To the Editor:
After reading the text messages exchanged between members of the Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education, I would like to say that I am highly disappointed in the “leadership” we have in the school district. As a gay student, I feel extremely disrespected, unwanted, offended, and exasperated towards our current board.
Board has clearly violated its own policy
The Iredell Statesville Schools Board of Education Policy Manual, Policy Code: 4000 Focus on Students, states the following:
The board recognizes that providing students with the opportunity to receive a sound basic education must be the primary focus of each school, the school district and the board. To support students in their formal education, each school should strive for a learning environment in which:
♦ school grounds, buildings and classrooms are safe, orderly, clean and inviting;
♦ students learn and practice responsible behavior;
♦ students are treated fairly; and
♦ students have input in decisions affecting them when feasible.
As a student and member of the LGBTQ+ community, I feel obligated to provide my perspective on this issue. I believe that it is a feasible time to provide my input on a situation that is affecting me.
School board members are focused on party politics
During one of the board’s exchanges in the text messages, District 5 Board member Mike Kubiniec, inquired about a mental health grant that the district applied for. Mr. Kubiniec wants to make sure that “gender identity/affirming ‘care’, LGBTQ+123ABC ‘care’, and other such things” are not in the grant before it is approved. Mr. Kubiniec would allow a larger grant to be lost than to provide mental health care to struggling LGBTQ+ students in the district. In my opinion, this member values party politics over the wellbeing of all students. This is political for the following reasons:
♦ Conservative mass media outlets speak out against Gender Affirming Health Care;
♦ Mr. Kubiniec clearly does not believe that gender identity/affirming care is true care;
♦ State legislatures across the U.S. are passing various bills such as Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill prohibiting gender identity/affirming care.
Instead of focusing on the need for LGBTQ mental health care, Mr. Kubiniec wants to focus on advancing his “non-woke” agenda. He references the LGBTQ+ community as “LGBTQ+123ABC.” That is insulting. By doing this, he is mocking this community. That phrase was not made with good thoughts. Mr. Kubiniec is trying to use his power as a school board member to advance his political views rather than trying to support the district’s students. The school district had no plans to use the grant funds to specifically help LGBTQ+ students. As Superintendent James texted: “No, we write our grants so none of that would ever be written in.” Instead of pushing his personal political beliefs, Mr. Kubiniec and the rest of the board should be working to support efforts to help students.
‘A walking talking version of the books that should not be here’
Matthew Thomas-Reid, an LGBTQ advocate, was scheduled to speak at an afterschool club meeting at Oakwood IB School. Before moving on to high school, I attended Northview IB under Dr. Carrie Tulbert’s leadership. I know for a fact that the staff at the school does not push a political agenda. If anything, this event would have been an event related to tolerance or open-mindedness. These are traits that these board members need to adopt. In the illegal text messages, Distric 3 representatitve stated that she was uncomfortable with the event. The superintendent replied, “Yes, sad. Matt did teach for us years back. He wanted to do research last year with doctoral students and I told him no.” I was shocked by Mr. Kubiniec’s response when he questioned why the board allows “this type of stuff – optional or not.” District 4 representative Doug Knight’s comments were also very telling: “This man should not be in our schools pushing his agenda. A walking talking version of books that should not be here.” How inappropriate. Why do board officials get to dictate what students are exposed to? If it is not going to hurt the student, and they have the option to not view the content, and it is appropriate, then why conceal it? The only agenda I see being pushed is this board’s anti-LGBTQ agenda. People like this are the problem.
LGBTQ students need empathy, not hate
Here are a few statistics from the Trevor Project, a non profit suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ youth:
♦ For people aged 10 to 24, the second leading cause of death is suicide (Hedegaard, Curtin, & Warner, 2018).
♦ LGBTQ youth are four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers (Johns et al., 2019; Johns et al., 2020).
♦ The Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that 45 percent of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, including more than half of transgender and nonbinary youth.
As a community, we cannot wait for suicide to happen. This is a problem in our national community. We need to stand up and take preventative actions before it is too late. In order to prevent suicide, we need to recognize that we are not going to fully understand what other people are going through. We need to try to be more empathetic people.
A few preventative factors for LGBTQ youth suicides include:
♦ Having an accepting adult can reduce the change of an LGBTQ youth committing suicide by 40 percent. You don’t even have to encourage it – just accept it.
♦ A 2021 peer-reviewed study by The Trevor Project’s researchers, published in Transgender Health, found that transgender and nonbinary youth who reported gender identity acceptance from adults and peers had significantly lower odds of attempting suicide in the past year.
♦ Reduced suicide rates can come from schools and homes that are LGBTQ-affirming.
♦ Having Gender and Sexuality alliances can reduce the risk for depression.
We need a school board that understands that LGBTQ students are people — we are not mistakes or products of years of indoctrination. LGBTQ students deserve to be respected and given an environment where they have the ability to function just as well as their counterparts.
Unethical board members have demonstrated they are unfit to serve
Every member of the Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education should resign. These members have demonstrated through their words that they have no moral compass when it comes to the wellbeing of all students. As Board Policy 4000 says, “all students should be treated fairly.” When a group of students is targeted, they are not being treated fairly. What took place in this group text is highly inappropriate and unethical and should have never happened. If these board members are not going to resign, then they should make a public apology to the district’s LGBTQ+ students.
Editor’s Note: The writer is a rising junior in an I-SS high school. The student’s name is not being published due to concerns for the student’s personal safety and wellbeing.
Related
Captain K makes us fellow Yankees very proud. Ha! Ha!
An excellent, well-written response.
Well said! All students being treated fairly is a right, not a suggestion. If the current school board is not ashamed, they should be. These youth are not stupid, they know the difference of being advocated for, and advocated against. Each person on the school board that does not understand this simple concept should be resigning.
Captain K: Attention on deck! I hope you have been humbled at the least. By the way, can I call you Mister? It’s much more appropriate.
I applaud this individual for speaking up. They have more class, more sophistication, and significantly more intellect than the six board members who were cited in the original investigation. Not to mention lights years ahead in moral decency. You give me hope for the future. I stand with you and support you.
I am the parent of an LBGTQ+ child and it appalls me that these board members consider themselves fit to serve. And it frustrates me even further that the people of this county voted them into these positions.
For people who follow such conservative ideologies and constantly discuss protecting their personal rights, they seem to steamroll everyone else’s to pander their uneducated, unrelenting drivel.
This is what happens when you make school board elections partisan. You get six people who don’t understand nor represent what public education was created to do — which is to serve ALL PEOPLE.
If you’re worried about your child, then it is your option to put them in a Christian school or homeschool them. Take your backwards, ancient, selfish ideology and GET OFF MY SCHOOL BOARD!
Thanks rising Jr for Voicing your opinion and educating the public as well as myself to this Social Problem!!
Agree 100 percent!
Stop the semantics. One person’s opinion or viewpoint is not anymore important than another. These protections are already in place. Y’all want EXTRA rules and always have something to be offended about. Stop rewarding decisive behavior.
Shout out to this student for an excellent piece! These members need to resign immediately.
I’m confused. Why is a student’s sexual orientation a school matter?
Because it’s political correct to highlight LBQGT+ in any situation. You’re not confused, Roger. You’re living in a world that has lost its mind.
It should not be an issue for a school — unless the school board decides that only straight cis people are acceptable, and treats everyone else like degenerates.
Understood the response, well written. However, “gender care” has no place in schools. Sexual orientation has become key talking point in public schools. Many parents don’t hate on LGBTQ community, we simply want school to focus on teaching education. Political will always be morphing, changing with the times. So trying to update school policies to match those will never end, and always have “the other side.” Unnecessary, be who you are, date whom you choose. Keep your life, and go to school to learn.
How can they learn if the material is censored that is needed to teach????
Because the only other resource Parenting skills, learning and so forth are not being taught in school. Sex education was learned in school and if it had not been for the dedicated teachers informing me , I wouldn’t have known anything except for what misinformed peers had to say.
Please do not allow this board to turn our school district into one of the ignorant, intolerant and small-minded districts I read about. I really thought my kids were in good hands until I read the article this letter is in response to. People who cannot accept the differences in others should not be allowed to make decisions for such a large group of students. This is not one small private school — this is a diverse group of thousands of young people who are all unique individuals.
I moved here from Baltimore, and I don’t understand how people been living here are letting these racist, ignorant, disrespectful people continue being in office. This is absolutely ridiculous!
You’re from Baltimore. You just answered your own question! Were not Baltimore, thank God!
I agree with you Dan!
Well written! Biggotry has no place in our education system. Resign or support all students’ rights to a quality education.
?????????❤️❤️❤️❤️
Well said and good job! It appears many of the commenters here didn’t read the text thread. I would encourage people to do so. The horrible texts weren’t just about LGBTQ kids even though those were horrendous to read and inappropriate. They had appalling comments and such for all sorts of people in our community. Even talking about some by name. I’d encourage the entire community too see what’s in those texts. Eye opening for sure. This whole board should go away and let us start over.
If you’re suggesting “censored that is needed to teach” refers to removing materials related to transitioning from the sex you were born with to that of an unknown sex, than I’m 110% pro-cencership!
Great job! This student has definitely mastered critical thinking.
Well written, but not correct. As noted in the response, the school board stated its priority: The board recognizes that providing students with the opportunity to receive a sound basic education must be the primary focus of each school, the school district and the board.
Why should the school board be involved with, spend money on gender affirming care for students? It is not their purview and as stated above, stick to the primary agenda for the school: educating students. I don’t send my kids to school for health care.
The student pointed out: “Conservative mass media outlets speak out against Gender Affirming Health Care.” Not quite. They speak out against gender affirming care for children. It is a reasonable objection. Kids should not be prodded into this choice as many of them will outgrow their initial feelings. For adults it is a different matter and few speak out the issue for adults.
The student also added: “Having an accepting adult can reduce the change of an LGBTQ youth committing suicide by 40 percent. You don’t even have to encourage it – just accept it.” 40% is an exceptionally high rate, higher than for any other demographic today or in the past. The rate does NOT change with “gender affirming” care. The suicide rate remains just as high. The suicide rate is a problem. The solution others have to offer is what this student cannot contemplate. Any other body dismorphic behavior is treated as a problem, yet the culture wants to accept that we should perform surgery: remove penises, breasts, etc. and provide prosthetics for this type of body dismorphia. Why is this one treated differently? Why has the treatment changed and younger and younger subjects been drawn into it? Think about the answers to those long and hard.
I have written extensively about this myself. Here are more thoughts regarding this: https://seek-the-truth.com/2023/05/19/from-obergefell-to-lets-trans-the-kids-whats-going-on/
Great article, Dave! I agree with you 100 percent.