Well, I have spent about as much time as I’d ever want to writing emails to our local school board.
I’m not the most efficient person when it comes to getting thoughts down on paper. I generally do research, looking for graphs and data and peer-reviewed studies, or I check out books by old philosophers and psychiatrists, sifting through tomes to back up my thinking with more sagacious thinking (and sometimes looking for inconsistencies). I’m just a mom, after all.
I’m not a Twitter/X person, I don’t like visibility, and posting on Facebook terrifies me (I sometimes do it and then go underground for weeks so I don’t have to face the responses). (I’m trying to get better; I realize putting a face with words goes a long way in building trust.)
But I want to make this drama a little more public, only so that others know thinking has been done, letters have been written, efforts have been made. (Also, please feel free to borrow anything I’ve written if it is helpful in your own communications with school boards and such. Or if you are Jay or Jordan Sekulow and can bring some legal advice—give me a call, ha!)
It is so very easy to watch the news and tsk, tsk or mutter about the state of the world, then go on and ignore it. What speaks most loudly to me now is the silence of folks who say they are believers and yet whose faith does not compel them to do anything but watch Rome burn around them.
Christians: Y’all—we are all in Sodom and Gomorrah. All of us should be feeling uncomfortable here. Pray that God finds you faithful when He comes to visit.
Keep reminding your young people that God didn’t make a mistake when He made them. God doesn’t make mistakes.
Love your enemies genuinely—enough to tell them the truth. Evangelism is nothing magic, and it isn’t a dirty word. It doesn’t require a degree from seminary or a flashy personality (in fact, those things aren’t usually helpful)—it’s just telling the truth. More kids and parents need to know how much God loves them.
Thank God that He opens doors, and pray for my humility to walk through them in the footsteps of Christ. Pray we are salt and light and the aroma of life to folks who need Jesus.
February 5 2025
Hello School Board,
You are hearing from me again, a concerned parent. I have not heard any answers from you regarding questions I have posed.
How has your legal counsel changed so drastically from the October response of eliminating flags from school as an unnecessary distraction to your January unanimous approval of unconstitutional sectarian policy?It seems obvious that you respond quickly and positively to protestors touting progressive ideology but not to responsible, caring parents who have walked the trenches of child rearing, pay taxes, support schools and teachers, and desire a fair, quality education.
I have read through your drafted policy and am deeply disturbed by the language presented.“Whereas we believe gender and sexuality is a social construct”—in what world is gender and sexuality a social construct? How are babies made? Gender and sexuality are foundational to our existence—go ask your mom and dad. Our kids (who are kids, as we understand by the science of maturation and brain studies, not through “social constructs,” feelings, or other ambiguous factors) deserve a future where they can individually make decisions of their own about what they believe as they grow up.
Clearly there are two or more sides to every political and social argument, yet you claim your views are higher, better, safer, more important. The Trevor Project, a biased research source, was founded by LGBTQ activists. Their studies are made on confirmation bias that seeks to propagate more activists, not to solve teen suicide.
Trevor Project and therefore, you, willfully and purposefully engage in a grossly immoral narrative that pushes gender and sex ideology on kids. This inappropriate, hopeless agenda increases the chances of suicidal behavior among children—minors, who, under the constitution, deserve to have their rights protected. Their right to life, their right to safe, neutral learning spaces is paramount in a school setting, where parents trust they will not be propagandized or persuaded by a sectarian agenda.
Your proposed “safe spaces” where parents are not allowed speaks of your willingness to ignore our constitutional rights as parents. But perhaps constitutional rights fall under your understanding as a “social construct”.
Please do your research instead of spinning a narrative of inclusion that revolves around an agenda that hurts our kids.
We await your response.
Pearl
February 6 2025 (response by school board)
We understand and respect the fact that you disagree with our actions and would like to assure you that we have no agenda other than ensuring every student feels welcome in our schools. We take the mental health of all our students very seriously and are providing resources for all our students. If you have concerns about curriculum or your student’s experience in school, please reach out to the principal.
As to your question regarding our legal counsel, the Board sought legal counsel after the district made the decision to remove flags, so we cannot speak to any differences. We can assure you that we take legal liability very seriously and followed legal guidance based on previous cases in Colorado.
Sincerely,
The Durango Board of Education
February 7 2025
School Board,
Thank you for your swift response, although you did not answer my questions about the wording in your drafted policy or the questionable Trevor Project sources you cited.I have, as you mentioned, been in face-to-face meetings with school teachers and administration regarding curriculum and my students’ experience in school, which is why I have began addressing you—I was encouraged by them to speak out on these matters. I will continue to be intentional about my involvement and accountability with the district.
We know in schools our goals must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART), so I am wondering how you intend to measure inclusivity if sexuality and gender are just social constructs.
If your legal counsel is following the directive of schools such as Denver Public Schools, I would like to remind you the civil liberties battles they are embroiled in for the gender policies they have implemented, as mentioned in the the recent Wall Street Journal article I have attached. One student succinctly commented, “They took a space away from me that I felt comfortable in. While they were trying to serve one community, they took it away from another.”
What I am hearing you say is your perception of mental health in schools is more important than all students’ rights to an unbiased education in a neutral school setting. You wrongly assume I do not care about children’s mental health. It is for this very reason a political agenda should not be in schools.
Do you understand ethics and the importance of structure and behavior in school classrooms?
Here is an example: two days ago my daughter’s third grade teacher sent out a message to all parents with a strong, clear message: “do not let your children bring gum to school. It is distracting and causes our classroom to become littered.”This was simple—she rightly assumed parents were responsible for their kid’s behavior, she made a reasonable request, and she gave examples of how education is hindered when the rule isn’t followed.
If my response had been to take offense, or ignore the message and not talk to my kid about it, or to assume the teacher is stupid, or that gum isn’t distracting and my kid is an exception to following the rules, I would be wrong.
Schools must have unambiguous rules to maintain order, and simply because a parent or student doesn’t want to follow them does not mean they have the right to disrupt the learning process. No—if a student disrupts learning, there are consequences, because learning in school must continue.
Now the parent may throw a fit that their child got in trouble for bringing gum to school and losing recess because of it, but the school has ethically done nothing wrong—a great standard for tax-payer funded entities.Furthering this analogy, what if a teacher or student is finding child-inappropriate sex/gender/political messaging a distraction in class to real, unbiased learning? Oughtn’t the administrators tell kids/teachers to leave it at home? Oughtn’t there be consequences for disrupting the learning environment? Oughtn’t there be consequences for folks who continually promote activism which distracts from neutral learning?
This is what you are doing, school board.
While the schools themselves—administration, good teachers— are focused on becoming the number one school district in Colorado through portrait of a graduate values, focused academics, merit-based performance, consistent testing and measurable goals—you, School Board, are bringing in wads of gum to pass around.
It is reasonable and responsible for parents to ask you to keep it out of school, yet you have insisted it is necessary for kids to feel safe. This is your idea of mental health—ignoring the SMART goals of public education to accommodate progressive ideology.This is ethically irresponsible, no matter what political views you take. If mental wellbeing of students is your motto, please look into the mental illness factor of students that is leading to their self-destructive behavior. Identify and get these kids and parents the clinical help they need, do not slap labels on kids and call it “inclusion.”
Again, I appreciate your communication and await your response.
Thanks,
Pearl
You can read my previously sent emails here.
