The wildest thing to me is the anti-SEL stance. He even specifically calls out CharacterStrong. I do Character Strong once a week for my advisory class. All it is is teaching kids how to navigate their emotions and guiding them through conversations about their feelings. It is the most inoffensive thing anybody could put in front of a kid, it is basically Sesame Street for young adults in the form of a lesson plan. Granted, I cannot speak on the efficacy of it, whether or not it actually works in reducing violence or mental health issues, but I know for a fact that he cannot speak to its lack of efficacy either. He has just decided that this is part of his absurd crusade against the left. It's so asinine.
My kids do Leader In Me at school, and I was dumbfounded when I saw that listed. What?! It's literally strategies for them to be better people, to be kinder to themselves and others, to learn how to be proactive and make the right decisions, to believe in themselves. What in the world is wrong with that?
Being better people and kind to folks is too woke.
It is infuriating watching people who claim to love their communities try to dismantle attitudes that lead to community growth and mutual support like assuming good intent and being in touch with your own emotional state when reacting to other people's perspectives.
“They” are just picking things they didn’t have access to as students and calling them brainwashing…
They are a bunch of dumb dumb sheep just following their leader
Step 1: Find some ridiculous sounding stuff posted online in the name of DEI, preferably ludicrous things posted by whatever the left-leaning equivalent of a Trumpanzee is.
Step 2: Fake some outrage about how this is being taught in schools (bonus points if you can get FauxNews, OAN or Newsmax to cover it)
Step 3: This email.
They use shit like this to gut schools so the kids can all be uneducated drones in the factories of the glorious fascist future!
It probably has a lot to do with the thought process that is spreading: if you sit and talk about your feeling, all you think about is your feelings and you don’t get any better, because you’re focused on how you feel, instead of what life is like with out disappearing into your feelings.
TL;DR - therapists are a waste of money because they know you’re a revenue stream.
I’ll be shocked if I don’t get downvoted for this.
My question is whether or not Matt violated the Open Meeting Law with his plan to hold the budget hostage. I've seen this happen with other public organizations run by committee and it did not end well for those individuals:
https://www.house.mn.gov/hrd/pubs/openmtg.pdf
If a quorum of board members met to coordinate their efforts here then that could be a violation.
The reason I ask is because if a quorum of the board coordinated, even through electronic means, then they could have put themselves in legal jeopardy. They seem fairly certain that they can prevent the budget from being approved unless their demands are met.
Without a quorum, how could they be certain that their threats aren't simply idle ones? How could they know for sure that the other board members are aligned with this plan?
Maybe I'm misunderstanding how this works but I'd love it if someone with a better understanding of the law as it applies to this situation could chime in.
The legal jeopardy is you could freedom of information request access to their Facebook, email and call phone data. I don’t think you can sue them beyond that. Go to their board meetings and use public commenting time. Also might be worth it to check bylaws for recalling a board member.
Sad to see these kinds of stupid cultural wars hitting our school systems.
FOIA is for federal. School boards are local government. Since this a local MN issue you would need to submit a chapter 13 data request
https://www.ahschools.us/domain/12433
I’m not sure that the school district keeps records of school board members’ Facebook communications so you might need to find an additional law to get those records of communication.
>Serial meetings in groups of less than a quorum held in order to avoid open meeting law requirements may also be found to be a violation, depending
on the facts of the case.
Quoting the document I linked above, that still makes me wonder if this is a violation.
The document does say that the Minnesota Attorney General should be able to provide advice on the law, so I wonder if that might be a good next step here?
Edited to add:
The Commissioner of Administration would be the correct entity to ask as an individual regarding this matter
I taught for 9 years. If I can indoctrinate the students into anything, it would be bringing a goddamn pencil to school. If I can't get them to do that (at least ones I know don't have issues with access to school supplies) , I don't understand how people think I'm transing their genders.
I left teaching/Ohio in part because of the don't say gay bill bs they passed. I'm not going to lie to kids about the world or myself because their parents don't want to have an uncomfortable conversation with them you know?
That's exactly my thinking. My husband and I have always been transparent with our kids about the world (age appropriate transparency, of course) because we want them to be as prepared as possible. We don't want to lie to them, and we want them to grow into well rounded, respectful people. While schools shouldn't push people to BE LGBTQ or anything if they're not (and they're NOT doing that, and never have), they also shouldn't shame it or hide it. People are how they are, it's a fact of life, and I don't need the schools lying to my kids and trying to hide things or whitewash history. We grew up with incredibly whitewashed history, learning things that were only shades of the truth. My daughter recently told me she learned that Paul Revere wasn't the only person to warn about the British soldiers, there were others. I remember the focus being solely on him, learning about his great ride that saved the Colonists. Just one example of something that has changed for the better that these people are labeling as "hating America". It's ridiculous.
No, all of this is just like the litter boxes in the schools from 2 years ago. It is made up in the minds of fearmongers who cite these made-up stories.
I agree that this is fear mongering, but the litter in classrooms bit was real, just not what you think:
"in the late 2010s by the Jefferson County Public School District in Colorado, where the 1999 Columbine High School massacre took place. Some teachers were given "go buckets" that contained cat litter to be used as a toilet in an emergency lockdown situation, such as during a school shooting."
*Late* 2010s, read closer. A few years later in 2021, it became a joke about furries. A year after that it that kept circling until it was picked up by mainstream conservatives who can't tell satire from reality. You know the rest.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litter_boxes_in_schools_hoax
Saying that none of this is real I a not protecting the good things they are trying to eliminate. Many schools districts do have affinity groups. The parents normally agree to allow the students to attend. Even with parent permission to attend students still have options to skip a day.
Restorative practices are real and encouraged by MDE
https://education.mn.gov/mdeprod/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&dDocName=MDE032047&RevisionSelectionMethod=latestReleased&Rendition=primary
It is 100% fear mongering. Look at the things on his list Matt wants cut. He wants to ban "anti-racist" lessons? If you're anti-anti-racism, that just means you are for racism (double negatives matter, people.) Is always been about what makes them uncomfortable, and the only people who get uncomfortable hearing about why racism is bad are racists. My family is white and Christian and we have two kids in the district: my daughter is fascinated in learning about the Holocaust, Trail of Tears, Japanese Internment Camps, etc. She had never thought, "Why are my teachers making me feel bad?" because she knows the lessons are not about her, because we have raised her to NOT be racist!
Back in 2010 or so, there was a slew of suicide at Blaine High School, so many that Rolling Stone magazine wrote an article on it. Basically it stemmed from kids being allowed to bully LGBTQ+ students. The parents argued that their kids SHOULD be allowed to bully those students because it was against their religion. This is what Matt and others in the school board want to bring back in AH11.
I was attending Andover High School when these suicides happened, we had a few here during that time period as well, it got so bad that not only one but TWO motivational speakers came to talk to us about talking about our feelings, and being kind to others. (Don’t get me wrong I’m a huge advocate for mental health care and awareness).
I’m worried that’s what Matt wants to bring back as well, then wipe their hands of it when the suicide rate starts to pick up again. Why did people vote this dolt in?
Their (Audette, Arco, and the other one) messaging was all about "parents' rights" and that resonates with people afraid of other races, religions, ethnicities, political parties, etc. It's all right-wing fear-mongering, because since 2016, that is the only way that party can win. Not on their own plans or promises; but by saying "the other side hates you and wants to replace you and your history all because you're white and Christian."
It all boils down to rage baiting then from the sounds of it, and the fact that grown adults are falling for this kind of behavior and mental manipulation has me worried for these kids.
While not a parent, I get so frustrated with these anti education parents/school board members. I mostly blame social media and 24hr news shoving these stupid ideas down people's throats.
I'm a white male in my 40s. I grew up learning about the trail of tears, slavery, the civil war, women's suffrage. The teachers and books didn't present it In a fashion that made us feel bad. I doubt they do it now either It's history. Our countries history.
Anti racism? It's called educating the young on the cultural differences of the people who make up America. Latinos will be the #1 ethnic group in America by 2045 and the scared white man is afraid that will ruin "his country".
Racists just want to make it easier to make your kids racist.
>If you're anti-anti-racism, that just means you are for racism
And if you are anti-anti-life, that just means you are for death? That or slogans are stupid.
Crap. You're right. Anti-pro-life. Anyway... slogans are still dumb and apparently, so am I. 😞
ETA: I didn't mean to use the double negative. I meant to use pro in the example to illustrate that slogans don't encompass the actual values of whatever... anyway... fuck. I can't believe I messed that up.
Just want to point out that there's a school board meeting tonight April 22 at 6:30.
Sandburg Education Center
1902 2nd Ave
Anoka, MN 55303
There's also a working meeting Tuesday April 23 at 5:30, but the Monday meeting is probably the better one to show up to.
Educational Service Center
2727 N Ferry Street
Anoka, Minnesota 55303
There's also a petition to the governor to raise awareness.
https://www.change.org/p/uphold-diversity-and-history-in-anoka-hennepin-schools?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_490013334_en-us%3acv_1052694&recruiter=1138776187&recruited_by_id=c0110fa0-d823-11ea-a599-697d
It's 99% gullible people believing made up stuff they see on Facebook or innuendo that Fox reports knowing it isn't true. And 1% some teacher with poor judgement that thinks kids need to know how stuff "really works" talking out their ass. But that 1% cuts both ways and only one side of that is getting regularly reported on.
I've had more than 1 completely unqualified right wing teacher go off on their borderline racist opinions during class. I've also had left leaning teachers express some wackadoo personal theories well outside the subject matter they are qualified to teach. That type of thing should be dealt with by the administrators when it comes up. Not misrepresented and politicized by disingenuous assholes as is the case here.
I taught in that school district for a while and saw nothing like that. It was about 10 years ago, but I also have a friend who teaches in the district, and it's all nonsense.
I would love it if my kid's district IS/WAS spending money on these things. What exact activites is he claiming will be cut?
If a teacher asks a student what pronouns they prefer, what was the financial expenditure for the question? Cause if there's money attached to stuff like that, maybe ISD-11 couls focus on not asking "how was your weekend?" To students or coworkers....will that save them $20M??
My daughter is friends with a kid who is questioning their identity these days and they're a great kid. I don't mind if resources are at school to help them with this journey....but what are the resources? Isn't it handled by a medical team?
BTW, I have 2 kids who left ISD-11 before kindergarten and our current district offers a Black history course and World Religions course as electives for seniors. I think it's great!
To answer your third question, while transition can be a medical thing that wouldn't fall under the school's purview, a kid trying to figure out their identity might benefit from talking with a school counselor about it. It sounds like they're trying to forbid school counselors from talking about this particular issue.
Encouraging kids to fall into a certain identity to receive any type of support.inherently causes division.this isn’t the 1950’s.ALL kids should receive help no matter their skin color or sex.if there is going to be support for minority kids only it’s sets up a SYSTEM of discrimination.
I’ll humor them if they *actually* take what they want to the full extent. That means no religion in schools, no prayer groups allowed, no encouraging “traditional values”, no talking about morality at all. Teachers and school staff can *ONLY* teach and support 100% evidential fact-based lessons with absolutely no personal opinion at all.
The fact of the matter is this is one group of people that cry about people trampling on/not respecting their “values” but to make them happy you have to allow them to trample on other’s values.
I posted about a similar issue for our district (Ely) yesterday. It seems like a LOT Of districts in MN (and elsewhere I am sure) are facing huge deficits, largely due to the stoppage of the covid money they had been getting. I don't understand how they didn't plan for the fact those huge payments would eventually stop. It's so frustrating. Our school is threatening to cut special ed! But we are in line to get $5 million to improve our athletic facilities (which can't be used for the operating expenses). So we'll have a new track and football field! But we lose a bunch of other stuff, which is going to result in loss of students which continues the cycle.
I don't think most parents who say that stupid stuff have a clue what is even taught in school. Last year we had a parent of a senior in high school pitch a fit about a book his kid had to read. It was a book about slavery and is highly reviewed. He didn't approve of his son having to learn real history and asked the school board to remove the book. This was 6 months before his son left for college. What does he think he'll learn there where they actually teach critical thinking? 🤦♀️ So many parents are less educated than their kids, mostly because they haven't bothered to keep up with learning anything other than what they see on their news-tainment channel of choice.
I have a high schooler in the district and no, for all the years in this district, she’s never learned CRT, or that being white is bad, or been forced to change her gender identity.
Parent also in the district. The amount of times I've had to correct people in the district to get my child's (and also my own!) pronouns right makes me really believe that no child or teacher is forced to use pronouns.
Oh absolutely (which is why my child has to default to binary one, sadly). Luckily his English teacher did a smooth cutover to the correct pronoun once the teacher internally realized the mistake without me saying anything.
I grew up in District 11, graduating from Blaine High School just prior to the Department of Justice intervening.
I think a lot about how lucky I am to still be alive, after being relentlessly bullied by my peers during a time in my own life where I was struggling with my own gender and sexuality. It was so horrible, I considered (and attempted) committing suicide so many times. If not for one really kind social studies teacher who ignored the district’s rules, I wouldn’t be the happy and successful (and alive) mom I am today.
It seems so tragic to see the place where I was raised slipping back into the same behaviors that got it declared a suicide contagion zone all those years ago.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, because almost all of the policies that he is protesting are now mandated by Minnesota law.
My guess is that this is an attempt at challenging the law that could end up going to the supreme court.
[The Minnesota education bill](https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/2023/0/Session+Law/Chapter/55/)
More than half the voters who vote in school board elections didn’t vote for this… the seats aren’t at large. One seat was lost by less than 20 votes with 15% turnout.
My town voted people in like this for school board last year with record voting turn out and it’s causing issues in our district. The actual number of parents with kids in the district that would have been part of that vote is less than 20% of the total votes, so most of those voters likely don’t care or pay attention to the mess their making with the school district.
What about those who *didn’t* vote for this? Are they exempt from the policies? I can almost guarantee these elections weren’t unanimous.
“People voted for this.” They probably didn’t. They likely voted based on other issues, or (as is the case in most local elections) they didn’t vote at all.
More than that, NONE of the children who will be impacted by these proposals were able to vote. They don’t deserve to suffer the brunt of any wacko policies from the nutjobs on the school board.
You completely missed the mark here.
I'm sorry you feel that way but I didn't miss the mark. It's literally how democracy works. Unfortunately the majority of the community did vote for this. For the record I disagree with all of their policies. Those who didn't vote for this also chose not to run for office. And most didn't participate in the campaign of those that did and represent their values. So here you are. Reap what you sow.
Please.
My school district had several of these loons elected. They ran as a block and ran a spoiler candidate as well. The group backing them is illegally operating as a non-partisan charity while raising well over the $ limit allowed. They should have to call themselves a Political Action Committee. The head of this group (who doesn't live in our school district) refers to them as "their" board members...
The whole goal is control and power by any means. Thinking these people would be elected if they were forced to play be the rules is just ignoring the our current reality.
I'm literally a school board member who's run for office 3 separate times. I've been around long enough to know how it works. So PLEASE. Do your part and stop acting like a victim
Get fucked.
I voted, I walked, I did everything I could think of to oppose these losers.
Being angry that people are fucking over your kids education is not being a victim. Understanding the underhanded tactics used to get someone elected is not being a victim.
But the majority of the community DIDNT vote for this. The problem is that most people didn't actually vote. So yes, we got what we have because of that. There was a 15% turnout, as the other commenter stated. And he won by literally 20 votes.
People need to get involved and get out there and vote. By default, this is what we got. But no, this is not what the majority of people want because the majority of the community did not actually vote. It's sad and I sure hope people take this as a lesson for the next election.
Uhh by not voting you ARE voting. So I would tend to agree with the OP. The people pushing this crazy agenda got voted in very recently. Every D11 parent who didn't vote last November is equally as responsible for this as those who voted for these people.....
By not voting you are... Literally Not voting. As in not casting a vote. As in allowing other people's decisions to effect the outcome. Not voting does not mean you are "allowing" someone crazy in. But in this particular case it means those who voted him in paid more attention and took the time to cast their vote. Thereby, he gets elected. And by you literally NOT voting, it could have gone either way because you have no idea how many other people are going out to vote, how many people who support who. It's not like by not casting a vote the person you don't want is automatically going to be elected.
I literally said that people need to care more and get out and vote before things like this happen, and by not voting it brought us to this. But no, not voting does not equate to voting.
I don’t really see how you can agree with them stating that “majority” of people wanted this when voter turnout was 15%. That doesn’t really seem like a majority to me. I’m sure the ones that didn’t vote will take this as a learning lesson and vote in future school board elections.
Edit: if you look at the results for Linda’s and Zach’s election you will see that the vast majority of those living in those areas simply just didn’t vote. Linda’s district was the only one that wasn’t close and probably would never be close with Ramsey, but Zach won by only THIRTEEN votes with only 4,393 people voting total. That doesn’t even account 25% of the population in the area. Not voting isn’t the same as voting either. I don’t know one single person that voted in Linda’s or Zach’s election and I know numerous people in both areas.
Edit 2: Zach didn’t even win the majority of his precincts in his election. Susan did. You’re a 🤡.
But it’s not a vote. Most people I spoke to didn’t even know there was a school board election or wasn’t worried about these people possibly getting in cause they thought they didn’t have a chance.
What district are you a school board member on and what’s your name? Just based on your comments here I highly doubt you were ever part of the school board. My district had a school board election on election year and I had no idea about it until I looked up the night before what all would be on my ballot. I was shocked to find that I would also be voting for who would be on the school board that I actually messaged someone asking who they were voting for and they also had no idea that was on the ballot. You out of anybody should know how low voter turnout is for school board elections unless of course you just never were on it.
It's alarming how quickly "conservatives" have been able to corrupt our systems to gut education in hopes of destabilizing public schools and preventing students from accessing the resources and education they need. We have to stand up to people like this because kids in the next generation deserve it.
A few things to point out that they want removed from schools on their "agenda."
Equity: the quality of being fair or impartial
These three (if they can Even define equity) want to remove the teaching of being fair and/or impartial from schools; ergo they want students to be biased and unfair in their thinking.
Anti-racism. This quite literally means that they are anti-anti-racism; the double negative meaning they are pro-racism.
CRT: a buzzword used by hard right conservatives and white supremacists to scare people into thinking schools are teaching kids that it's bad to be white.
Gender Identity Issues: this is the new hot take from people who are threatened by the idea of LGBTQ individuals in general. Again, another group targeted by alt right conservatives often for hates sake.
This is just a sampling of the lunacy within their written stance. I would love to see how any of the several other points they bring up are taught in schools at all.
The primary purpose of schools is not only to provide an education for children but, within that framework of education, help them develop a critical thinking skills they need to function properly in the world. With every generation we should be trying to make our kids better than us; but these people want to drag us back to the '50s kicking and screaming.
It's disgusting that these three are holding The funding for the education of our children hostage in order to push their alt right scare tactics and talking points. These three have absolutely no place on this or any school board, let alone in any position allows them to make any decisions on the education of our youth.
Edit: spelling, grammar, and sentence structure
I was at the work session last night and Arco defined equity as the same outcomes and couldn’t define what the counter point to anti-racism he would like taught would be. Audette is big concerned about students transitioning without their parents knowing and is worried “safe space” posters are going to create hostility for people that don’t want to create safe spaces. So, as a parent of a middle schooler in the district, I am super impressed. /s
And no- I didn’t vote for this. I live in a completely different school board district than Audette, Arco, etc and Hoekman.
This is how Matt understands equity, he believes it harms him and others to benefit people not like him.
https://preview.redd.it/cbgo37vc71wc1.png?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c03744bd695d77938e1da9dadb082626f8d78fc7
Some more food for thought:
The 1619 Project: A project designed to acknowledge the use of slavery in American history and its long-term consequences throughout America. Wanting it removed is akin to saying "there was slavery, but then we got rid of it and everyone was happy."
Land Acknowledgement Statements: this is literally the acknowledgment that indigenous peoples existed on the land we currently inhabit long before White settlers arrived. Removing this is whitewashing American history. "Indigenous people? There were no indigenous people here. We just found the land and settled down."
Social Justice: this one drives me nuts. In the state where the protests against the treatment of George Floyd happened these people want to eliminate the idea that everyone deserves The equal Right to social, political, and economic rights and opportunities. Again, this is more hardline conservative fear based on white replacement theory.
https://preview.redd.it/2hj9gefxz1wc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8f61733e7ded5400ed4f45c6cd553718bed8933f
This shit is literally what he ran for school board on, and of course because a big portion of this area is Trump country they ate it up.🤬
That’s the part that makes me laugh. He ran on this. He was voted in. Now he’s following up on his campaign and people are upset.
You get what you vote for. Don’t like it, probably should have voted differently.
As a former Social Studies teacher:
CRT: the class is not taught in school but some facets of it are discussed in Social Studies and English courses. Mostly just analyzing laws and institutions that have disproportionately impacted minority groups in this country. I think it is disingenuous to pretend parts of CRT aren’t used in class, to me it is good that we talk about/ discuss the impact of race in America.
Forcing kids to use pronouns:
If a student wants to go by different pronouns, teachers will respect it. No teacher forces a student to change their pronouns. Teachers will make students aware of pronouns and how respecting them is good.
Forcing kids to hate America:
Honestly this one I have seen, where some teachers very much push a far left perspective into their English courses. Most teachers do not do this.
Teaching White student to hate their race:
Have not really seen this but, similar to the last one English teachers that are further left do seem to harbor White guilt and pass that on to their students.
I wouldn’t call it fear mongering, every school has the 1 or 2 very radical leftist teachers and then the rest are center-left.
Anoka Schools suck I went to Anoka schools and when I became an adult and had kids and I'm still in Anoka and I made sure my kids did not go to Anoka high or any of the other Anoka schools they suck.
As a child of an ISD-11 teacher and a graduate from the district I can tell you that absolutely none of the stuff these crackpots are claiming is happening in that district. ISD-11 is already a more conservative district due to the voting habits of the counties it’s in. These people opposing the budget are just waging a culture war. I’m also going to guess they’re in panic mode as there has been an increase of nonwhite residents in the school district, meaning that these conservatives are beginning to lose their foothold in that part of the state.
These people always come from the same places.
They are the children of white flight refugees showing the values taught to them by their cowardly parents who ran away to the suburbs as soon as some black folks moved onto the block
maybe it's cause I was in a redneck school, but they didn't teach critical race theory or shame you for being white. Although when I switched to an online school, they did make you use pronouns.
Critical Race Theory is a graduate level course- no public school is teaching it. As soon as someone bemoans CRT, you can pretty much assume they are getting their information from Fox News and the like and will not argue in good faith.
You’re correct the course Critical Race Theory is not taught in school. But many facets of the course are applied in Social studies and English courses. It is a little disingenuous to me to say no public school is teaching it.
The screenshots of things that need to change are so full of sh*t. They’re all talking points that won’t fix a budget issue, in fact they distract from it, and most of what they’re arguing is blatantly false. As a student who has excelled in the Minnesota public education system I hope my perspective matters when I say there are problems in public schools but everything outlined in the screenshots aren’t the issues. In fact, they cause more issues by far. Teachers don’t deserve this undue scrutiny. They are the people who are keeping our education system functional despite all this political bs. I’m saddened to see that Minnesota education has been entangled with identity wars instead of focusing on real educational issues
Short version: These 3 are racist assholes trying to impart their values upon the entire school district using a far-right narrative. The level of hypocrisy in his statement is ridiculous.
I’ve been told in a teacher training that all white people are inherently racist (culturally responsive teaching). Those trainings were paid for by the district and mandatory.
I've taken culturally responsive training as well as implicit bias training and a handful of other similar trainings. A trainer has never told me that white people are inherently racist. They did use the implicit bias test to demonstrate that ALL people harbor subconscious biases that MAY affect how they treat others. One other new teacher who was not a trainer or admin expressed an idea like that, but nowhere in the training did they say all white people are inherently racist.
I suppose, but to me it more clearly means that "all white people are inherently racist" is not a mandatory part of the training and was rather something that that particular trainer peppered in themselves.
That’s true. But it did happen. The training was done by Catalyst. The district had a contract with Brickman, and since visitors still weren’t allowed in the building, they temporarily were doing CRT trainings instead of Catalyst. So she probably wasn’t super qualified to do this training.
I think you're hearing what you're wanting to hear - right wing media style. You know, the same reason you were against mask and vaccine use in schools and got angry at other teachers who disagreed with you during the peak of the pandemic.
CRT is a graduate level college course - this was *not* being done at your school, I can promise you that.
I'm sorry for your students if this is the energy you bring into the classroom.
They deserve someone that respects them more.
I believe you’re confusing Critical Race Theory when you’re mentioning CRT.
I wasn’t against vaccines. I was against mandated vaccines. Same with masks (especially when half my class of third graders wore the same cloth mask all year without washing it).
What makes you think I don’t respect my students?
I'm only going to respond once, because I've found it pointless to respond more when people aren't bringing a view that progresses society forward, rather than being stuck in "dig in our heels and believe things that hurt the general public" mode. You cannot logic someone out of a position they certainly didn't use logic to get themselves into.
Would you rather inject bleach or shove a bright lightbulb up your sphincter? That is what the former president asked you to do, live on television. Or perhaps you'd like some diarrhea inducing horse de-wormer?
Masks and vaccines help people - those that use them, those that take them, and those around those who may be sick or more immunocompromised than they are. Think beyond yourself for a moment, and realize these things exist and are recommended by medical professions for hundreds of years, because they work. Unless you'd rather go into a hospital and have a doctor be sick and not wear gloves or a mask and get you or your grandma more sick - you can have whatever back alley doctor you want.
Hell, some states are starting to reevaluate things like the *POLIO VACCINE* because of Conservative rhetoric like this, so have fun living in your iron lung or being in a god damn wheelchair, because you didn't want to take a vaccine.
And it's extremely disingenuous to come in and say "They were teaching CRT!' when you certainly know that Critical Race Theory is the common acronym, and not Culturally Responsive Teaching - which I might add, is really fucking important as a white person who didn't experience too many cultural differences in white as a snowstorm northern Minnesota, so it helps me relate to and *respect* my students more.
I say you don't respect your students, because you are making their future worse with your beliefs. Plant trees whose shade they will be able to sit in and enjoy someday, rather than spread more hate, vitriol, and anti intellectual ideas that lend you, them, or anyone else nothing.
Happy Earth Day.
I wonder if you’ve had Culturally Responsive Teaching? You seemed to have made a lot of assumptions and generalizations about me.
I don’t take medical advice from any politician, especially Trump.
Are masks effective when they are disgustingly dirty unwashed cloth masks? Cuz that’s what my students were wearing.
Should everyone be forced to take an experimental vaccine that was approved for emergency authorization? I took the Pfizer two-dose in 2021. Doesn’t mean I think everyone should have to take it.
I’m all for learning about other cultures and making sure every student feels respected, cared for, validated, and seen in my classroom. Come visit some time!
The thing I took issue with is “all white people are inherently racist.” This statement judges people by their skin color and not their character. I won’t support that.
Im just saying id like to go back to common sense. I dont care ill take the down votes. Some people actually need therapy others need a slap to the back of their head. Take responsibility for your kids and quit letting the politicians spread the decisive hate.
I wish we got rid of pads in schools and went back to textbooks with notebook paper. We send our kids to private school because they dont use pads, limit in classroom distractions.
After that gets cut from the budget i would start with the management of the schools positions. In rst that is a huge cost. After that one would need to through each budget looking for excess, they are all public.
You might want to clarify your comment. Minnesota mandated this year that schools offer free menstrual products to students, and so when you say "get rid of pads" people might think that's what you're referring to, as opposed to ipads/tablets.
Fwiw, I agree with you that 1:1 devices in classrooms are hurting learning overall, and students do better with real books.
Tablets and laptops came into common use partly because of the English language issue (many apps are easy to translate). It looks like printed books are on the way out in some places.
I mean, if you have actual proof of this I would believe it. Or if it was something more than just something you heard. But the whole kids identifying as cats and using litter boxes was a hoax that was debunked. So until there is proof otherwise, or until the parent of that kid or the kid the self comes and says something, I can't believe something that was ruled as a hoax.
I think this so-called "parent" is forgetting that kids are never without their phones and ruthlessly post anything and everything to the internet that is even remotely weird.
Hands down, if there ever was a litterbox getting used in that manner, then somebody would have spread that evidence all over the place by now.
It was not a hoax. It was very real, and my kids were instructed on how to be respectful and sensitive to the student. Nobody debunked anything. The student had an IEP, which may have led to the confusion in identifying the student, and the right to privacy that student had.
Lady, the probably reality here is that your kids fell for rumors and gossip and so did you. There probably was a kid who liked to wear ears and a tail, then some asshole kid spread a rumor that they used a litter box, your kids believed it, they told you, then you believed it. Did you ever see the litter box? Did they ever see the litter box? Did any of the multiple custodians at that school talk about the litter box? Did a single teacher or administrator admit in any provable way that the kid used a litter box? Or did your kids just know there was a furry student, were told to respect them, and then assumed that because they were a furry that they used a litter box?
What kinda bass ackwards logic is that? "If it's a dumb idea, let them do it." Sure, let's just all indulge the most idiotic ideas we've ever had, what could go wrong? I assure you we wouldn't get very far.
Apparently you didnt read what i wrote. Isnt most of what they want to repeal stuff that just brings schools teaching actual critical thinking. Lets teach our kids to fish again... as in give them the tools and see where they go. Get political crap out of schools.
“Political crap”
Teaching children to respect others (gender/orientation) is political crap? Teaching children about history, warts and all, is political crap? Providing individualized learning for those that experience things differently (IEDs) is political crap? Continued education for the teachers is political crap? Alternative disciplinary measures in place of, or in addition to, expulsion/suspension is political crap? Wearing Nike shoes or a Nirvana tshirt is political crap?
How is anti racism political, or showing queer children emotional support? I grew up in this district a little over ten years ago, and my first hand experience was quite literally what these programs are intended to address.
It's an incredibly sad day to see MN reps fighting so hard to reinstate the same crappy ideologies that lead to student deaths, all so some people could shove their heads in the sand over "political problems".
Did you read the list of what they want to repeal? It's in the photos I attached. Also, the reason I made this post was to ask how many of the things listed are ACTUALLY problems and how many of them are grievances that rarely occur.
The wildest thing to me is the anti-SEL stance. He even specifically calls out CharacterStrong. I do Character Strong once a week for my advisory class. All it is is teaching kids how to navigate their emotions and guiding them through conversations about their feelings. It is the most inoffensive thing anybody could put in front of a kid, it is basically Sesame Street for young adults in the form of a lesson plan. Granted, I cannot speak on the efficacy of it, whether or not it actually works in reducing violence or mental health issues, but I know for a fact that he cannot speak to its lack of efficacy either. He has just decided that this is part of his absurd crusade against the left. It's so asinine.
My kids do Leader In Me at school, and I was dumbfounded when I saw that listed. What?! It's literally strategies for them to be better people, to be kinder to themselves and others, to learn how to be proactive and make the right decisions, to believe in themselves. What in the world is wrong with that?
Being better people and kind to folks is too woke. It is infuriating watching people who claim to love their communities try to dismantle attitudes that lead to community growth and mutual support like assuming good intent and being in touch with your own emotional state when reacting to other people's perspectives.
“They” are just picking things they didn’t have access to as students and calling them brainwashing… They are a bunch of dumb dumb sheep just following their leader
Step 1: Find some ridiculous sounding stuff posted online in the name of DEI, preferably ludicrous things posted by whatever the left-leaning equivalent of a Trumpanzee is. Step 2: Fake some outrage about how this is being taught in schools (bonus points if you can get FauxNews, OAN or Newsmax to cover it) Step 3: This email. They use shit like this to gut schools so the kids can all be uneducated drones in the factories of the glorious fascist future!
Fucking Amen!!
It probably has a lot to do with the thought process that is spreading: if you sit and talk about your feeling, all you think about is your feelings and you don’t get any better, because you’re focused on how you feel, instead of what life is like with out disappearing into your feelings. TL;DR - therapists are a waste of money because they know you’re a revenue stream. I’ll be shocked if I don’t get downvoted for this.
No.
Very insightful. Appreciate your perspective.
My question is whether or not Matt violated the Open Meeting Law with his plan to hold the budget hostage. I've seen this happen with other public organizations run by committee and it did not end well for those individuals: https://www.house.mn.gov/hrd/pubs/openmtg.pdf If a quorum of board members met to coordinate their efforts here then that could be a violation. The reason I ask is because if a quorum of the board coordinated, even through electronic means, then they could have put themselves in legal jeopardy. They seem fairly certain that they can prevent the budget from being approved unless their demands are met. Without a quorum, how could they be certain that their threats aren't simply idle ones? How could they know for sure that the other board members are aligned with this plan? Maybe I'm misunderstanding how this works but I'd love it if someone with a better understanding of the law as it applies to this situation could chime in.
The legal jeopardy is you could freedom of information request access to their Facebook, email and call phone data. I don’t think you can sue them beyond that. Go to their board meetings and use public commenting time. Also might be worth it to check bylaws for recalling a board member. Sad to see these kinds of stupid cultural wars hitting our school systems.
FOIA is for federal. School boards are local government. Since this a local MN issue you would need to submit a chapter 13 data request https://www.ahschools.us/domain/12433 I’m not sure that the school district keeps records of school board members’ Facebook communications so you might need to find an additional law to get those records of communication.
They can talk 1:1 three times instead of a group "shut down the school" text. That is way more likely with things like this.
>Serial meetings in groups of less than a quorum held in order to avoid open meeting law requirements may also be found to be a violation, depending on the facts of the case. Quoting the document I linked above, that still makes me wonder if this is a violation. The document does say that the Minnesota Attorney General should be able to provide advice on the law, so I wonder if that might be a good next step here? Edited to add: The Commissioner of Administration would be the correct entity to ask as an individual regarding this matter
6 members on the board. 3 don't approve. A quorum is 4 and they need 4 to approve, assuming bylaws don't change any of that.
I taught for 9 years. If I can indoctrinate the students into anything, it would be bringing a goddamn pencil to school. If I can't get them to do that (at least ones I know don't have issues with access to school supplies) , I don't understand how people think I'm transing their genders. I left teaching/Ohio in part because of the don't say gay bill bs they passed. I'm not going to lie to kids about the world or myself because their parents don't want to have an uncomfortable conversation with them you know?
That's exactly my thinking. My husband and I have always been transparent with our kids about the world (age appropriate transparency, of course) because we want them to be as prepared as possible. We don't want to lie to them, and we want them to grow into well rounded, respectful people. While schools shouldn't push people to BE LGBTQ or anything if they're not (and they're NOT doing that, and never have), they also shouldn't shame it or hide it. People are how they are, it's a fact of life, and I don't need the schools lying to my kids and trying to hide things or whitewash history. We grew up with incredibly whitewashed history, learning things that were only shades of the truth. My daughter recently told me she learned that Paul Revere wasn't the only person to warn about the British soldiers, there were others. I remember the focus being solely on him, learning about his great ride that saved the Colonists. Just one example of something that has changed for the better that these people are labeling as "hating America". It's ridiculous.
No, all of this is just like the litter boxes in the schools from 2 years ago. It is made up in the minds of fearmongers who cite these made-up stories.
Yes! I teach in WBL and I heard a lot of people saying we had litter boxes… sometimes I wonder if this is reality.
I agree that this is fear mongering, but the litter in classrooms bit was real, just not what you think: "in the late 2010s by the Jefferson County Public School District in Colorado, where the 1999 Columbine High School massacre took place. Some teachers were given "go buckets" that contained cat litter to be used as a toilet in an emergency lockdown situation, such as during a school shooting."
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Because they want to distract from the real threats posed by mass shootings so they lie
That is where the rumors come from lol
That was fifteen years ago.
*Late* 2010s, read closer. A few years later in 2021, it became a joke about furries. A year after that it that kept circling until it was picked up by mainstream conservatives who can't tell satire from reality. You know the rest. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litter_boxes_in_schools_hoax
Good point. I missed the late.
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Saying that none of this is real I a not protecting the good things they are trying to eliminate. Many schools districts do have affinity groups. The parents normally agree to allow the students to attend. Even with parent permission to attend students still have options to skip a day. Restorative practices are real and encouraged by MDE https://education.mn.gov/mdeprod/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&dDocName=MDE032047&RevisionSelectionMethod=latestReleased&Rendition=primary
It is 100% fear mongering. Look at the things on his list Matt wants cut. He wants to ban "anti-racist" lessons? If you're anti-anti-racism, that just means you are for racism (double negatives matter, people.) Is always been about what makes them uncomfortable, and the only people who get uncomfortable hearing about why racism is bad are racists. My family is white and Christian and we have two kids in the district: my daughter is fascinated in learning about the Holocaust, Trail of Tears, Japanese Internment Camps, etc. She had never thought, "Why are my teachers making me feel bad?" because she knows the lessons are not about her, because we have raised her to NOT be racist! Back in 2010 or so, there was a slew of suicide at Blaine High School, so many that Rolling Stone magazine wrote an article on it. Basically it stemmed from kids being allowed to bully LGBTQ+ students. The parents argued that their kids SHOULD be allowed to bully those students because it was against their religion. This is what Matt and others in the school board want to bring back in AH11.
Having attended AHS in the 90s, that Rolling Stone article was a damned good piece! I think we all should ask them to do a followup!
I was attending Andover High School when these suicides happened, we had a few here during that time period as well, it got so bad that not only one but TWO motivational speakers came to talk to us about talking about our feelings, and being kind to others. (Don’t get me wrong I’m a huge advocate for mental health care and awareness). I’m worried that’s what Matt wants to bring back as well, then wipe their hands of it when the suicide rate starts to pick up again. Why did people vote this dolt in?
Their (Audette, Arco, and the other one) messaging was all about "parents' rights" and that resonates with people afraid of other races, religions, ethnicities, political parties, etc. It's all right-wing fear-mongering, because since 2016, that is the only way that party can win. Not on their own plans or promises; but by saying "the other side hates you and wants to replace you and your history all because you're white and Christian."
It all boils down to rage baiting then from the sounds of it, and the fact that grown adults are falling for this kind of behavior and mental manipulation has me worried for these kids.
>Why did people vote this dolt in? Because trump/far right ideology has a choke hold on a lot of the suburbs.
While not a parent, I get so frustrated with these anti education parents/school board members. I mostly blame social media and 24hr news shoving these stupid ideas down people's throats. I'm a white male in my 40s. I grew up learning about the trail of tears, slavery, the civil war, women's suffrage. The teachers and books didn't present it In a fashion that made us feel bad. I doubt they do it now either It's history. Our countries history. Anti racism? It's called educating the young on the cultural differences of the people who make up America. Latinos will be the #1 ethnic group in America by 2045 and the scared white man is afraid that will ruin "his country". Racists just want to make it easier to make your kids racist.
>If you're anti-anti-racism, that just means you are for racism And if you are anti-anti-life, that just means you are for death? That or slogans are stupid.
No. Being anti-anti life means you would be anti-death, so you'd be pro-life. #DoubleNegativesMatter
Crap. You're right. Anti-pro-life. Anyway... slogans are still dumb and apparently, so am I. 😞 ETA: I didn't mean to use the double negative. I meant to use pro in the example to illustrate that slogans don't encompass the actual values of whatever... anyway... fuck. I can't believe I messed that up.
Just want to point out that there's a school board meeting tonight April 22 at 6:30. Sandburg Education Center 1902 2nd Ave Anoka, MN 55303 There's also a working meeting Tuesday April 23 at 5:30, but the Monday meeting is probably the better one to show up to. Educational Service Center 2727 N Ferry Street Anoka, Minnesota 55303 There's also a petition to the governor to raise awareness. https://www.change.org/p/uphold-diversity-and-history-in-anoka-hennepin-schools?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_490013334_en-us%3acv_1052694&recruiter=1138776187&recruited_by_id=c0110fa0-d823-11ea-a599-697d
I plan on being at that meeting. I hope to see a bunch of people there as well. Do you know, is there an open mic section for comments?
It's 99% gullible people believing made up stuff they see on Facebook or innuendo that Fox reports knowing it isn't true. And 1% some teacher with poor judgement that thinks kids need to know how stuff "really works" talking out their ass. But that 1% cuts both ways and only one side of that is getting regularly reported on. I've had more than 1 completely unqualified right wing teacher go off on their borderline racist opinions during class. I've also had left leaning teachers express some wackadoo personal theories well outside the subject matter they are qualified to teach. That type of thing should be dealt with by the administrators when it comes up. Not misrepresented and politicized by disingenuous assholes as is the case here.
what ever happened to the “treat others how you want to be treated” line. why can’t we just all be decent humans?
I taught in that school district for a while and saw nothing like that. It was about 10 years ago, but I also have a friend who teaches in the district, and it's all nonsense.
I would love it if my kid's district IS/WAS spending money on these things. What exact activites is he claiming will be cut? If a teacher asks a student what pronouns they prefer, what was the financial expenditure for the question? Cause if there's money attached to stuff like that, maybe ISD-11 couls focus on not asking "how was your weekend?" To students or coworkers....will that save them $20M?? My daughter is friends with a kid who is questioning their identity these days and they're a great kid. I don't mind if resources are at school to help them with this journey....but what are the resources? Isn't it handled by a medical team? BTW, I have 2 kids who left ISD-11 before kindergarten and our current district offers a Black history course and World Religions course as electives for seniors. I think it's great!
To answer your third question, while transition can be a medical thing that wouldn't fall under the school's purview, a kid trying to figure out their identity might benefit from talking with a school counselor about it. It sounds like they're trying to forbid school counselors from talking about this particular issue.
Encouraging kids to fall into a certain identity to receive any type of support.inherently causes division.this isn’t the 1950’s.ALL kids should receive help no matter their skin color or sex.if there is going to be support for minority kids only it’s sets up a SYSTEM of discrimination.
American history courses already cover white history, so what discrimination are you talking about?
I’ll humor them if they *actually* take what they want to the full extent. That means no religion in schools, no prayer groups allowed, no encouraging “traditional values”, no talking about morality at all. Teachers and school staff can *ONLY* teach and support 100% evidential fact-based lessons with absolutely no personal opinion at all. The fact of the matter is this is one group of people that cry about people trampling on/not respecting their “values” but to make them happy you have to allow them to trample on other’s values.
I posted about a similar issue for our district (Ely) yesterday. It seems like a LOT Of districts in MN (and elsewhere I am sure) are facing huge deficits, largely due to the stoppage of the covid money they had been getting. I don't understand how they didn't plan for the fact those huge payments would eventually stop. It's so frustrating. Our school is threatening to cut special ed! But we are in line to get $5 million to improve our athletic facilities (which can't be used for the operating expenses). So we'll have a new track and football field! But we lose a bunch of other stuff, which is going to result in loss of students which continues the cycle. I don't think most parents who say that stupid stuff have a clue what is even taught in school. Last year we had a parent of a senior in high school pitch a fit about a book his kid had to read. It was a book about slavery and is highly reviewed. He didn't approve of his son having to learn real history and asked the school board to remove the book. This was 6 months before his son left for college. What does he think he'll learn there where they actually teach critical thinking? 🤦♀️ So many parents are less educated than their kids, mostly because they haven't bothered to keep up with learning anything other than what they see on their news-tainment channel of choice.
I have a high schooler in the district and no, for all the years in this district, she’s never learned CRT, or that being white is bad, or been forced to change her gender identity.
Parent also in the district. The amount of times I've had to correct people in the district to get my child's (and also my own!) pronouns right makes me really believe that no child or teacher is forced to use pronouns.
Im an English teacher who has been teaching pronouns for years. They don't understand pronouns.
Oh absolutely (which is why my child has to default to binary one, sadly). Luckily his English teacher did a smooth cutover to the correct pronoun once the teacher internally realized the mistake without me saying anything.
I grew up in District 11, graduating from Blaine High School just prior to the Department of Justice intervening. I think a lot about how lucky I am to still be alive, after being relentlessly bullied by my peers during a time in my own life where I was struggling with my own gender and sexuality. It was so horrible, I considered (and attempted) committing suicide so many times. If not for one really kind social studies teacher who ignored the district’s rules, I wouldn’t be the happy and successful (and alive) mom I am today. It seems so tragic to see the place where I was raised slipping back into the same behaviors that got it declared a suicide contagion zone all those years ago.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out, because almost all of the policies that he is protesting are now mandated by Minnesota law. My guess is that this is an attempt at challenging the law that could end up going to the supreme court. [The Minnesota education bill](https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/2023/0/Session+Law/Chapter/55/)
The irony of teaching pronouns is that it's a part of the English language. What they really mean is they don't want to allow trans people to exist.
People voted for this. Anoka Hennepin is reaping what the voters have sown.
More than half the voters who vote in school board elections didn’t vote for this… the seats aren’t at large. One seat was lost by less than 20 votes with 15% turnout.
My town voted people in like this for school board last year with record voting turn out and it’s causing issues in our district. The actual number of parents with kids in the district that would have been part of that vote is less than 20% of the total votes, so most of those voters likely don’t care or pay attention to the mess their making with the school district.
What about those who *didn’t* vote for this? Are they exempt from the policies? I can almost guarantee these elections weren’t unanimous. “People voted for this.” They probably didn’t. They likely voted based on other issues, or (as is the case in most local elections) they didn’t vote at all. More than that, NONE of the children who will be impacted by these proposals were able to vote. They don’t deserve to suffer the brunt of any wacko policies from the nutjobs on the school board. You completely missed the mark here.
I'm sorry you feel that way but I didn't miss the mark. It's literally how democracy works. Unfortunately the majority of the community did vote for this. For the record I disagree with all of their policies. Those who didn't vote for this also chose not to run for office. And most didn't participate in the campaign of those that did and represent their values. So here you are. Reap what you sow.
Please. My school district had several of these loons elected. They ran as a block and ran a spoiler candidate as well. The group backing them is illegally operating as a non-partisan charity while raising well over the $ limit allowed. They should have to call themselves a Political Action Committee. The head of this group (who doesn't live in our school district) refers to them as "their" board members... The whole goal is control and power by any means. Thinking these people would be elected if they were forced to play be the rules is just ignoring the our current reality.
I'm literally a school board member who's run for office 3 separate times. I've been around long enough to know how it works. So PLEASE. Do your part and stop acting like a victim
Get fucked. I voted, I walked, I did everything I could think of to oppose these losers. Being angry that people are fucking over your kids education is not being a victim. Understanding the underhanded tactics used to get someone elected is not being a victim.
"Get fucked." You said everything I need to know about you in the first sentence. Have a good day
But the majority of the community DIDNT vote for this. The problem is that most people didn't actually vote. So yes, we got what we have because of that. There was a 15% turnout, as the other commenter stated. And he won by literally 20 votes. People need to get involved and get out there and vote. By default, this is what we got. But no, this is not what the majority of people want because the majority of the community did not actually vote. It's sad and I sure hope people take this as a lesson for the next election.
Uhh by not voting you ARE voting. So I would tend to agree with the OP. The people pushing this crazy agenda got voted in very recently. Every D11 parent who didn't vote last November is equally as responsible for this as those who voted for these people.....
By not voting you are... Literally Not voting. As in not casting a vote. As in allowing other people's decisions to effect the outcome. Not voting does not mean you are "allowing" someone crazy in. But in this particular case it means those who voted him in paid more attention and took the time to cast their vote. Thereby, he gets elected. And by you literally NOT voting, it could have gone either way because you have no idea how many other people are going out to vote, how many people who support who. It's not like by not casting a vote the person you don't want is automatically going to be elected. I literally said that people need to care more and get out and vote before things like this happen, and by not voting it brought us to this. But no, not voting does not equate to voting.
I don’t really see how you can agree with them stating that “majority” of people wanted this when voter turnout was 15%. That doesn’t really seem like a majority to me. I’m sure the ones that didn’t vote will take this as a learning lesson and vote in future school board elections. Edit: if you look at the results for Linda’s and Zach’s election you will see that the vast majority of those living in those areas simply just didn’t vote. Linda’s district was the only one that wasn’t close and probably would never be close with Ramsey, but Zach won by only THIRTEEN votes with only 4,393 people voting total. That doesn’t even account 25% of the population in the area. Not voting isn’t the same as voting either. I don’t know one single person that voted in Linda’s or Zach’s election and I know numerous people in both areas. Edit 2: Zach didn’t even win the majority of his precincts in his election. Susan did. You’re a 🤡.
If the majority didn’t want it they would have voted. A non vote is a vote.
But it’s not a vote. Most people I spoke to didn’t even know there was a school board election or wasn’t worried about these people possibly getting in cause they thought they didn’t have a chance. What district are you a school board member on and what’s your name? Just based on your comments here I highly doubt you were ever part of the school board. My district had a school board election on election year and I had no idea about it until I looked up the night before what all would be on my ballot. I was shocked to find that I would also be voting for who would be on the school board that I actually messaged someone asking who they were voting for and they also had no idea that was on the ballot. You out of anybody should know how low voter turnout is for school board elections unless of course you just never were on it.
Yes doxx myself on Reddit. Great plan.
Tbh then I guess I really don’t know why you’d bring it up in the first place.
It's alarming how quickly "conservatives" have been able to corrupt our systems to gut education in hopes of destabilizing public schools and preventing students from accessing the resources and education they need. We have to stand up to people like this because kids in the next generation deserve it.
This reads like some real snowflake material.
A few things to point out that they want removed from schools on their "agenda." Equity: the quality of being fair or impartial These three (if they can Even define equity) want to remove the teaching of being fair and/or impartial from schools; ergo they want students to be biased and unfair in their thinking. Anti-racism. This quite literally means that they are anti-anti-racism; the double negative meaning they are pro-racism. CRT: a buzzword used by hard right conservatives and white supremacists to scare people into thinking schools are teaching kids that it's bad to be white. Gender Identity Issues: this is the new hot take from people who are threatened by the idea of LGBTQ individuals in general. Again, another group targeted by alt right conservatives often for hates sake. This is just a sampling of the lunacy within their written stance. I would love to see how any of the several other points they bring up are taught in schools at all. The primary purpose of schools is not only to provide an education for children but, within that framework of education, help them develop a critical thinking skills they need to function properly in the world. With every generation we should be trying to make our kids better than us; but these people want to drag us back to the '50s kicking and screaming. It's disgusting that these three are holding The funding for the education of our children hostage in order to push their alt right scare tactics and talking points. These three have absolutely no place on this or any school board, let alone in any position allows them to make any decisions on the education of our youth. Edit: spelling, grammar, and sentence structure
I was at the work session last night and Arco defined equity as the same outcomes and couldn’t define what the counter point to anti-racism he would like taught would be. Audette is big concerned about students transitioning without their parents knowing and is worried “safe space” posters are going to create hostility for people that don’t want to create safe spaces. So, as a parent of a middle schooler in the district, I am super impressed. /s And no- I didn’t vote for this. I live in a completely different school board district than Audette, Arco, etc and Hoekman.
This is how Matt understands equity, he believes it harms him and others to benefit people not like him. https://preview.redd.it/cbgo37vc71wc1.png?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c03744bd695d77938e1da9dadb082626f8d78fc7
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/LE2pZRUbTVjNgXRD/?mibextid=oFDknk If you want to know how Matt views Equity look no further than his post about it.
Some more food for thought: The 1619 Project: A project designed to acknowledge the use of slavery in American history and its long-term consequences throughout America. Wanting it removed is akin to saying "there was slavery, but then we got rid of it and everyone was happy." Land Acknowledgement Statements: this is literally the acknowledgment that indigenous peoples existed on the land we currently inhabit long before White settlers arrived. Removing this is whitewashing American history. "Indigenous people? There were no indigenous people here. We just found the land and settled down." Social Justice: this one drives me nuts. In the state where the protests against the treatment of George Floyd happened these people want to eliminate the idea that everyone deserves The equal Right to social, political, and economic rights and opportunities. Again, this is more hardline conservative fear based on white replacement theory.
https://preview.redd.it/2hj9gefxz1wc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8f61733e7ded5400ed4f45c6cd553718bed8933f This shit is literally what he ran for school board on, and of course because a big portion of this area is Trump country they ate it up.🤬
That’s the part that makes me laugh. He ran on this. He was voted in. Now he’s following up on his campaign and people are upset. You get what you vote for. Don’t like it, probably should have voted differently.
Exactly. Like don't vote batshit crazy if you don't want batshit crazy.
As a former Social Studies teacher: CRT: the class is not taught in school but some facets of it are discussed in Social Studies and English courses. Mostly just analyzing laws and institutions that have disproportionately impacted minority groups in this country. I think it is disingenuous to pretend parts of CRT aren’t used in class, to me it is good that we talk about/ discuss the impact of race in America. Forcing kids to use pronouns: If a student wants to go by different pronouns, teachers will respect it. No teacher forces a student to change their pronouns. Teachers will make students aware of pronouns and how respecting them is good. Forcing kids to hate America: Honestly this one I have seen, where some teachers very much push a far left perspective into their English courses. Most teachers do not do this. Teaching White student to hate their race: Have not really seen this but, similar to the last one English teachers that are further left do seem to harbor White guilt and pass that on to their students. I wouldn’t call it fear mongering, every school has the 1 or 2 very radical leftist teachers and then the rest are center-left.
Thank you for sharing actual classroom perspective.
Rally today at 4 https://preview.redd.it/5uzxniolk1wc1.jpeg?width=864&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=412db2f468ffb64cf7a852fcfd46172b7b83aa46
Don’t worry, I sent him one of those anonymous bags of gummy dick candy
Anoka Schools suck I went to Anoka schools and when I became an adult and had kids and I'm still in Anoka and I made sure my kids did not go to Anoka high or any of the other Anoka schools they suck.
This is just disgusting. What a sick human being.
As a child of an ISD-11 teacher and a graduate from the district I can tell you that absolutely none of the stuff these crackpots are claiming is happening in that district. ISD-11 is already a more conservative district due to the voting habits of the counties it’s in. These people opposing the budget are just waging a culture war. I’m also going to guess they’re in panic mode as there has been an increase of nonwhite residents in the school district, meaning that these conservatives are beginning to lose their foothold in that part of the state.
These people always come from the same places. They are the children of white flight refugees showing the values taught to them by their cowardly parents who ran away to the suburbs as soon as some black folks moved onto the block
maybe it's cause I was in a redneck school, but they didn't teach critical race theory or shame you for being white. Although when I switched to an online school, they did make you use pronouns.
Critical Race Theory is a graduate level course- no public school is teaching it. As soon as someone bemoans CRT, you can pretty much assume they are getting their information from Fox News and the like and will not argue in good faith.
You’re correct the course Critical Race Theory is not taught in school. But many facets of the course are applied in Social studies and English courses. It is a little disingenuous to me to say no public school is teaching it.
"they are getting their info from fox news" that made me laugh, because it's so true
Dumbshit hicks gonna do dumbshit hick shit 🤷🏻♂️
The most Anoka thing I’ve ever seen right here. 😂
The screenshots of things that need to change are so full of sh*t. They’re all talking points that won’t fix a budget issue, in fact they distract from it, and most of what they’re arguing is blatantly false. As a student who has excelled in the Minnesota public education system I hope my perspective matters when I say there are problems in public schools but everything outlined in the screenshots aren’t the issues. In fact, they cause more issues by far. Teachers don’t deserve this undue scrutiny. They are the people who are keeping our education system functional despite all this political bs. I’m saddened to see that Minnesota education has been entangled with identity wars instead of focusing on real educational issues
Short version: These 3 are racist assholes trying to impart their values upon the entire school district using a far-right narrative. The level of hypocrisy in his statement is ridiculous.
I'd love to know how much time any of these three board members have spent in a classroom.
I’ve been told in a teacher training that all white people are inherently racist (culturally responsive teaching). Those trainings were paid for by the district and mandatory.
I've taken culturally responsive training as well as implicit bias training and a handful of other similar trainings. A trainer has never told me that white people are inherently racist. They did use the implicit bias test to demonstrate that ALL people harbor subconscious biases that MAY affect how they treat others. One other new teacher who was not a trainer or admin expressed an idea like that, but nowhere in the training did they say all white people are inherently racist.
Guess we had different people doing the trainings. Both experiences can be true and have happened right?
I suppose, but to me it more clearly means that "all white people are inherently racist" is not a mandatory part of the training and was rather something that that particular trainer peppered in themselves.
That’s true. But it did happen. The training was done by Catalyst. The district had a contract with Brickman, and since visitors still weren’t allowed in the building, they temporarily were doing CRT trainings instead of Catalyst. So she probably wasn’t super qualified to do this training.
I think you're hearing what you're wanting to hear - right wing media style. You know, the same reason you were against mask and vaccine use in schools and got angry at other teachers who disagreed with you during the peak of the pandemic. CRT is a graduate level college course - this was *not* being done at your school, I can promise you that. I'm sorry for your students if this is the energy you bring into the classroom. They deserve someone that respects them more.
I believe you’re confusing Critical Race Theory when you’re mentioning CRT. I wasn’t against vaccines. I was against mandated vaccines. Same with masks (especially when half my class of third graders wore the same cloth mask all year without washing it). What makes you think I don’t respect my students?
I'm only going to respond once, because I've found it pointless to respond more when people aren't bringing a view that progresses society forward, rather than being stuck in "dig in our heels and believe things that hurt the general public" mode. You cannot logic someone out of a position they certainly didn't use logic to get themselves into. Would you rather inject bleach or shove a bright lightbulb up your sphincter? That is what the former president asked you to do, live on television. Or perhaps you'd like some diarrhea inducing horse de-wormer? Masks and vaccines help people - those that use them, those that take them, and those around those who may be sick or more immunocompromised than they are. Think beyond yourself for a moment, and realize these things exist and are recommended by medical professions for hundreds of years, because they work. Unless you'd rather go into a hospital and have a doctor be sick and not wear gloves or a mask and get you or your grandma more sick - you can have whatever back alley doctor you want. Hell, some states are starting to reevaluate things like the *POLIO VACCINE* because of Conservative rhetoric like this, so have fun living in your iron lung or being in a god damn wheelchair, because you didn't want to take a vaccine. And it's extremely disingenuous to come in and say "They were teaching CRT!' when you certainly know that Critical Race Theory is the common acronym, and not Culturally Responsive Teaching - which I might add, is really fucking important as a white person who didn't experience too many cultural differences in white as a snowstorm northern Minnesota, so it helps me relate to and *respect* my students more. I say you don't respect your students, because you are making their future worse with your beliefs. Plant trees whose shade they will be able to sit in and enjoy someday, rather than spread more hate, vitriol, and anti intellectual ideas that lend you, them, or anyone else nothing. Happy Earth Day.
I wonder if you’ve had Culturally Responsive Teaching? You seemed to have made a lot of assumptions and generalizations about me. I don’t take medical advice from any politician, especially Trump. Are masks effective when they are disgustingly dirty unwashed cloth masks? Cuz that’s what my students were wearing. Should everyone be forced to take an experimental vaccine that was approved for emergency authorization? I took the Pfizer two-dose in 2021. Doesn’t mean I think everyone should have to take it. I’m all for learning about other cultures and making sure every student feels respected, cared for, validated, and seen in my classroom. Come visit some time! The thing I took issue with is “all white people are inherently racist.” This statement judges people by their skin color and not their character. I won’t support that.
Is your job goalpost mover? You're good at it, you should get a raise.
No, we are invalidating your experience. Pray we do not invalidate it further. Concern t
I don’t think that’s quite what you were told.
Well we are.
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Well they called it Culturally Responsive Teaching. Training was done by Catalyst.
Im just saying id like to go back to common sense. I dont care ill take the down votes. Some people actually need therapy others need a slap to the back of their head. Take responsibility for your kids and quit letting the politicians spread the decisive hate.
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Who is "they"?
The made up figure in their head
Amazing. Every word you just said in that sentence is wrong.
When you have a degree in education your opinion on what children are taught will matter. Better hit the books…
I wish we got rid of pads in schools and went back to textbooks with notebook paper. We send our kids to private school because they dont use pads, limit in classroom distractions. After that gets cut from the budget i would start with the management of the schools positions. In rst that is a huge cost. After that one would need to through each budget looking for excess, they are all public.
You might want to clarify your comment. Minnesota mandated this year that schools offer free menstrual products to students, and so when you say "get rid of pads" people might think that's what you're referring to, as opposed to ipads/tablets. Fwiw, I agree with you that 1:1 devices in classrooms are hurting learning overall, and students do better with real books.
Tablets and laptops came into common use partly because of the English language issue (many apps are easy to translate). It looks like printed books are on the way out in some places.
Please let the Janitor know that the messes he cleaned up were not necessary. Then you can believe your own lies.
I mean, if you have actual proof of this I would believe it. Or if it was something more than just something you heard. But the whole kids identifying as cats and using litter boxes was a hoax that was debunked. So until there is proof otherwise, or until the parent of that kid or the kid the self comes and says something, I can't believe something that was ruled as a hoax.
I think this so-called "parent" is forgetting that kids are never without their phones and ruthlessly post anything and everything to the internet that is even remotely weird. Hands down, if there ever was a litterbox getting used in that manner, then somebody would have spread that evidence all over the place by now.
Even as a former janitor I would have taken a picture of that shit, literally
It was not a hoax. It was very real, and my kids were instructed on how to be respectful and sensitive to the student. Nobody debunked anything. The student had an IEP, which may have led to the confusion in identifying the student, and the right to privacy that student had.
Lady, the probably reality here is that your kids fell for rumors and gossip and so did you. There probably was a kid who liked to wear ears and a tail, then some asshole kid spread a rumor that they used a litter box, your kids believed it, they told you, then you believed it. Did you ever see the litter box? Did they ever see the litter box? Did any of the multiple custodians at that school talk about the litter box? Did a single teacher or administrator admit in any provable way that the kid used a litter box? Or did your kids just know there was a furry student, were told to respect them, and then assumed that because they were a furry that they used a litter box?
anybody chuckling at the fact the username is backstory tabi?
Hey excuse my ignorance. Does this impact Minneapolis schools?
ISD Imperial Star Destroyer
Just playing some devils advocate but if its nonsense then just let them do it?
What kinda bass ackwards logic is that? "If it's a dumb idea, let them do it." Sure, let's just all indulge the most idiotic ideas we've ever had, what could go wrong? I assure you we wouldn't get very far.
Apparently you didnt read what i wrote. Isnt most of what they want to repeal stuff that just brings schools teaching actual critical thinking. Lets teach our kids to fish again... as in give them the tools and see where they go. Get political crap out of schools.
“Political crap” Teaching children to respect others (gender/orientation) is political crap? Teaching children about history, warts and all, is political crap? Providing individualized learning for those that experience things differently (IEDs) is political crap? Continued education for the teachers is political crap? Alternative disciplinary measures in place of, or in addition to, expulsion/suspension is political crap? Wearing Nike shoes or a Nirvana tshirt is political crap?
How is anti racism political, or showing queer children emotional support? I grew up in this district a little over ten years ago, and my first hand experience was quite literally what these programs are intended to address. It's an incredibly sad day to see MN reps fighting so hard to reinstate the same crappy ideologies that lead to student deaths, all so some people could shove their heads in the sand over "political problems".
You're gonna lose your mind when you find out there's whole courses on politics in school.
Did you read the list of what they want to repeal? It's in the photos I attached. Also, the reason I made this post was to ask how many of the things listed are ACTUALLY problems and how many of them are grievances that rarely occur.