Uh we need updates in our schools that are ADA compliant so that kids are crossing in safe areas so that they have places to go. My volunteer coordinator has been working fiercely because her daughter was ran over in the Rampart parking lot three years ago and is pushing for change across the district. And for me, that is um a top priority for maintenance is getting our kids and keeping them safe. Mr. Silva starts with personal responsibility. You know, we got kids and staff alike need to take pride in their facilities. Uh have a field day. If it doesn't grow, it goes. If it can shine, you make it shine. And um stop promoting this throwaway culture. I mean, it starts again. It goes right back to the foundation of where we're at. Take personal responsibility and take pride in your in your facility. And the kids can participate in this and encourage this.
We can also use that as an opportunity for uh tradecraftraft. These kids could learn HVAC. Kids could learn certain things. Kids could learn h horiculture. They could learn a bunch of different things. They could learn management. They could learn you name it. You you can have the kids and faculty participate in this together along with the parents, you know, and how much that $230 million can go to other programs. There's solutions out there if you think outside the box. That's all you got to do. It doesn't have to be the same thing over and over again. Throw more money at it. Do more this. Do more that. kids, kids and staff and faculty and parents can take personal responsibility in their schools. Mr. Salt. So when it comes to maintenance and facilities, my role is safety first. If kids are not in a safe environment, then they're not going to be able to learn well.
They need to be able to feel safe and secure right where they are. Um, with that goes along with the concept of deferred costs. At some point, it's cheaper to replace something than it is to repair it. So, we need to repair things earlier on in in its life cycle so that we don't end up with a higher cost in a couple years. Um, that is something that every homeowner is well aware of. If you let it sit, it's going to continue to to deteriorate and so you need to repair it and get on it sooner than later. But starts with safety and then moves on to to keeping things from as in good of condition as it can. Thank you. And Mr. Riffle, in my career, I've learned that if you don't know what you're talking about, you just seek the experts who do.
I'm not a maintenance facility guy. I'm not a building guy. But what I do know is that ASD20 does have people who are experts at that. And that's where you sit down and you talk with the experts and you put things out, right? They know what these buildings need. I don't. It's not my job to do that. My job is to look over what they have put together, sit down with other experts, and ensure that we can get the kids to school in a safe environment. The only thing I would like to add to most of the schools if we can with the money from CO is I'd like to get HEPA filters and UV lights throughout all the schools. I I understand that's probably the most unconfrontational CO policy that anyone can have right now. And that's it. All right, our next question, again, an audience question.
This one came up at your last forum, but we did get a few questions on it tonight. So, I've combined them into one. Starting with I believe Miss Leesh is our first to answer. Um, it's a long one, so um, if you ask me to read it a couple times. Again, um, if you need it read at your time, let me know. Just a reminder, some of the positions expressed here should be considered opinions, not facts, agreed to by our ex agreed to by experts. and we encourage the voters to learn more and do your own research to get factual information. So this question, if elected, do you support the inclusive LGBTQ plus language and policies and the hiring or appointment of LGBTQ plus members of our community to teaching, administrative, and support positions? And if you do support it, how do you support it?
And if you don't, why? So again, Miss Leash, your first I will read it one more time. If elected, do you support the inclusive LGBTQ plus language and policies and the hiring or appointment of LGBTQ plus members of our community to teaching, administrative, and support positions? If you do support it, how do you support it? And if you don't, why? And Miss Le, you're first. I support all students. I don't care where they come from. I don't care their race. I don't care their social economic backgrounds. I don't care their sexual orientation. I don't care if they're special needs or peers. I will support all students. This shouldn't even be a question. You look at a child and that's what they are. They are a child. They are growing. They are finding their way in this world trying to figure out who they are. And it's not our job to tell them.
It is our job to support them, to love them, and do everything we can to make sure they have the best education that we can provide. Thank you, Mr. Lavali. Yeah. When it comes to students, we teach all of our students. We teach them the same. We treat them with respect and dignity. When it comes to hiring, which was part of the question, I think to hire someone over someone else because of who they are sexually attracted to is outrageous. I'm sorry, but I think it is. I don't think it should matter. Uh why does that even come up? Why does it I don't think that should really be a relevant factor. Are you Tell me about your character. Tell me about your integrity. Tell me about your work ethic. Tell me about your your background in education. That's what matters. I'm tired of this labeling business, okay?
because I'm a white male heterosexual. Who cares? Who cares? Okay. We want to hire the best. Thank you, Miss Collins. I am against all discrimination. D20 should welcome qualified teachers and all students should be given this great educational opportunity. Um, we must set a standard where basic respect and being considerate of others is expected. where that's not maintained, the offending person must be disciplined. Um, but I do not think we need to make everyone accept every other part of every person. You don't accept everything about me. I don't accept everything about you. always have respect, no discrimination, but I don't agree with removing our free will and our personal integrity and value system when there's an overreach of um discussion about anyone's differences. Mr. Johnson, I think all students should be supported regardless of where they are in their descriptive who they are. So, all students need to be supported.
And as far as staff, I think hire the best person for the job. I wouldn't want to be hired just because I'm brown when there's someone better qualified for me. Just I wouldn't want someone who's darker skinned than me to be hired because they're darker skinned than me, even though I might be more qualified. And same thing with someone's sexual orientation. I think the best person should be hired for the job regardless of who they are. I I guess yeah, regardless of who they are, they should be hired if they're the better candidate. Mr. Cororum. So, I absolutely support any student um LGBTQIA plus whatever. I support every student. I think that's a critical thing to talk about. I want to talk about our differences because I want to learn from people who are different. And that's the best way to learn from people who are different is by talking about our differences more so that we learn to grow and accept our differences.
the Avengers. Remember I brought that up earlier. Everyone's different, but together we can form a better team. Um, in terms of hiring teachers, staff, administrator, support people, again, I think we hire the best person for the job. I don't think your sexual orientation has anything to do with that and therefore we just hire the best person for the job. Miss Clark, so I do echo that. Yes. Uh, every child should be included and welcomed and be able to come to school as a safe space. We need to have programs in place such as Rampart's No Place for Hate, which has been a highly effective program um in accepting not just the LGBTQ plus community, but as well as um just different cultures and it is ingrained into the Rampart culture. as an example. As far as hiring, I would not specifically hire for somebody based off of their orientation, but what the schools can do is bring in groups to communicate such as Inside Out, which is a phenomenal local uh nonprofit that does work specifically in this area and they are trained in this area.
But every child should be coming in to the school and be able to feel loved and protected. Mr. Silva, I just uh I'm tired of labels. I'm just tired of them. It they're they're put there to divide and we just need to start hiring hiring the best qualified folks in whatever position that might be regardless of regardless of labels. It is so nauseating to continue to hear that, have a push in your face. Just hire the best folks for the kids and leave it at that. Mr. Salt, as I said earlier, I started off by saying I treat everyone with dignity and respect. And that when I said everyone, I meant everyone. Um, students need a safe place to learn. That's what I've already said. That's what I stand by. As far as hiring goes, um, as everyone else has said, we need to hire the best.
It doesn't matter. I work with organizations on employee retention. And what we need to do is focus on who can do the job and who can do it well. We've talked about the learning gap from COVID. What we need to do is focus on teachers who can get the get the job done. We need to focus on our support staff that can get the job done and show up. Like Mr. Lvali said the character of someone, their qualifications, that's what we need to focus on. Thank you, Mr. Riffle. So, I find the question to be a little ridiculous because I don't think there's a person up here who doesn't want to support children regardless of where they came from or who they are or their background or their orientation. None of us up here have any hate in our heart for anyone. So, with that being said, I echo a lot of what the other candidates up here have said.
You you hire based off can the person do the job and you educate children because kids are the greatest thing in this world. Most parents who have kids truly believe that regardless of what they turn out to be, kids are fantastic. And so this question, I don't even know why it was asked. Miss Moore, thank you. We want all of our kids to be treated with the utmost dignity and respect, and we should never seek to exclude or marginalize any of our kids. That being said, no curriculum should ever be taught that goes against parents ethics, morals, and family values. And why would we want to sexualize our children? And then why would we want to politicize the sexualization of our children? It's a parent's job to teach children what they need to know about sexuals behaviors. No school has any business teaching anything of the kind.
And as Dr. King said, we should judge not on the color of our skin, but on the content of our character. Thank you candidates. Remember again, just a reminder, some of the positions expressed here should be considered opinions, not facts, agreed to by experts. And we encourage you, the voters, to learn more and do your own research to get factual information. I've got um I think enough room for two more comment, two more questions. One is going to be a 30 second. I'm going to use that as my last question. This next one, you do get one minute. Okay. And my first person, I believe, Mr. Lavali. Yes. All right. Earlier this year, Children's Hospital declared a youth mental health state of emergency. El Paso teen suicide suicide rates doubled in two years. One in five youth currently live with a mental health condition. Just like physical health, mental health affects academic performance.
And I'm going to kind of add this. You did not put this on your question, but I'm going to add it as your moderator. if you could avoid. I know it's hard, but if you wouldn't mind, let's focus. The pandemic is not going to be here forever, but our teen suicide rates specifically, they've been increasing with or without that pandemic. Social media is a problem as well. So, I'm kind of added that myself. I apologize to whoever submitted that question. Um, but just like me, physical health, mental health affects academic performance. What are your views on this and how will you bring this issue to the board's decisions? And again, Mr. Lavali, you're first. One of my uh son's friends, uh they were friends in middle school. He committed suicide. Um this has been a a few years ago, but when he was in high school.
So, it has affected us. I still know the family very well. It's devastating. There is a good news story. Um and this is one of those things, you know, when a when a a pitcher has a no hitter, you don't you don't talk to them, right? We don't want to talk about this. We went almost two years without any suicides in D20. and and in COVID we we had we had several um I think our sources of strength did an excellent job of reducing slash eliminating uh suicides in our district. They are back but I'll say this in El Paso County um they went way up but but I believe this year I read there was only three there have only been three suicides I think this year. So actually the cases have dropped which is great news. Um the emotional health of our children it has so much to do with social media.
It has so much to do with with I think the isolation of COVID. I think that's a big part of it. Um and it and it breaks my heart. Oh, I'm out of time. Sorry. Thank you, Miss KS. Suicide is a big topic. Um, I think we've all seen at some level our own children or other children in our lives be depressed and it's heartbreaking and sometimes you feel helpless. Um, there's been other things mentioned. Um, we might all have our own thoughts on what it is. I think the pervasive technology and social media and lack of face-to-face connection in human relationships needs to be addressed. Um, I think the negativity, um, partly because we focus on a lot of our differences and division is paramount in my mind. When we're constantly talking about uh, our faults and our differences and problems, we're going to find it.
Mr. Johnson. I think it starts with social media. I think that's a huge mental I don't I guess it causes huge mental issues because kids are on there seeking that dopamine hit that was mentioned earlier. They post something and they say, "Oh, who's going to like it? Who's going to like it?" And they're building their self-esteem off of social media responses. And I know with with my kids, they might get a cell phone at some point in life, but I'm going to drag it out as far as possible. They're not going to have internet. And I think a big thing that will help kids is that they need to feel loved. Hopefully, it's from a mom or a dad, if that's the situation they live in, but whatever parent is in the picture, or if it's a grandma, grandpa, whoever, they need to feel that love.
If they don't get it from home, they're going to try and get it from outside of home. And that's usually social media or I can go on about where they can find love, but it starts at home. They need to feel loved at home so they don't need to get it somewhere else. Have date nights with your kids whe they're 18 or eight. Anything like that will help with the mental issues. Mr. Cororum, I could talk about this for a week. So, um, to start, what I'm going to say is that I actually did a video about this recently. It's posted on my Facebook page for candidacy. I I can't do this in a minute. What I will tell you is that one of the most critical factors that we need to build in our students is resilience. I can tell you a story of when we were in COVID lockdown.
My son, I told him, "Hey, we're training for a black belt. We're going to do 40 push-ups tonight." He cried. He fought me on it. He did 40 push-ups. And when he was done and crying and I'm holding him in my arms, I said, "Hey, you did it." And he did. Now I say, "Hey Kai, do 40 push-ups." Done. It's not a question because he knows he can do it. We have to build some resilience in our students. We do need to focus on our emotional health. We do need to focus on the lack of support. We do need to focus on all the other factors that are the lack of bacon basic needs in our district. Again, this is a much longer topic than I can cover in a minute. But in terms of emotional health, it needs to be brought to the forefront from our student body to make sure they are ready to learn and ready to engage.