Open letter to South Western board urges members to reverse anti-LGBTQ agenda | opinion

An open letter to the South Western School District Board Directors:

From rural, humble beginnings to decades of hard-earned victories, achievements and successes, with thousands of teenagers turning their tassels to fresh horizons of promise, South Western School District has enjoyed a proud tradition of learning, teaching, growth, inclusiveness, sustained improvements, and excellence.

Sadly, under the broad label of “parental rights,” you, the newly installed South Western School Board, have set an agenda that works against the rights and well-being of our own students and their families and caregivers.

On December 6, 2023, newly appointed Board President Matt Gelazela laid out an extremist ideology: “We will mandate the categorization of all our school materials to enable parents to prohibit their child's access to materials on sexual orientation, transgenderism, Communist/Marxist support, specific religious or political ideologies, and racial divides…. Your new board believes in its legitimate sovereignty to decide locally what is best for our community schools and children. The state and federal dictates will have their legitimacy questioned and rejected if unconstitutional or overtly overreaching their authority.”

It is clear that this school board is willing to make the school district a guinea pig or laboratory rat to test state and federal laws and to flex an extremist ideology, at the expense of students, teachers and taxpayers.

While this board works to undo local, state and federal protections for vulnerable, marginalized, searching and struggling students, this is the first time that the South Western School Board has been opposed to South Western children and youth, based upon their identities.

At least three of the policies you are pursuing, against the advice of your own professional administrators and legal counsel, are of major concern and consequence:

1. pushing for a school-wide “categorization” for each of thousands of books in each of the accredited educators’ classroom libraries — de facto censorship and a de facto book ban;

2. the proposed policy 216.2, which limits the rights of students to being referred to by a preferred name, the most basic building block of identity, self-worth and confidence; and

3. reversing the former school board’s carefully considered and laid out bathroom policy, designed to protect the safety and well-being of all students.

Such policies have harmful effects of marginalizing, othering, damaging, traumatizing, bullying, and/or demoralizing both current and future generations of students and educators.

In addition, these policies will have serious negative effects and cause significant damages and harms, perhaps irreparable damages and harms, including damages and harms that may open up the district and its taxpayers to serious legal liability in state and/or federal courts.

In addition to the tax base and fiscal stability of the district, careers, livelihoods, mental health, and young lives are at stake.

We respectfully urge you to cease and desist from these efforts as soon as possible.

Below are negative consequences and collateral damages.

Policies will effect de facto or soft book bans. Classroom libraries are the mini-libraries teachers have in their classrooms consisting of between 100 and 600 books that individual teachers, from their own schooling, post-graduate courses, or individual purchases, provide.

They encourage and complement their students’ reading and learning, based on the reading level and emotional maturity of each student.

During a recent school board committee, this was explained by Mrs. Klansek, a 14-year veteran who is passionate about engaging her students in reading, learning, and reading more to improve their skills.

Imagine how educators and students feel when this board states that it will impose a system of categorization of classroom libraries to communicate to parents what each book contains, based mainly upon sexual content, including sexual and gender identity.

The mere presence of an LGBTQIA+ character will be marked as sexual content.

The new board’s attempt to “categorize” such books through a variety of headings smacks of distrust and micro-management and will have the effect of banning such classroom libraries.

In such an environment, educators, as Superintendent Burkhart has pointed out, simply will do away with their classroom libraries.

Policies have consequences.

Micro-managing professional, accredited administrators and educators who already are accountable creates a negative culture of distrust and suspicion.

Educators want to work in an encouraging environment where their talents, training and energies are respected and appreciated. They do not want to work in an environment where school directors are looking over their shoulders, questioning their decisions and nit-picking their classroom libraries.

Casting doubt on and demoralizing professional, accredited administrators, teachers and their families, a “Big Brother” culture is bad for education, bad for teachers, and bad for learning, and it short-changes students.

These policies and practices will hurt the retention and recruitment of quality professionals. After all, impassioned, credentialed teachers have choices. Given the choice between schools that value and trust teachers, versus a school that is distrustful and hostile to teachers, the choice is clear.

In addition to a stifling intellectual environment, teachers teach because they care about youth. Watching already vulnerable children and youth being victimized by the school system is traumatic for teachers as it requires them to participate in the oppression of those whom they want to serve.

These policies will stunt the growth of, and/or hurt LGBT+ youths, youths with special needs, and youths who are protected classes.

The first rule of leadership is to do no unnecessary harm. No child or youth should be left behind, not a single, precious one.

According to the school district’s own assessment, depending on the grade level, 15-36% of all students indicated that they have considered suicide in the last 12 months prior to taking the survey.

With LGBT+ identifying youth, the percentage spikes up. According to the Trevor Project, 45% of LGBT+ youth in the nation have seriously considered suicide. https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2022/#intro

Youth do not hurt or kill themselves after reading a book vetted by a professional educator.

Yet tragically, as ample examples in our area and nation show, youth are susceptible or vulnerable to negative self talk, hurting themselves, abusing themselves, cutting themselves, or killing themselves when they are not in a supportive, safe environment.

Imagine how our parents and taxpayers feel when they hear that the Board does not intend to follow federal law, in particular Title I, Title IX, and the recommendations of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

A Board that cannot respect entire classes of children and families and chooses alternative, dubious legal avenues that it magically thinks will help it disregard state and federal protections for all students causes all kinds of immeasurable harms, anxiety, stress, trauma, and damages that cannot be healed.

As just one example, imagine how our students who are nonreligious or not Christian feel when they hear board members plan to add prayer to the meeting agenda. This board has decided that the First Amendment does not require the separation of church and state.

These policies open up the school district and its taxpayers to significant legal liability.

If none of the points above are persuasive to you, if you still hold tight to ideology, please consider the pragmatic realities of dollars and cents and sense, your taxpayers and tax base, and your bond rating and fiscal stability.

The granddaddy of backwardness in York County school district policy in recent years is Dover School District, which, in 2004, became the first school district in the country to formally require the teaching of intelligent design, which a federal judge ruled as revamped creationism.

Based on her award-winning journalism for The York Dispatch, Lauri Lebo wrote a revealing book, “The Devil in Dover: Dogma v. Darwin in Small-town America” (2008), about the blunders, bigotry, federal lawsuit, costs and damages that such a policy caused.

Ultimately, a federal court ordered the Dover district to pay $1 million in legal fees.

Now the President of Dickinson College, John E. Jones, the federal judge who presided over that case, has recently warned that, given the policies being put in place by school districts like South Western to test the legal landscapes, similar devastating scenarios may play out again.

It’s not too late to change your course of action. It’s not too late to restore reasonableness, stability, trust, and dignity to our beloved South Western School District.

Thank you so much for your consideration.

Matthew Jackson is a member of the South Western class of 1990.

This letter was also signed by the following people with connections to the South West School District.

Carole Ahrens, SWSD, parent of 2 graduates

Ed Ahrens, SWSD, former SWSD educator (12 years), parent of 2 graduates

Dave Anderson, SWSD resident

Helga Anderson, SWSD resident

Christina Barnhart Wagner, SWSD resident

Jack Billman, SWSD educator, retired (18 years at SW, 37 total)

Amanda J. Bonett, SWSD resident

Cindy Boyer, alumni, parent, and former School Board Director (2013-2023)

Kevin Byrnes, SWSD parent and resident

Hope Coller, parent of two SWSD students and resident

Katie Clearfield Reilly, Class of 1980

Jay A. Clouspy, SWSD resident, former SWSD Board Director (12 years)

Jessica Crawford, SWSD parent of three and resident

Creston Davis, Ph.D., Founder and Chancellor of the Global Center for Advanced Studies (GCAS), SW Class of 1989

Diana Dubs Leppo, SW class of ‘79, SWSD lifetime resident, retired SW teacher (1999-2016), parent of 2 SW graduates

Dwight Dubs, SWSD resident, SWSD Class of 1972, retired SWSD educator (35 years), parent of 2 SWSD graduates

Eric Dubs, Class of 2000

Judy Dubs, SWSD resident, Class of 1972, parent of 2 SWSD graduates

Neil Ecker, SWSD teacher, retired (34 years)

Thomas Evitts, PhD, SWSD educator, retired (20 years), 40 total years in public education

Douglas Frank, SWSD resident

Paula Frank, SWSD resident

Rozenna Hartman, Ed.D., former teacher and SWSD Administrator (33 years)

Angela Heim Manos, Class of 1988

Budd Heim, parent of 2 SWSD graduates, retired educator

Patricia Henry, retired SWHS Business teacher (1997-2016)

Heather Hockensmith, parent of 2 SWSD graduates

Linda A. Hoover, PhD., SWSD teacher (12 years at SW, 37 total in public education), retired

Cynthia Howe, mother of 4 SWSD alumni, resident, and former paraeducator

Jessica Hurt, Class of 1992

Mark Jackson, Class of 1994

Laurie James, SWSD resident

Dr. Barbara Kehr, SWSD Assistant Superintendent (1999-2012)

Mary Kay Kelly, Ed.D., SWSD administrator and teacher (33 years)

Tammy Keagy Austin, Class of 1987

Diane Kinney, SWSD Chemistry teacher, retired (32 years)

Randy Kline, Class of 1969, retired SWSD educator (38 years)

R.J. Long, SWSD teacher and administrator (2014-2020)

Kelly Lynch, PhD., SWSD teacher, retired (33 years)

Christopher Manifold, Class of 1990

Nanci Mart, SWSD parent of 3 SWSD graduates and resident

Nathan Mart, SW Class of 2013

Cassidy Mart, SW Class of 2015

Elijah Mart, SW Class of 2018

Joann Medvigy, SWSD resident

Kathy Mulcahy Peeling, parent of 3 SWSD graduates and resident

Ray Mummert, SWSD resident, parent of 3 graduates, former SWSD Board Director (24 years)

Sue Mummert, SWSD resident, retired from SWSD (25 years), parent of 3 graduates

Thomas O’Connor, D.Ed., SWSD Counselor, retired (20 years)

Bill Panebaker, SW Class of 1976 and resident

John Quashnoc, Teacher, Coach, Principal, Mustang Advocate (33 years in public education)

Karen Quinn, Ed.D, South Western High School Assistant Principal (1990 - 1999), 39 years as a teacher and administrator in public education

Sharon A. Reid, SWSD resident, mother of 6

SWHS graduates

Kari Ritter, Class of 1988

Penny Ritter, parent of 4 SWSD graduates

William Ritter, parent of 4 SWSD graduates

Barb Rupp, PhD., SWSD Superintendent, retired (50 years as a public school educator and administrator)

Krista Sandoval, SWSD Class of 2003

Harold Shriner, SWSD mathematics teacher, retired (35 years)

Shannon Shry, SWSD, parent of 2 SWSD students

Richard Snyder, Class of 1985

Cyndy Staley, SWSD resident and parent of 2 graduates

Kristin Staley, SWSD resident and parent of 2 graduates

Amanda Stuckey, parent of 2 SWSD students and resident

Linda Terlizzi, SWSD resident

Justine Trucksess, SWSD parent of 3 and resident

Deb Smith, Hanover

Debi Waltz, SWSD resident

Dave Yutzy, parent of 2 SWSD graduates

Jenn Yutzy, parent of 2 SWSD graduates, public school educator (25 years)

LeeAnn Zeroth, Ed.D., SWSD resident, parent of 2 SWSD graduates, SW Class of 1982, former SWSD Administrator (4 years) (14 more at Lincoln Intermediate Unit)

David Zimmerman, SWSD Administrator, retired (1993-2008)

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: South Western school board urged to reverse anti-LGBTQ agenda