Several speakers at the April 20, Coronado School Board meeting interrupted its serious educational agenda, mouthing the offensive “We the Parents” nonsense that our school system is some sort of illicit recruitment center seducing students into an immoral LGBTQ lifestyle.
They even had a lurid drag queen poster, as if this had any relevance to our students’ education.
We can’t blame the local “We the Parents” cultural warriors for concocting these endless strange conspiracy theories.
Weaponize gay bashing
They are mere pawns in a concerted, well organized, nationwide effort to weaponize gay bashing for political gain – using the pretense that gender issues should be an overriding concern of voters and school boards.
Consider:
1) The Coronado school system policies that were attacked in so childish a manner are not generated locally, but rather are mandated by the state.
2) Gender and sexual object preferences are biologically driven- not somehow created or promoted by school system policies.
3) The hateful homophobia in board meetings seeps into our learning environments and makes students, staff and families feel unsafe. Students cannot learn when they feel unsafe, and educators cannot perform at their best, thereby bringing down the academic performance of all.
4) Gay bashing is not only cruelly stigmatizing to the specific kids victimized by it, but it also provides an awful adult model of insensitivity and intolerance that may influence other students to think and act in similarly bigoted and intolerant ways.
5) Gay bashing distracts the school board and school system from their real goals- providing the best possible education and producing the best possible citizens.
Price of free speech
The price of free speech in our democracy is that people must be allowed to express their opinions, however ignorant and biased they may be.
But, in the end, the majority does rule.
It is crucial for the health of our school system, and for civil discourse in our community, that sensible and responsible citizens make a point of attending our school board meetings.
Only then will it be clear that the extremists who constitute “We the Parents” are a fringe minority, not at all representatives of our community, and undeserving of any major say in how our schools are run.
Coronado voters must remain vigilant in keeping partisan politics out of our School Board and out of our schools.
Donna Manning is a Coronado resident and a grandparent with five children who went through Coronado Schools. She’s also a retired doctor.
