10/01/2025
My statement during the board members' update portion of our September 30, 2025 regular meeting.
Over the last several weeks and months our country has endured a great number of tragedies. Though there is likely no one thing that connects them all from an ideological perspective, one thing is abundantly clear. Our public discourse has devolved over the last two decades.
What bonds us all is our power to communicate. God made us with two ears and one mouth so we can listen twice as diligently as we talk. Sometimes, my larger than average mouth makes that difficult for me. Which is why while publicly deliberating regarding the candidates for school board, I made comments that I felt were uncalled for and mean spirited. That is why I also sincerely apologized to the person to whom they were directed and I did so using the same public forum from which I made the statements. I truly hope Ms. Van Singel accepted that apology.
I knew when I decided to run for school board that the position, though truly seldom warranted, comes with a degree of public scrutiny. I made sacrifices to campaign for this role and have repercussions from that experience that I will forever hold over myself.
What I did not expect was to have people I did not even know, or ever talked to previously, call me things like a bigot. I have acquaintances, friends, and colleagues from all walks of life. I am not a bigot.
I’ve been called a racist. I have acquaintances, friends, and colleagues of all ethnicities and races. I am not a racist.
I’ve been called homophobe. I have acquaintances, friends, and colleagues and family members that are gay. I am not a homophobe.
I’ve been called a transphobe. I have acquaintances, but no close friends or colleagues that identify as trans, though I feel I have open communication with members of the trans community. I am not a transphobe.
What concerns me the most is when people publicly berate my colleagues and me regarding things that could, at best be described as misinterpretations, and at worst flat out lies. When my colleagues and I are accused of making statements regarding a topic, it would behoove those making the claims to remember that our meetings are recorded. When someone wants to carefully not name a board member, but glares directly at me when accusing the board of harboring an idea, they may want to know about my actual opinions on that topic.
For instance, they probably do not know that I vehemently defended SEL programs during my campaign and educated a number of community members about what those services do for our students.
They may not know that I had ferocious advocacy for my kids to have them be put onto a special plan. After being rebuffed, we brought to the table our expert consultant, our medical team, and if needed, our attorney was at the ready.
I’m certain they do not know that when my child did not have the promised interactions with trusted adults daily, mom and I had to often pick up the pieces, especially when a male administrator singled out my daughter and treated my child with the presumption that anything that is a concern was my child’s fault.
They may not know that I am diagnosed with a common mental health disorder and struggle every day to work through that after being diagnosed in adulthood instead of when I was in school when I could get assistance.
We need to remember that open dialog and a sincere desire to learn from and about each other is what we need to all strive for. I am willing to discuss topics at anytime, anywhere and with anyone.
We need to relearn how we can disagree without making it a line of demarcation.
We need to not presume we know someone without speaking with them.
We need to not call names if for no other reason than to teach our kids that the expectation is to treat all other people with respect.
And most importantly we need to put all things in context, listen to an entire message, and not form opinions on conjecture and incomplete information.
