary to make these changes so that IE is learned and becomes common knowledge. Why are we so for still having students read Shakespeare, but we don’t want them to read Richard Wagamese?
SOGI is also so widely misunderstood. Why is it so bad that we have books on shelves that kids can relate to? Or learn from? I have a hard time believing that any educator or school employee would ever try and encourage a child to explore their sexuality or preferences or pronouns at tender ages. I don’t know about you but at 5 I was just excited to pick a buddy to walk the attendance slip down to the office.
And forgive me if I am being naïve. But I think transparency going forward on this is key to stopping the hate toward someone that might be different than me. Age appropriateness in any content is implemented at all levels. I am tired of hearing rumors of “that teacher telling kids about sex” “that teacher is telling kids it is okay to be a boy and encouraging them to get sex changes” Sex education is not a part of any school I have ever been to at the age of 5, 6, 7.
Our job as educators and employees at schools is to create a safe, stable learning environment. Whatever that student may need. Whether it’s a listening ear, or a snack or finding the right supports for a student who might not have the privilege other students have to talk to their parents if they are feeling different, feeling not like themselves, being bullied at school because they don’t have the newest Nike shoes. It is my job to make a student feel like if they have the courage to voice something that must be so confusing, I am going to do whatever I can to make sure they feel SAFE to do so. It is my job to help find the RIGHT person qualified to help them in ANY situation that they are suffering through at that moment.
Here are some things I have heard from some of my students lately:
“Not all of us have the quarterback prom queen high school experience. Some of us don’t know what we are going to do this summer when we eat two of our meals a day at school and don’t get a third at home?”
“Not all of us have parents that are accepting of grades less than an A.”
“Not all of us have the encouragement of adults that actually believe we can do anything or everything.”
“Not all of us started high school with the best of marks but the harder we try that one teacher still makes us feel like we will never amount to anything because we didn’t show initiative while our lives were crumbling at home. But we really want to try now but he won’t let me because he doesn’t think it’s worth his time to help.”
‘If I tell my dad I am gay, he’ll kick me out of the house, and I won’t have anywhere else to go.”
I’ll end with this.
When it comes to SOGI, there should be inclusivity for all students. Rich, poor, somewhere in the middle. Any race, religion, sexual orientation. Do I think kids at 5 should be asked what their pronouns are? No, I don’t. Because I think they should be worrying about who’s going to cut the crust of their sandwich when their mom forgot. And if the girl next door is going to play with them.
The “burn the book” mentality that is being thrown out there has got to stop. If Sara wants to read a book about a girl who survived high school while having a crush on Lisa, then let her find it on the shelf! She’s only trying to find a positive storyline in a less than positive world. Why is that any different than getting lost in a world of dragons and magic? I want to live in a world where a kid feels safe to be who they are. To find the people who believe in them no matter how they feel on the inside even if they think they look wrong on the outside. We need to do better.
Till next time, we may want to ask ourselves and the CUPE president why these endorsements are happening and that while it may not be considered coercion, it is at the very least inappropriate?
A School District 57 unionized employee
