Richmond’s board of education finally passed its Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) policy, a policy that aims to help students of all orientations and identities feel safe and accepted in their school communities.
Now, you might not think that ensuring kids feel safe and respected at school is a particularly radical concept, but when it comes to gender and sexuality — watch out.
I suppose, we should have seen it coming.
Richmond is not exactly an activist city, so when more than a hundred people line Granville Avenue waving placards that read: “Quit Teaching Our Boys To Be Girls” or “Leave Our Kids Alone,” just ahead of a school board meeting, there’s a good chance said meeting will be hot.
And hot it was.
In fact, last Wednesday’s five-hour gathering, where trustees voted on the SOGI policy, got to the point where trustees couldn’t even speak for all the jeering and shouting.
By the end, police had arrived. They didn’t have to intervene, but the fact they were called speaks to the level of threat in the room.
In other words, if you needed convincing that the policy is necessary, that meeting should have done it. The open hostility and lack of compassion or genuine dialogue was a wonderful example of the very problem trustees are trying to address. And this was among adults at a public forum with cameras rolling. Imagine what happens behind the school.
At one point, one of the trustees suggested deferring the vote to allow for more consultation. Although the motion failed, it brings up the question of consultation. A couple of parents left the meeting so frustrated with the fact the policy passed, just two days later, they announced their candidacy for trustee in the October municipal election.
The primary platform for one of the angry-parent-turned-candidates, Ivan Pak, is greater consultation. He argues that parents should have a greater say in determining policy.
It seems to me there has been a ton of debate on this issue. And just because you didn’t get your way, it doesn’t mean you weren’t heard. Besides, I’m not sure more talking would even move the dial.
Pak also claims that he could be a bridge between “Chinese parents and the mainstream.”
We’ve been hearing a lot about bridge building of late, and it’s a great project. It’s also important to not assume any one person is speaking for any one group, or to attach Chinese parents to any particular political stance or construe criticism of any particular political stance as criticism of Chinese parents. This only fuels us-and-them thinking.
This debate’s not over. There’s more to come, especially as we get closer to the October election. In the meantime, perhaps we all need to take a lesson from one of the students who spoke through tears in the face of hostility at that school board meeting, as she told her story with conviction, dignity and respect.
This is exactly what the SOGI policy aims to foster.
