A summary of Dublin City School events, June 2020 to present re: DEI, SEL and Covid 19 protocols.
Part 2
CONTINUED from Part 1 here -
our district middle and high school students have been given SEL surveys that focus heavily on race identity and race relations and inquire in explicit and invasive terms about students' sexual experiences, drug use, preferred pronouns, and information regarding their private home lives,
our district middle school teachers are using SEL resources from Second Step, a program that is “committed to addressing racial injustice” with resources that “critically examine systems of power” while pushing "us to question long-standing beliefs, assumptions, and policies,” and describes itself as including foundational skills essential for combating racism and promoting social justice,
district DEI training materials include a list of recommended children picture books - aimed at elementary students - that involve transitioning children, a gender non-conforming guinea pig that is referred to as “they/their,” and calling people who disagree with one’s lifestyle “stinky,”
our district teachers and staff appear to have been pressured to call students by their preferred pronouns without parental permission,
district teachers are signing emails with their preferred pronouns as well as a link to a website explaining why preferred pronouns are important,
placards have been placed outside of district classrooms identifying the room number, staff’s name, and preferred pronouns,
our district has indicated plans to use CharacterStrong as SEL programming for the elementary level, a program that views everything through the idea of equity, and is focused on racial justice, implicit bias and advocacy. See Social Emotional Learning through the lens of Social Justice, https://rc.characterstrong.com/webinars/social-emotional-learning-through-the-lens-of-social-justice/
(Note: the above link was deleted without explanation from their website along with all references to “social justice” the first week of January 2022. The information is still, however, available at the following link: Webinar 6, The CharacterDare Process, and SEL and Equity, the CharacterStrong Approach, https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=2723416274627320
at the November 15, 2021 DCS board meeting, when a parent attempted to directly quote from the aforementioned interviews given by the district diversity director and superintendent, she was repeatedly interrupted by a school board member and told to leave the podium without being given a reason to do so beyond the school board member’s comment, “We aren’t doing this.” (DCS BOE meeting, November 15, 2021 at 1hr, 25 min.)
on November 16, 2021, during a Coffee with the Superintendent event, a parent in attendance referred to the speaker on the 15th - who was also at the event that morning - as a “bully” to the superintendent.
the Columbus Dispatch published a Letter to the Editor, written by a Dublin resident who falsely claimed that the speaker on November 16th had denied the value of district DEI efforts. The resident then went on to argue that the speaker on November 16th suffered from “white privilege” and did not belong on the district diversity committee,
our district's ongoing masking policy continues to lack a cost/benefit analysis in regard to our students’ health and education despite Dr. Marschhausen’s stating that the ongoing mask mandate is causing harm to our children, (See DCS Board meeting, December 16, 2021, at 1hr, 2 min)
our district’s ongoing masking policy appears to be based purely on political considerations (i.e., not overwhelming nurses who are attempting to contract trace and/or trying to reach a “middle ground” with parents who believe universal masking without exemptions creates a “safe” environment despite a lack of scientific basis to support their belief) rather than on a balanced, fact-based approach to our children’s health and education, (See, e.g., DSC Board meeting, January 10, 2022, beginning at 35 min.)
district students have been allowed to wear “vaccinated hero” capes to school indicating their vaccination status,
district students with mask exemptions have been separated from masked students by at least one teacher and one substitute teacher in an effort to “protect” the masked and unmasked students from each other,
district students have been asked to raise their hands by teachers in front of peers to indicate their vaccination status despite the fact that this marginalizes and singles out non-vaccinated students for ridicule who have not received the vaccine for health, religious or other reasons, and
numerous parents in our district are still unaware that the decision to mask their child is wholly in their power due to an opt-out provision that the district has purposely failed to adequately advertise but instead chooses to mail home information indicating that all students must "mask to stay in school."
There are people who applaud the above-listed instances as progress toward noble goals. I understand that viewpoint, and I do not think they are bad people. I just think they are wrong.
UPDATE: A few days ago, the district answered some of our document requests. Please stay tuned.