3/10/23 Special Meeting of the Board of Trustees

001United States okay can everyone hear me I'm back the board has a meeting between the closed session item 4.1 [Music] no action the 524 is okay members of the public wishing to comment on any item to compete and yell a request to address the board foreign input on each item to 20 minutes however an exceptional circumstances when necessary to ensure full opportunity for public input the board president name with more consent adjust the amount of time allowed for public labor and or a time allotted for each and any such adjustments shall be done equitably so that has to allow a diversity of viewpoints the president may also ask members of the public with the same Viewpoint to select a few kind of addressed the board on behalf of the document so um the first topic

002the only topic is considered to renewable Behavior's required novel from English 9 curriculum um we do have over 60 speakers so we are as a board we are allowed to limit to 20 minutes what is the will of the war to go over 20 minutes uh I I would I would suggest that we lower the time allotted to each speaker to allow for everybody to speak okay a minute and a half that gives us 90 minutes of presentation over 90 minutes okay so whenever we will set that at night at 90 seconds will the yellow go on at 45 seconds okay so each person will have a minute and a half and the bronze or yellow button will come on at 45 seconds and I think in the best interest of our time tonight I

003we will stop as soon as that red button goes so I will ask you please to stop speaking as soon as the red and if you go over thank you what's up louder yes do you want me to repeat that yeah information I don't have don't have if you're talking one of those bikes it'll be much louder I'm not gonna how's that yeah all right uh okay so I will repeat that because we have over 60 speakers we um we do have the the board does have the uh authority to only listen to 20 minutes of speaker of speakers but we'd like to hear from everybody therefore we are going to limit to each speaker to a minute and a half instead of three minutes so we can hear everybody and uh the um the

004orange or yellow button will light up with at 45 seconds you'll have 45 seconds to finish your butt when uh the red button when the red light goes off please stop where you're at um we won't be going over any time at all from the red button and um I will Gamble anyone who goes over I don't want to but I will um so uh just a before we um before we listen to our speakers I just made a couple notes I'd like to share first of all I really want to thank everyone for being flexible and moving because we really wanted everyone to be able to participate in this very important meeting oh sorry Christy I thought you were waving at me um I also want to thank you guys for all coming tonight

005I want to convince you Bend you for each of you regardless of your position on this topic for taking an active interest in our students and this community we all have at least one thing in common in this room is that we care for our students in Western Placerville Unified School District and I want you to remember that I want you to remember that as we listen to comments and opinions that are different from ours that I believe they come from our hearts and but they will be different and that's what makes us special as to the fact that we can have differing opinions but we are still respectful um the um um I will also remind um Everybody again we are neighbors and community members and we are expected to respect each other when

006we're up here talking um any disruptions will not be tolerated so if there's a disruption we will stop the time and that person will still get the full time to voice their thoughts any um continued disruptions anyone who continually disrupts will be asked to leave the meeting um so everyone did okay great with that we should start all right number one Teresa Paris [Music] you get to test whether I'm actually I'm gonna pound that okay I'll be patient with me so I am an advocate against the book of course um I feel like this book is hate speech it's a speech against uh family it's hate speech against children it's a hate speech against police and therefore I feel like why are we having this book on your guys's to read book when there's so

007many other wonderful books out there I mean Krista Hannah has a wonderful book called Nightingale Amy Tan has Joy Luck Club and again I mean that's only two references but my question is why this book okay you still have more time oh that that little those lights will tell you when yeah all right so with that being said I mean that is my point so I'm absolutely against this book one more thing if anybody wants to read this outside of it being a book mandated for children read it we have no problem it's free country read the book I'm just against it for our children thank you uh just hold one second we're gonna make our our lights work here hard today yes okay yeah on Deck Steph Stephanie Mall and then after Stephanie uh

008Erica Hogans you're on you're on Deck after something okay hopefully this works okay is it is it working I'm not going to take that off okay go for it um I just wanted to share one quick comment a very very wise man just told me earlier this afternoon that you should never ban books from kids because they will find a way to read it without the adult supervision thank you [Music] [Applause] hold on I'm going to put my timer on my phone I'm gonna do for 45 seconds and then it'll go off and then I'll start it again okay does that work yeah okay go dear members of the Board of Trustees I am here to defend the inclusion hate you give and our District's 9th grade curriculum which has recently raised concern among some

009members of our parent Community while it is true that the book contains profanity and finance and deals with difficult difficult issues such as racism and police violence it is important to remember that it's also a powerful and thought-provoking work of literature that has won multiple Awards and is nationally acclaimed for its power to engage students and encourage critical thinking it is worth noting that reading a novel does not imply agreement with its content rather it provides an opportunity to explore a different perspective and broaden our understanding of the world around us literature is a gateway to the diverse experiences of others and is through this exploration that we can grow as individuals in as a society well it's true that the book contains profanity violence and sexuality it is important to remember that these are

010all elements of the real world that our students are living in shielding our students from these realities would all make them go away but rather leave them ill-prepared to deal with them when they arrive Reading literature that deals with difficult issues can be a powerful way for our students to process and understand the world around them and devote and to developing and critical thinking skills the use of this book directly supports the mission of the western Placer School Board which states too Empower students with the skills and knowledge and attitude for success in an ever-changing world in conclusion I urge the port to recognize the value of literature and promoting critical thinking and empathy and to continue to support the inclusion of the hate UK in our curriculum by doing so we are creating a

011safe and inclusive environment for our students to learn about and engage with the world around them thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right Mariella Rodriguez and then Julie Rosado is on Deck thank you [Applause] okay this book The Heat you give is very powerful and yes it does have violent and empowering scenes to 14 15 year olds but at the same time as a personal high schooler and a 17 year old I would rather learn about this type of book in a school where it's controlled in a very contained environment than rather out in the weird the real world on your own and even having the experience by yourself it could be very traumatizing so that's all I I know my topic [Music] thank you okay communities and then Josh and Michelle are on Deck

012great thank you board members my name is Julie Rosado and I have two young adults attending Lincoln High School and 12 Bridges High School one is in the ninth grade English class that is reading the book The hate U give I am in support to keep the book as part of the 9th grade English courses these are extremely challenging times for young people they are actually facing adult issues and they need adult tools books like the hate U give are those tools to help young people examine stereotypes learn about systemic racism and more importantly explore Solutions let's teach our young people by example we know these young people sitting before us here today are going to make incredible contributions to our society they will make groundbreaking scientific discoveries because their education gave them the proper

013tools they will make award-winning movies and works of art because their education gave them the proper tools they will solve Global environmental problems because their education gave them the proper tools they will find solutions to systemic racism and violence because their education gave them the proper tools keep the hate you give in the 9th grade English curriculum it is critical it will encourage our young people to work together to navigate this new world thank you [Music] I can't believe this Greg Warner On Deck and that's not working so Maria when you're at 45 seconds can you raise your hand okay perfect okay so we have a statement from Ripta and she's going to try to read as fast as she can oh okay uh do your Western Plus or Board of Christies has been an

014active collaborator with the district on numerous items from curriculum and academic instruction to having a voice and policy and procedure our local education professionals spend a great deal of time reviewing studying and recommending curriculum to adopt to enhance our students education wpusd has a well-developed curriculum adoption process with multiple stakeholders involved including parents an immediate change to approved curriculum demonstrates a lack of trust for our members Decades of professional educational experience and doesn't provide the opportunity for input from our state all stakeholders asking teachers to potentially drop curriculum in Year let alone mid unit puts Educators in a stressful situation and now effectively tasks teachers to develop new material our Educators putting countless hours developing engaging lessons from the curriculum we diligently work to ensure that students have a welcoming safe place to discuss all

015the curriculum teachers plan lessons in advance to guarantee there are supports in place for all of our students any decisions made about curriculum impact both students and teachers a decision made quickly often produces unintended consequences that will take away from the time and resources from students since teachers will now work again to produce engaging lessons for all students and respectfully when the workload of our teachers is impacted we have to demand to bargain that workload we ask that you respect the education Educators thank you [Music] [Applause] a great Warner and Melissa a is on Deck just raise your hand [Music] oh okay so if you're not looking at Maria she's going to save 45 seconds right when you're talking like right over you all right all right good afternoon my name for good evening my

016name is Greg Warner uh I did my best after we got noticed um that this meeting was going to be held in less than 48 hours to go check out the book and read it so that we can have an informed discussion um and I read the email and I was looking for what could be the controversy and I've done it all through but 70 or so pages I don't see it I don't see the hate speech I do see a book that has themes of Duality Revolution a sense of belonging and acceptance told from a protagonist with a perspective that would challenge our students if we were looking for a piece of art as all literature is to include specifically in curriculum it should be something that provokes their critical thinking skills challenges their

017ideals and the point of having this in school is so that those opinions can be brought forth in a moderated classroom with a professional educator so these topics aren't easy but the question is whether or not some of the scenes the language is gratuitous it isn't about it is Elemental to the story and what's taking place uh for example we can go on about the use of the f word uh the few times it is spoken by a character that character is immediately rebuked to shut your mouth and use better language so the rest of the time that it is in there it's discussing the acronym thank you [Music] oh I'm not going to talk about my personal thoughts on this book we know it's controversial I'm not going to read the entire policy 6144

018regarding sorry controversial topics the board has it the teacher should know it there are eight guidelines to follow the teaching topics deemed controversial I'm asking the board to look at these policies especially pertaining to this book have they all been followed number one States the topic shall be suitable to the age and maturity of the students I'm wondering how the board of teachers came to the conclusion that this book was a great choice for freshmen I'm also wondering what action has been taken to ensure that teachers are keeping their opinions to themselves and presenting content in a balanced manner I'm also wondering what action is being taken when a teacher violates this policy many feel that they have already been several violations I'm asking if the Board review the current policy and the actions that

019have taken place in the past few days parental notification and acknowledgment or lack thereof conducting surveys regarding specific controversial topics without parental consent segregating students who opt out I'm also asking the board to review regulation 6161 one pertaining to the selection and evolution of instructional materials and Implement that review process in policy 6144 [Applause] foreign [Music] three times right Andrew Stewart and then Lori Stanley on Deck [Music] [Applause] all right so um so I'm simply here just to share my experiences here at Lincoln High School I am a senior here at Lincoln High School and I'm extremely proud to be a fighting zebra during my four years I've had the opportunity to learn about different perspectives and cultures and how to discuss these issues modern issues must be talked about and how you teach them

020is just as important in my AP government class I learned how to conduct effective credible research that civically argued your position uh we got to have an insightful conversation one day about the black lives matter movement and both sides to listen to each other in English 11 I got to study the life of Condoleezza Rice where she went from being a poor black girl in the South to becoming Secretary of State all through hard work and hustle school has the power to teach us about different cultures and perspectives and a proper Academic Way many modern issues are already known to pretty much every single student here at LHS especially with technology so is this book the best way for students to learn about this based on my current research and breeding of the book no

021there are better credible resources out there that we already have access to but there's also much more dangerous sources of them in this book with our access to the internet the information perspectives is already out there especially for occurring 9th graders so I propose to put in the English guy curriculum to teach students on how to properly research study and debate these modern Editions thank you that was very eloquent Laurie Stanley and Joe write better A lot of doctors in here obtain Villa yeah okay [Applause] good evening one of my biggest goals for my students is that they learn to think critically with both their rational brains in conjunction with their emotional ones Jessica spends a licensed therapist and social worker teaches us that the rational mind approaches approaches knowledge intellectually uses past experience to

022inform thinking is focused detached and uses research planning and fact finding to inform opinions the emotional mind uses emotions to make decisions is passionate reactive often creative teaches us how we're doing emotionally is often opposed to the rational mind and makes decisions based on what feels good while the national versus emotional Brave has been a topic of discussion for many years many scholars are now calling the combination of both types the wise mind the wise mind uses both rational and emotional thinking to see the bigger picture and understand the value of both emotion and reason essentially the wise mind takes both emotion and logic into account when forming opinions and especially when learning how to find the voice to express those opinions a student came to me this week who was at the board meeting

023on Tuesday and said a lot of adults think when that if we disagree with them we're being disrespectful it's not about disrespect it's just about differing opinions and we're working on using our voices isn't that what school is supposed to be teaching us ways to speak up and be active members of society this matters to us thank you Lori Schroeder you're on Deck before you look at Banning the book I ask if all the board members have read it covered to cover just not the Sound Advice provided by Google I only started to read the book with short notice of the meeting in my hands are the 16 pages of ninth grade language arts standards that all the teachers are working on and this is for the State of California 16 Pages as long as

024a lot for them to get through our teachers completely understand them cover to cover and work to provide the students with the best possible education there are lesson plans cover this they work on them constantly they also use the secret method in the classroom to discuss it and the Socratic method is teaching these kids to listen to in respect both sides there's not a right there's not a wrong that is provide setting them up for the world where they're going to have to go out and work in an environment where not everyone agrees with them they need to be able to have these skills to get into the workforce and be successful uh if there's any questions or concerns about what teachers are teaching every school has an educational leader and that's your principle they

025can turn to these people for help if they need it it is just not something they walk into the classroom check the box and we're teaching this lesson this is something that's given lots of thought worked on constantly not only here but outside at school hours thank you Jim yeah on Deck is Daniela Zimmerman all right um so I wanted to just do a quick thing um by Banning this book you're taking away the chance for our young adults to see the world from someone's point of view and look like them think like them or act like them you take away their ability to practice critical thinking skills and engage in moderated classroom discussion around extraordinary relevant but difficult issues facing the country I don't have an issue with a pair to be able to

026opt out their child for this reading but deny all students the chance to grow and learn about the world themselves others and important issues is wrong if we allow few parents to control the narrative we destroy the ability of our children to continue to grow as smart informed critical thinkers thank you [Music] [Applause] good evening thank you for um listening to everyone tonight my name is Daniella Zimmerman I'm a board member of pflag I'm greater pleasure of the county and we work with you throughout the county I'm a retired teacher and as I've listened to some of the teachers and I've been here to your senior awards ceremony to give out scholarships I know that you've gone to a lot of trouble to recruit and hire highly qualified educators trust them you've hired them they've

027been vetted they've been through training and I also want to say that banning books is a slippery slope history teaches us that what will be banned next thank you [Music] [Applause] oh I'm going to mess up her this I am so sorry I'm sorry thank you processity okay um I'm Wes I'm a senior at Lincoln High School and I'd like to just start off immediately uh Banning books is fundamentally wrong on multiple levels as it both indirectly and directly violates the concepts outlined in our respected Constitution the very foundation of the our beautiful nation is built on the freedom of speech and the right to self-determination Banning any book including Thomas's novel hey you give destroys the core principles in which our founding of others built this very country Jefferson once wrote Our Liberty depends

028on the freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost on the topic of Liberty Banning books directly violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution which guarantees the rights of individuals to seek and receive information and ideas and to express their views without censorship or interference placing a ban on the give not only restricts the freedom of the author to speak freely but more importantly restricts the freedom of the students to read the content they choose and make informed decisions for themselves students should be free to study and learn without fear of persecution and form their own opinions based on the information they consume students as people and citizens of the United States reserve the right to three expression and government organizations do not possess the privilege to restrict this

029right when they feel it best it benefits their agenda in short how can this board claim to be student-centered but also be willing and able to cycle our viewpoints by Banning the hate you give you'll be effectively censoring the opinions of those who made your job possible in the first place the students thank you guys a quest just showed you all how to cram a three-minute speech don't take any breath at all okay Laura and then on Deck is I'm sorry Gianna Bros all right good morning or good evening Florida first um I'm a senior at Lincoln High School and I've taken a total of six math classes in my four years here um and a couple things stood out to me about the survey uh that the board has put out over the past

030week I believe it's on Wednesday um and I don't believe that it should be considered in the voting process of whether or not uh the hate Museum should be allowed in uh schools or not um the timeline and accessibility of the survey and the fact that this meeting was and kind of stands to be non-inclusive uh there was an extremely important possibility of volunteer bias and a survey um and the sadding fact that many people resorted to voting multiple times on the survey should highlight the fact that the survey should essentially either be retaken uh or sent out again to the parents to get an effective opinion of parents but there are a lot of problems with the survey uh one of them was the timing accessibility of it it was sent out I believe

031Wednesday night and it closed Thursday night that's such a small window for people to effectively voice their opinions on such a nuanced and incredibly difficult question and uh this meeting was being held on 440 on a Friday is also a testament to the lack of inclusiveness that is uh allowing certain individuals to be overrepresented over represented over represented okay over representing thank you um and to exclude any would be a matter of silencing them thank you very much [Music] [Applause] [Music] not spring so we can thank you I know you're excited but and you're doing a great job okay uh candle de runs you are on Deck okay hello bored I was here Tuesday night to discuss the Banning of the hate you give and I'm here to talk about it again for context I'm

032a high school student and I read this book from my English class last year and I'd hate to see its removal to ensure that I'm knowing what I'm talking about I read the entire 444 Pages last night to the best of my ability I would also first like to address multiple misleading criticisms that I've been had about this book first of all this book is not anti-coff it is against cops abusing their power and using excessive force against people when it is not needed a second point that has been overused is that the book has too much sexual content in it and I did the math on this I annotated the book and I saw all the pages on it 14 out of 444 Pages contain anything that could be deemed sexual with a majority

033of these instances taking up less than a paragraph level on the entire page I'd also like to make the point that regardless of the context of the book the students reading the book or not having opinions both imposed of them your child is not going to become vehemently anti-cop or racist by reading this book in school there instead being it gives a safe means to express their opinions and hear the opinions of their fellow classmates not their teachers on the very controversial yet real subject at hand a subject so real in fact that 1194 people were killed by police in 2022 the most out of any year in the past decade with officers only being held accountable for nine of those instances your kids are not being indoctrinated and dividing and uh divided and as

034I've seen from the statistics uh they're just being shown a perspective of a very real event in America we've even had discussions in class where students thank you Gianna okay [Music] Nina Crossfield you're on Deck I have a daughter who's a student at Lincoln High School and she asked me this morning if I could speak tonight so you know distressed many of our kids play video games and listen to Spotify did you know Call of Duty has the f word in it 92 times Grand Theft Auto 5 uses the same profanity 1018 times as you know our kids are listening to music constantly most of today's rap and pop has profanity and sexual innuendos just for perspective for those of you who are my age or older the f word is used in songs by

035Pearl Jam The Who The Doors Pink Floyd Steely Dan and the Rolling Stones all of this brings me to I don't think this is about profanity I think it's about the topics of the book restricting information and discouraging freedom of thought undermines one of the primary functions of Education teaching students to think for themselves teenagers need to find their way in this world and should know as many other viewpoints as possible so they know their thoughts are their own and not just the product of a limited amount of information forcing their Community to get rid of a book is a way of forcing one's beliefs on an entire community restricting things that make us uncomfortable doesn't make them go away complex issues like racism and sexual assault will still exist even if we don't talk

036to them I'm sure we all told our children when they were little not to talk to strangers or go with tricky people this is no different knowledge is power [Music] [Applause] you guys are okay the Divina De La Cruz are on Deck I am very much in favor of keeping this book in our curriculum our children need to be exposed to other ideas and cultures to become well-rounded and informed and individuals if you only stay in your comfort Lane you will never actually grow as an individual and you will never learn any you give is a critically acclaimed award-winning piece of art that makes critical that makes critical thought empathy and expose as many to a world they are not familiar with to strip our children for given the chance to read it as awful

037if certain parents want to keep the kids from being exposed to this book then let them have the option to opt out and read another all our children from having option to read it I think is and then Jeffrey Hancock okay before I begin let me preface this by saying I'm speaking for the behalf of someone who couldn't be here today because of personal reasons they wanted me to say the following I'm sorry to say this but we didn't have a problem about this book until 12 Bridges felt uncomfortable with it to be honest majority the majority of that population is white Lincoln Heights didn't have a problem about it and a good size of the population is people of color for this book to be banned is racism might as well call yourself racist

038for feeling uncomfortable about learning a real life story of a person of color it's based on a true story that should be shared about the police brutality and racism I might not be here but I still have a voice to stand up for this book this is a book that people of color relate to what I relate to you know how it feels being racially profiled if you know you know what we should have this book us kids have a right to read what we want and you're going to take away our knowledge if it's about the curse words just know it's High School your kid is going to hear way worse you can't shelter kids forever because other how after all how are they going to fend for themselves if you have this much

039time to complain about a book how about worrying about a bigger issue like global warming or sending money for starving kids or even the foster care system banned this book and you sign us the voices of people of color thank you thank you [Music] gently you're up and on Deck is Katie Williams [Music] good evening my name is Jeffrey I'm a father and I live in the district my two daughters go to school here in the district and one day they will go to high school here depending on how things go it's clear that we're not here talking about the sexual content that's inside the book because we're not here to talk about The Great Gatsby which is about an extra variable Affair we're not here to talk about the works of William Shakespeare which

040are littered with sexual situations we're not here to talk about vulgarity it's not here talking about Of Mice and Men or To Kill a Mockingbird or Slaughterhouse Five because all those books have Merit all those books have literary merit to students we are here because this book has a perspective that some people do not agree with and to limit the students perspective and viewpoints because you don't agree with that Viewpoint is wrong I unequivocally do not think this book or any book that has been vetted by the academic community and is shown to have Merrick should be banned you are limiting these students viewpoints and deciding that your Viewpoint is the only one that matters and your the school has provided a mechanism if you are uncomfortable with the book so now you're saying that

041my student my daughter she can't read this book either because you don't agree with the Viewpoint I don't co-parently with you and you don't call parent with me the book has been vetted it has literary merit it has artistic Merit it has educational Merit there is no good reason to ban it thank you Jeffrey [Music] medley on Deck yeah they you give provides a valuable first-person narrative which contextualizes and personalizes what could otherwise be some very nebulous Concepts namely racism structural inequality implicit bias violence both within and among the residents of the community of the protagonist as well as perpetrated against them by outside forces in short this book makes these difficult topics tangible it allows the reader to establish empathy and identify common ground I attended our last city council meeting on Tuesday and

042many of the opponents of the book I heard their concerns and I recognize that they come from a place of caring however many admitted that they had not yet I think that if they had many though of course not all would have been able to draw parallels between their own lives and their own values and those of the main character I love Lincoln and I am proud to raise my two children here however our town is someone lacking in diversity in order to recognize our own blind spots and uncover the unearned privileges which people like myself have we desperately need to immerse our ourselves in a multitude of perspectives literature is one of the most effective ways to do that I strongly encourage our district to continue to offer this book our young adults will

043be off in that wide world sooner than we care to admit and we need to make sure they are able to navigate that world with compassion Grace and humility thank you foreign [Music] [Applause] speech today we live in a great country um I personally am grateful that we had the survey unfortunately I didn't get to fill it out my husband got to it and then it was shut down so I wish I would have had that opportunity but I'm glad I'm here today um I have a personal story there was a football game and at Cole Bridges High School and a couple of rows back from our football coach there were boys saying this that okay over and over and you know what that football coach did he looked back and said one more and

044you are going to be kicked off the team our football coach said that okay fast forward a few months our kids go to an English class they're handed a book that has the same word in it 89 plus times we're gonna be okay with that we're okay that our kids are going to be listening to this reading it and not only that today in the honors class they were reading the book silently because it's not okay to read it out loud I don't know why any book would not be okay to read out loud unless it was not appropriate not allowed and then the students were asked to be in a group together where they were able to talk about they weren't allowed to talk they were in a group and they were filling out

045a worksheet together I'm sorry if a teacher cannot talk about a book with the students openly in the socratic form of speech it should not happen in the classroom thank you questions feral s the age again includes inappropriate language sexual content and refers to the police as pigs and more my personal opinion Lincoln PD prox and I'm offended for them students may be opted out by their parents this is true however most of my school students do not want to be singled out my child included I'm not asking for this book to be banned just not Standalone Core Curriculum something that's not been brought up as of yet is having a a an opposed to the discussions and the challenging thoughts but I'm opposed to the one-sided conversations that word had at Lincoln High School

046last year more conservative values who are quickly shut down in the classroom discussions are made to feel awesome discussions were made our students for me to feel that the thoughts didn't matter one political agenda was presented in the book with the book and the accompanying videos perhaps the balanced unit of this book and a more conservative book with the criminal police officer's perspective would be better utilize the books to teach students how to have civil conversations and leave knowing it's okay to disagree and frankly to end the name calling thank you [Music] vo classroom hi my name is Ivy Farrell I'm a student at Lincoln High School I'm a 10th grade and I read this book last year and I do not think we should ban this this is such a powerful book that I

047think everyone should have the chance to read if we look past the police violence and the profanity and the sexual themes for just one moment this book is about empowerment and finding your voice being confident isn't that what we want can teach to the next generation of students and people and the people that are running our country soon enough isn't that what we want to hear and these issues are very real in our society police violence happens every day shouldn't our students know what is happening to people around them we shouldn't leave them ignorant we should let them know what is happening in our world thank you [Music] I can't plan on Deck Amber Castillo thank you board for having this special meeting last I checked this is the United States of America land of

048the free so why are ironically named groups like moms for Liberty Leading the charge to censor reading materials that have been approved by experienced educational professionals this is 2023 not 1943 harassing teachers and banning books was a weapon of fascists from the past our children are smart enough to see how ludicrous these actions are our children want to read these books our children want to be seen in these books our children do not want their educations and Futures tainted by two-faced hate mongers like Tanner davella Greg Farrington and Matthew Oliver if people want to protest something why don't they ask the mayor of Lincoln why she is facilitating a dance for five to ten-year-olds at a bar morals matter if people are more upset about a book that mentions police brutality than they are about

049actual police brutality they need to re-evaluate violate their priorities the hate U give is a multiple Award winner that has been a bestseller for almost two years Banning it because they're offended by the word is idiotic please protect our school's rights to provide a compassionate well-rounded education to our children thank you [Music] you're all dead thank you so as has been said by others I would recommend anyone that hasn't read the book to read the book I saw the stuff online was curious why the drama had the book already I bought it a couple years ago for my kids to read through the book in a day uh the comments and things that I saw online they reduced it just to sexual content swearing cup hate it isn't that and so please read the book

050the parents the board form an opinion about it for yourself be intimately connected with the details versus just something online that has the number of times it says a swear word in it it has so much to offer so as the old thing goes don't judge a book by its cover the topics in the book include experiencing death and loss navigating conflicting feelings race socioeconomic differences Redemption forgiveness change Community trauma family support finding yourself in difficult situations that you don't want to be in living in fear overcoming fear love commitment bravery leadership and so much more and yes it hits heavily on race and economic inequality I challenge again read the book before you anybody has something negative to say about it I understand and commit the parents that want to be active in their

051kids education and think that we should be that gatekeeper if we feel so inclined and so find out for ourselves it's an opportunity for discussion and Enlightenment for our kids they're facing hard things and thank you Amber looking for themselves [Music] thank everybody for just stopping right when I say thank you I really do appreciate that thank you thank you [Applause] all right my name is Madison I'm a I'm a student here at Lincoln and the fact that the students today are coming to fight for this book should be reason enough to keep it and just as it is stated in the book what's the point of having a voice if you're going to be silent in those moments you shouldn't be the story addresses issues of police brutality gun violence and weaponizing stereotypes the

052hate U give shows how racism can communities making it Timeless in its relevance it is challenged for its language violence and promoting anti-police agenda however if you're only looking for the bad that's all you will find there are bad cops but there are also good cops shown in the story like star's Uncle who acted as a father figure for her while her own was in jail the story was written with genuine respect for the humanity without shying away from the hard truths this is why it should be saved thank you [Music] are you here Ava Upton going going gone okay Curtis uh vanderbol in Europe and Emma um you're on Tech I support including the book and it's contents into the curriculum I've had to wrestle with a lot of similar issues in my life

053uh I grew up and still am a conservative white cisman but I'm married to an indigenous woman and I have indigenous children I have seen racism and sexism affect my children I've seen racism and sexism affect my children within Western Placer Unified School District for teachers from peers and from staff it's really unfortunate that I have to tell my daughters that they have to behave differently in a traffic stop than I do because they're not white but I do because I don't want my daughters to die these are the kinds of themes that are covered in this book and there are different perspectives I have had to learn those different perspectives in my life there are other people who don't ever have exposure to that so making a part of your curriculum ensures that there's

054at least some opportunity to learn to grow to reach out to research and to understand is important that those conversations happen here and that those conversations are taken home with students so that our whole communicates the benefit [Music] and making cohill you're on Deck thank you I just wanted a shout out to the student that's the mask student in the research methods I'm a senior dean of research that's a good job thank you for noticing the research issues books are invitations from an author to step outside of our own lived experiences and experience and see the world from a different lens this builds character it helps us ask important questions of ourselves and reflect on our own thoughts and communities it helps us ask questions like is this what I want for my community how

055can I change it does this exist here how do I feel about it these are character building uh questions and I think that that's an important part of our educational system and probably a key part of your educational Mission so I encourage you to keep this book um to keep all books especially ones that offer diverse perspectives [Music] Megan Coho and then uh Crystal Turco is that right you're up you're on Deck okay I saw people getting upset Megan cohill are you out here okay uh Crystal are you here all right awesome my name is Crystal Turco and I'm a parent of a current ninth grade student at 12 Bridges High School I strongly oppose removing the hate you give from the approved curriculum um giving parents the option to opt out for their child

056seems to be inequitable and reasonable approach according to data from the California Department of Education literacy rates among teens plummeted during the pandemic and I find it interesting that this particular book is the focus of such controversy under the guise of vulgarity and language I don't believe the same controversy was expressed earlier earlier this year when the 9th grade students read The House on Mango Street nor do I think the same outrage has been expressed if it was reading Catcher in the Rye or To Kill a Mockingbird let's at least articulate the two issues racism being black in America and being traumatically impacted by police brutality these are uncomfortable subjects but necessary to support broad literacy and I support students becoming broadly literate learning about new ideas perspectives cultures and topics and engaging with a

057variety of books only strengthen one's ability to be empathetic and understand experiences and opinions other than your own thank you for your time and I encourage you to move on your staff's recommendation San Francisco [Music] is Max Williamson thank you um so my name is Laura Cox I have two students in the district here one who will be ninth grader next year here at Lincoln High um I do believe that this book should remain in the curriculum it should not be removed the book in question is part of a state approved curriculum that is being used in high schools across the country across the state and I don't believe that our students are any less than those students they are not less mature they are not less able to handle this material they are not

058less capable these students sitting behind me are just as capable to handle this material as all those other students I believe and I have faith in our students to be able to handle these difficult topics um second if you think that limiting access to this book is going to limit their access to swear words and sexual situations that is just a fallacy and if parents want to do that the school and the district has already made the very wise and proactive decision to allow an opt-out this shouldn't even be having a conversation the problem is already solved you don't want your student to read the book opt them out done and lastly and again prompts to the Laura by the way great thing about the problems with the survey it was rushed ill-conceived and should

059be considered invalid a more valid server recently came out from CNN and from um from uh CBS that talks about the fact that most parents more than 80 percent in a nationwide poll generally do not want their thinking Max your head [Music] what's up my is Max I'm a senior not a senior I was a senior minister of graduation um quite frankly I wish I had read this book because if children are not taught certain topics in the classroom setting they will simply encounter these topics in the real world they won't have them on social media in your life tons of times in any circumstances they will not have guidance available most of the time if you want your children to be mature enough to be able to handle these topics they need to be

060taught how they need to be taught about them in the right way and um quite frankly um children of color are fortunate about the topics way sooner because they are subject to them a lot their family members are subject to them it is frankly traumatizing um so why are other children not mature enough to learn about them I think we should it's on the actual issues that they're both present thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh anyway okay Chris wardloff you're up and Marlene Martinez I'm actually speaking here as a parent of two kids in the district my eighth grader goes to 12 Bridges middle so he would be potentially experiencing this uh this curriculum next year and my worldview I don't think is matching everyone's world through the room and I'm totally fine with that

061I don't I don't feel like my worldview should be put on other people but I do believe that my sons need to experience a wide variety of perspectives uh even people who don't share my uh my worldview or or my son's version uh and I think I mean I know that we're being banned as being thrown out here uh and I know some people are saying it's not being banned I I kept what you're saying but if you if you opt my son out of having these discussions with other people and environment that I do trust the education of this District if you opt my son out then like I I that that infuriates me uh he should have the opportunity to have this discussion with people who don't like the book I certainly didn't

062like every book I read in high school um and I I do believe the octave option should take care of business [Music] I'm a senior at Lincoln High School and I have a personal historic on this I read this book on my own time and fell in love with it once I learned that it was being read in classrooms I was super ill not only because of how much I enjoyed this book personally but because I got to see a minority represented in the classroom a minority's voice was represented as a daughter of an immigrant I have a developed person until my 11th grade specifically because it is eye-opening to other perspectives and isn't afraid to show real issues happening in our country although it may be scary in this school I have been called

063racial and sexual slurs to my face such as crying and wet back this is why books like they would give are so important in schools don't mention this book instead I asked the board to to add more books like they hate you give thank you [Music] you're on Deck Lori Brown Lauren Brown all right uh Jennifer are you here yep thank you uh Colleen Poe you're on Deck first I'd like to thank the board for giving me an opportunity to speak I'd also like to thank the toll bridges Administration for giving us parents an opportunity to opt out however in the information given the administration was not clear on the exact nature of the sexual content in the book so I'm going to read it for us it is I'm reading you from page 81.

064fooling around isn't new for us and when Chris slipped his hand in my shorts I didn't think anything of it then he got me going and I really wasn't thinking after all for real my thought process went out the door and right as I was at that moment he stopped reaching his pocket and pulled out a condom he's raised his eyebrows at me silently asking for an invitation to go all the way there's another quote I'm going to read Chris is behind me the only thing between me and the Hope let me clarify my butt is against his crotch my back against his chest I'm bumping up against him trying to figure out how to get the ball in the hole it sounds way dear dear than it actually is especially in this position I

065understand why Bridget missed shots though and I have another quote it's not enough my hands travel below his chest and he's bulging in more than his arms I start unzipping is that the end thank you Jennifer okay so um [Applause] oh cooling pose in the restrooms come look at that that is a coming PO is it nice it's a fancy period okay Shannon Birds you are on it so I just wanted to say that nobody in this room wants this book banned um you want your kid to read what you just heard plus there's way more than that that's just very disturbing and should be rated X so you want your child to read it then go to I don't know maybe the public library has it Amazon all kinds of places Barnes and Nobles

066nobody wants the book band but does not appropriate for our children also a couple speakers mentioned the f word yeah the F word's in it no isn't it 89 times my freshman is not allowed to say it of course he says it but he's not around us and he's not allowed to [Music] [Applause] you are on Deck Tammy Jones on death I'm actually dear friends [Applause] please leave because I see that there's only one side I don't know I have children that are going to be entering into the high school foreign [Music] but I would just like to say that as a 10th grader here I read the book and honestly I think maturity level is a big um issue with reading this book and if all parents could just trust their child and allow

067them to read this book and read all the diversity that is in it and be able to form their own opinion on the book and have educated conversations in the classroom um when in the classroom reading this book I know that I heard so many different opinions on the book and it allowed me to look at other students and be understanding their side of the story as well as I hear so much worse in Middle School um throughout this whole book and I know that when I was hearing that stuff and watching other students grow up I could see whose maturity level who actually matured from what they were hearing and who took what they were hearing it was like oh I have free will and I'm gonna go and spread it around as well

068so I think it is just a learning experience and something that kids need to just learn now instead of going into college and taking this to an actual job and not knowing anything about life and um yeah that's all I had to say thank you okay Tammy Jones I detest that I have to be here tonight oh okay hold on Krista Steinmetz you're on Deck okay um I don't even know where to begin first of all my 15 year old doesn't need to be reading this book his brain isn't even fully formed second of all it was brought home under the guise of leadership so we went ahead we looked up from the author her very own discussion notes I'm going to read them to you this is the readers group guide by Angie Thomas

069reading and discussing this novel can be used as a springboard for timely conversations about the following theme racism Community the black lives matter movement activism Family Justice law enforcement the complexities of gang culture friendship and identity so these are not things that well first of all I think we can all see leadership wasn't in there okay so don't send it home with my 15 year old telling me this was a leadership theme that was not good judgment on the district's part also my son wasn't comfortable reading this I appreciate all the kids speaking however as a parent this is not appropriate and this is not how we're teaching our child and I wouldn't wash his mouth I was so that he spelled like this oh this is a No-No Christopher [Music] okay okay Mariah hello

070okay so a lot of the things that I was thinking and wanting to share tonight have been shared so I'm not going to be redundant I am curious why this is part of the ninth grade curriculum it seems that it is not appropriate for a 9th grader to necessarily read it's not like my daughter she's it's not something that she'd be prepared to read um I don't feel like we should shy away from Real World topics I don't live under a rock I'm not bubble wrapping my kids they deal with things day after day after day that are real life matters but I I believe that there need to be structured conversations these debate ideas with opposing views but in the debate classes in social studies in classes where it's not like mandatory reading I

071think this could be done differently I don't think it has to be mandatory reading for a language arts class I agree that this sounds like porn it's not something that every child is going to be comfortable reading I'm not saying ban the book I'm not saying close our eyes and pretend like this isn't happening I hear the f word I hear every single day I'm not saying that that can't be said I'm saying that I don't need my child to be sitting in a classroom talking about this in ninth grade I think that we could make some changes there's different ways that this could be thank you Kristen and then um [Music] so I know you guys all heard from me last week I'm sure you're super excited to do it again um I think

072what's really unclear here is that personally we're not here to ban a book if your child wants to read the book great let them read the book The issue here is Parental respect and morals in your family this book is not morally ethical for my child to read I sat at the table last night and asked my daughter how would you feel if someone called you a or a hoe do you want to talk about condoms in the ninth grade I asked my son do you understand the concept of what a bulge in your pants is I had to tell them what it was a hard on if my kid is reading about a woman who's putting his her hands down his chest to feel the Bulge in his pants that is porn and I

073don't need my kid to learn about it I don't need it to get a hard-on in school because some book has turned him on okay I am the parent the biggest issue here is that your school did not respect or follow the policy by telling me about the book first you went ahead you passed it out I didn't even hear about it from a kid I had to learn about it from other parents and then my kids like hey mom guess what I'm aware okay great why are you a Winger because I wear Jordans and I'm not black okay other kids at school on their lunch break are making fun of this whole situation and calling each other racists where's the leadership people that is not leadership that is you forcing a book on someone's

074children who never had the option we didn't get the option we would not be sitting here if the option was given thank you Mariah Sarah [Music] yeah [Music] h-a-n-c-h-o-t-t Sarah okay all right you're on deck if you're here good hi I'm speaking against this book but first I want to just reiterate what Mariah just said and that we are not here to promote book Banning this is not about banning a book this is about stating that this is an inappropriate book for 14 and 15 year olds period if my son tries to go to a movie theater to see a radar movie that is only allowed two F words and can't get in why are we allowing a book that has 89 equals set up in our society to protect our children and these this

075is a violation of now if you choose as a parent to let your child read this book by all means do so that is your right as a parent but in a classroom it's a whole different situation students have to opt out if they choose not to read this book because it's required reading in the main class and it's a horrible position to put these kids in the school is supposed to support unity and inclusion look around does this look like Unity this is this book has done nothing but divide us and exclude the kids that are brave enough to stand up for what they believe in they should never be put in this position by a school district there's no reason we can't just choose a book that is neutral and actually teach his

076own leadership for these kids for time um I I'm just going to say real quick I am so proud of the kids who've chosen to opt out and not read this book like my son it is take it takes an incredible amount of courage and character to stand up against your teacher your classmates your school administrators [Music] Sarah okay thank you uh Gianna Khan we're back and [Applause] uh men Draper is on Deck is that correct okay okay hello everyone I am Gianna I am a senior here at LHS and I'm not here to talk about the content of the hate you give um that has been talked about a lot and will continue to be talked about so I don't I'm just here to talk about um in comparison to the books I've had

077to read when I was a freshman in here for one um Of Mice and Men um deals with just as much sexual content and um inappropriate language um including the use of the n-word multiple times um the same thing is true in To Kill a Mockingbird with even more use of the n-word um and in no way am I trying to [Music] um hate on anyone else's vote but I I did hear someone say like oh this book can't be read aloud in the classroom um neither can Of Mice and Men or To Kill a Mockingbird um clearly because it's a bad word and a lot of other profanities um Grapes of Wrath was also one I had to read which included a man at the end um a grown man breastfeeding for some reason

078I don't know but my point is that clearly no one had a problem with those books but now I have a problem with this one so clearly it's not the content it is the personal beliefs of others that feel attacked if that makes sense um thank you [Music] we're going to take a 10 minute break real quick for a bathroom break for the board thank you uh come back at 7 25. all right is it meal okay but Mia you are up and work work on you are all dead thank you interestingly enough my story is very similar to that to an earlier students which I think is enough to tell you well which doesn't quite a bit by the impact of this novel it is disheartening to hear people rail against this book because

079to me this book likes my real life the main character's name is star and she and I are the same age we both attend predominantly white institutions deal with white boyfriends and face racism from our peers and Friends although I've never been a victim of police brutality I know people just like me who have I read this book as a freshman but not as a part of an English curriculum I fell in love with this book because it was the first book I ever read where someone like me was represented with someone like me is the main character it is my ferment wish that I had the opportunity to read this in my freshman year English class instead of a required novel at the time to kill an awesome murderer when we finished we finished

080the book we had a discussion I was as per usual the only African-American in the room of course most of our special involvement race during that discussion I had to defend myself against my own classmates now in my senior year I am left to wonder that that conversation would have been different if I had been reading this book maybe I wouldn't have got to defend myself maybe if I were reading a modern books modern issues that my people like myself and many more like myself have faced and could have been having any discussions before the board to not remove this book from the curriculum allowing them African-American students to read a book that reflects them is something that's absolutely invaluable instead of reading books in which the only black characters ever portrayed as razor stereotypes

081allow students to read something with a positive representation a book where they can see a team [Music] [Applause] you're on Tech I never once in my life felt so invalidated by a creative adults I felt it was only that with catty responses from grown men saying I'm a child that does not have rights and therefore I should not speak this board said they wanted to hear our voices but the second we started talking you stopped listening here are 523 signatures of students wanting to keep this book by curriculum keep in mind I got these in one day today imagine how many signatures we have if we were getting a week if you remove this book what comes next so you may be on this book but you're not silencing our voices no matter the outcome

082we will continue to fight for what we believe I just hope you'll finally hear us this book pushes boundaries and advisor definition of appropriate I've been asking what do you deem appropriate we do find the opening scene of Romeo and Juliet where Samson speaks of rape appropriate or Curly from advice to men keeping his hand in a glove full of lotion for his wife appropriate of this book should spur or evaluation of every other book in the curriculum but if we do that what are we left with we're left with cookie cutter black and white curriculum that has only had the direct writing law the second we teach only black and white is the second we truly have a problem we need books like things to teach kids to hold their own opinions and to

083have different opinions we are the future of America and if we aren't allowed to develop these skills how will we truly make it how will we help true make a true impact on society we aren't children anymore very soon we will be adults thank you here [Music] um hello and thank you for hearing from all of us this evening I'm not one to speak in public like this but I think it's really important that I share with you that I have three white books that I'm raising in this area I am a white woman and when George Floyd was killed and it became really clear to me that as a white person in this time in history I needed to stop and I needed to ask myself how do I become anti-racist not just the

084cookie cutter like well I'm not racist but how do I work to be different and teach my three white sons to be anti-racist and so I read books and I watched movies and one of them was the date you get so that was before my son read it last year here at Lincoln High School he said it was a great book you guys my son doesn't like to read okay he enjoyed the book that was I said what else tell me more what else can they share with this board and this is his words it's not super deep I'm gonna warn you guys okay so I think you should mention that if they're worried about foul language and inappropriate comments it's nothing compared to what you will hear in high school and I think that

085is the bottom line I force I really did I forced my kids a couple years ago when I watched the movie to come downstairs and watch the movie with me and it was a very begrudging way that they sat there and watched the movie this was like when we were all still kind of hanging out by ourselves at home a lot everybody thank you Beverly Angela seeing you are on Deck [Applause] my name is Beverly but I'm reading an email from Tracy who couldn't be here uh books are either windows or mirrors this book is a window to a world we don't experience here in our Suburban bubble if we only read mirror books we only ever we don't laugh if we only read mirror books we only ever see our own world reflecting back

086to us the truth is that there are bad cops there's also Bad Teachers bad painters bad apples in every profession pretending they don't is disingenuous pretending our children don't hear profanity is ridiculous pretending our children cannot handle unpleasantness as a discerns to them how will they handle the real world not the one we'd like to pretend we live in if they don't know what's out there I would always rather my children be prepared to face hard things than have to stick their fingers and their ears and pretend it's not real or be unprepared to navigate the world the Legacy that their students don't have a hand on what is out there in life besides what they already know that is an education that's ignorance I beg you not to ban this book it's not only

087unnecessary it's harmful and at the end of the day it is public education for all public not just the ones who want it to reflect their own values the book and the opt-out should stand as I do not demand everyone be required to read this book I expect the same in return that my child has the opportunity to read it and study it in public school with choices in place for everyone thank you thank you Lord Alan Burridge you were on Deck hi my name is Angela Singh I believe that's a book that he gives should not be removed from the curriculum due to the reason of recognition this book is a representation of the real world it shows whoa okay sorry it shows um it shows the real world you live in you say

088um you may say the reason for the removal is due to sexual beings or the effort I believe that it's not the reason look at the other books we read such as Romeo and Juliet which has sexual theme as well as both physical and verbal violence it also includes themes of death in our curriculum we are currently attending state requirements where kids are getting taught about human anatomy which includes sexual themes as well as drug talk and uses and the way people get them why do I have permission slips for that it says that even in some schools School nurses give out condoms why is that okay with sexual things in the F4 and their book are affecting you the real reason is that people are not prepared for their children to be exposed to

089other perspective like the perspective of a young black teenager the book has more relevance than Romeo and Juliet I'm not saying that Romeo and Juliet is a bad book I love that book I would just like to say why now why all of a sudden when a black person's perspective of not getting accounted for everybody has a problem the hate you give shows what people our day have to deal with it is a book that can spread awareness around the world coming from a colored person's perspective I believe the book should be included because it shows other races perspectives it also shows other cultures I believe rather than I believe that other races and perspective should be included in our curriculum it will help kids understand others views when kids are taught in school they

090are more likely to be understanding and actually try to understand many say that the causes of thank you Angela [Music] okay thank you and only Enriquez Angeles [Music] thank you for correcting me and then Elena bobson [Music] okay so my name is Anjali Enriquez and I come before the board not just as a member of the community but as a black woman raising four multi-racial children in this District ages 9 through 16 they're sitting over there they're listening to west side and they're witnessing this history um they are black Asian Hispanic and Caucasian my husband is a fourth generation farmer also over there and great grandson of a Japanese immigrant who also endured hostility from his white neighbors here in Placer County I say all this so that as known I am not speaking from

091a narrow frame of reference here the main purpose of the book in question is to bring to life this current issue that the black community has with the sun police from their perspective consequently reading this book could be beneficial to anyone who is not in the black community so that they can see what they experience and struggle it examines the way Society uses stereotypes of black people justify violence and racism against them allowing our students to read that hate you give with the guidance of an educator where one can dialogue or dialogue can occur questions can be asked and answered where diversity of viewpoints can be shared in a safe place this is how we learn develop and understand not only ourselves but others out of our ethnic Community with support open mind a soft

092heart this book can unite and change Hearts when you censor certain ideas and beliefs you generate more xenophobic and uneducated Society this is teaching students that it's okay to stop an idea or Viewpoint from being heard just because they don't agree with it I hope you all wholeheartedly consider your message that you'd be sending all of our children when you vote that you make a conscious decision and land on what's truly what's right [Applause] [Music] okay so at the high school level students should be learning about complex issues limiting young people's access to books does not protect them from life's difficult and challenging issues we are doing students a disservice by not allowing them to explore different viewpoints within a safe and structured environment this information that they're being exposed to in this book is

093still going to be thrown at them from other students social media and this information is often skewed potentially Incorrect and even harmful how will removing this book help the young people in the future when faced with life's challenges and opposing viewpoints parents absolutely have the right to guide their children's reading but a group of parents should not be allowed to dictate what books an entire school can read and I would like to end this by saying removing a book from the curriculum is Banning a book thank you [Music] our next yeah but I did want to speak up um I am an English teacher English 10 teacher in our district and I am currently teaching Fahrenheit 451 with my students um if you aren't familiar with that book I recommend you read it it too

094has seen itself on the band book list Ray Bradbury warned of a society that we've become so fixated on technology and entertainment that education knowledge and even reading would be seen as unnecessary and even dangerous books became illegal and no one seemed to care that is my greatest fear as I present books to my students and they resist reading that is my greatest fear is that they won't care that with all of the distractions of technology and their virtual access to information that they have that they will no longer care about the books what we have had Tuesday night and what we have here is a group of students who do care they don't want to take 70 years worth of steps backwards parents are concerned about the bias being present in the book or

095they're being an alter ulterior agenda present and then teachers aren't giving a space for both sides of a situation to be heard that is actually one of our essential standards is to teach bias and assess the impact that might be present that is the same with language we would discuss the f word there's a lot of language present in Books Of Mice and Men for one thank you morning all right [Music] is Marine green you guys look familiar you come here often yeah I'm here all right good evening let me preface my statement by saying parents thank you for vocalizing can you're concerned about your children learning is a parent's Prime job and I commend you for participating in your children's academic careers now having heard the statements of my peers consider mine also the

096Extreme Action of banning the hate you give from our curriculum would be infinitely less effective than creating an open dialogue with your child over the book and discussing this in your home discussing your thoughts and there's a constructive environment that would provide an effective learning boost while also addressing concerns you might be having about it right everybody has concerned right concerns geez what am I going to get home who knows anyway Perfect all right you are saying there is no place for this in a classroom okay what's next what I fear as a student is this flippancy regarding the eagerness to banned books what's next I fear that sooner than later people will go so far as to claim that this book has no place in the library or worse yet has no place in

097this great state or a great country before you know it someone will come for your books too I understand my point is Extreme yes but if you do not see the danger that is this slippery slope you are doomed to fall down it to adapt you cannot be dragged back from protecting your children starts with here and around so I do beg of you to hear me out and consider your options please vote carefully [Music] and how you have got a future in public speaking on to I'm sorry on Deck is Darian Thompson Thompson hello everybody thank you for giving me a chance to speak today my name is Marine and I want to thank everyone for their sharing all the few points I have to say as a woman of color and a resident

098in Lincoln for 14 years I have never felt a sense of belonging like today [Applause] remember this community and the two that have already graduated from high school never had a book written by an author that represented them right now oh sorry did you hear that or do I need to repeat it okay um I I want to say that um put aside all of the content in the book I think this gives kids the opportunity to have difficult conversations conversations that we often don't get a chance to have unless something prompts it in our home we have them I think without having difficult conversations we don't develop a perspective of another and cannot develop empathy and understanding and compassion for people who have different experiences from us they land themselves in stereotypes to avoid

099that to develop a more Humane approach to All Humans we have to be educated and I want to just leave you with a quote I don't want everybody's made already wonderful points I just have to say from Tara Brock we involve our Consciousness by bringing a clear and kind attention to Tangles of suffering we don't avoid suffering we don't avoid difficult topics thank you thank you [Music] and that is Damian Williams I have seen firsthand the beautiful awareness that has come from this book The realizations that were made by those who have never read a book like this before my eyes were open to a community I am not a part of but it is a community that's full of beauty and so much strength because of what they have had to face there has

100always been that they've always been deserving of a voice and they always will be you are using your blinded unconducted ignorance to attempt to mute into silence and that taking away of this book you take away opinions ideas and the right for so many people to be represented in literature this is censorship for those of you who seem to be unaware of the definition I invite you to listen closely censorship a suppression or prohibition of any parts of books films news Etc that are considered obscene politically unacceptable or threat to security so is this what the people represented in this book are obscene politically unacceptable and a threat to your security there is a long history of censorship in the world we live in and you are doing nothing but to help continue it and

101there's only one logical step of step after Banning and that is burning thank you [Music] spring Paul good evening my name is Damian Williams I grew up in Berkeley California I'm an army veteran I fought in Afghanistan I've been to Germany and I've I've been around so many people who look so different from me but we've all had something in common to where we can sit down and look at each other's few points look at each other's perspectives I got three kids out here one of them will be in the ninth grade next year in his first year out here in the third grade he had been caught a he had been punched and all kind of stuff I just went in that bathroom out there and they got porno written on the walls to

102say I'll come in your mom or something like that so to say that this book is an appropriate come on man everything in high school is damn near inappropriate so you look at Tick Tock you look at all this stuff on these kids phones man come on man we cannot ban this book man I think it uh it allows these kids to get a perspective from people that don't look like them and that's just the bottom line you know everybody needs perspective yeah thank you [Music] thank you for your service I know you I don't see you okay spring is gone uh Amelia bus Bustos okay and then Josh Bartlett you are on Deck foreign [Music] Junior at 12 Bridges High School I believe you should keep this book in the English nine curriculum as

103a person of color who lives in this community I've encountered many close-minded individuals and this book is a great opportunity to open a discussion and includes those people and help them see another perspective saying that its language is too vulgar is just a scapegoat to cover your racism you argue the point of too much cussing as if your child can say words like and behind your back as well as hear it from their own mouth saying that your child is not ready to read a book with themes of police brutality racism and sexual themes is extremely privileged privileged and shows her ignorance because there are many people your child's age and younger having to deal with it in their own real lives you don't have you don't have to agree with the book but it's

104more beneficial for everyone to read it it allows people to see from a perspective they most likely have never even thought about considering the they have never even thought about considering the predominantly white population in this area we cannot hide from difficult conversations because we want to they're difficult for a reason they're important it's not only important but essential to bring up these controversial issues in a controlled academic environment because it allows a healthy discussion this book is beautifully written and I can still remember the very first time I read it in seventh grade five years ago and how much it changed me as a person if we as a community choose to teach this book it not only opens the discussion about how black people are treated in this country but it also opens

105up a conversation about how other minorities are treating this country which is necessary if we want to progress as a society thank you thank you the last one Alan T thank you appreciate the opportunity to speak right now [Music] um you know uh from what I've gathered what I'm hearing I guess we were hearing that Anything Goes that standards aren't needed anymore um that appropriate appropriateness of content in a public setting doesn't matter I mean I'll just read I'll just read uh some examples here the 12 uh the there's a student parent handbook 2022-2023 that the high schools have here detention will be assigned for students who do five basic rules of conduct such as classy Services Defiance defiancee forgery dress code violation profanity and then under the California Education Code 48900 committing committed an

106obscene act or engaged individual profanity vulgarity is it just can be a disciplinary action um to that I mean there has to be standards the book and and I'll post some others is it has content in it that is just not appropriate for certain age levels and we have standards for reasons that doesn't mean that we can't learn about these things outside of public settings but this is a public setting and so it I mean if if those if these standards here that are in the handbook don't matter you throw them out dress codes draw them out thank you Josh is that right I mean I had them ask for the last name too that's okay I'm used to it after 56 years um so yeah I come from a family that I'm a first

107generation my parents were immigrants so I know uh surprisingly all about racism perhaps or whatever but you know these kids are extremely articulate so I commend you but they're just a small portion of tooth that over 2 000 students at Lincoln High School so I'm not sure that we're hearing both sides to that voice of our children emphasizing what's important to them I really like what this uh military man gave us you know I understand that there's a racist racial problem perhaps in our in our world but I don't think it's the way to study that in English in a language arts topic you know the profanity and the language that's used in this book clearly doesn't you know abide by the rules of the board and I'm just appalled with what I heard tonight

108using the vulgarity these kids are so easy using the f word and the c word and all these other words that you know I don't want to hear even walking down the street big get it we don't need to be teaching them in a book what's happening in real life [Music] and parents you know what these are children and they do need parents to guide them and the parents need the support of our school board to help guide them as well well done everybody thank you very much for the respect and that you've gained and listening listening to everybody we did receive 10 responses to some requirements that we are also going to put into the record tonight so I think the next thing is the presentation superintendent calendar thank you so I uh the

109next aspect is certainly not um to debate the um the book itself it's to ultimately remind our board that we have policies that govern uh the work that staff does in in the district and the policies that are are established are what guide the work that is done within our Educational Services Program in conjunction with our teachers and other stakeholders which include pair parent Administration and so very briefly I'm going to ask Tillman heyer our attorney to just kind of briefly overview aspects of our policies that do govern the work that occurs within our district and then this Aladdin our principal here at Lincoln High School has graciously agreed to represent the staff work and provide an overview specific to the policies that do govern the work that does occur in the uh district from

110state level down to specifically this book and this unit and and how it has adhered to the the policies that have been set by the board so that the board can make an informed decision that will ensure that there isn't um an impact that might signal that we operate in in a way that's not consistent with the policies that have been set to govern the work that is occurring in the district so tell me thank you members of the board for allowing me to address you tonight at this meeting I want to start talking about our policies right at the beginning of our policies board policy zero 100 talking about the philosophy of our district one of the core policies of the district is that every student should have the opportunity to receive a quality

111of education and that's why we're all here to support that mission instructional materials and curriculum are of course at the heart of the mission of this District to provide quality education and to that end the board and the district has policies outlining guiding principles and processes for adopting and revising this curriculum and instructional materials and this is broadly contained in the 6000 series support policies and as outlined in board policy 6000 one of the organizing principles in development and review of the curriculum is ensuring teacher administrator student and parent involvement and participation in that process our policies refer to Pure income evaluation and development as an ongoing process and that the selection of the evaluation of the instructional materials shall be coordinated with curator of development and evaluation as well teachers who are of course

112directly involved in presenting curriculum and instructional materials to students should also be substantially involved in the process by which the board considers changing instructional materials in recognition that curriculum and instruction reflect quote the desires of the community as reflected in our board policy the district's policies and procedures give support various tools and options on how to consider input from all stakehold groups in considering changes to instructional materials these policies with priority 6141-6161.1 outline the importance of considering input and recommendations from all stakeholders in our school Community such groups can include parents community members teachers administrators and also very importantly students themselves the board has various options in how we can consider stakeholder input such as by the way of public meetings as we're having today convening a curriculum review or instructional materials committee considering public

113comment and engaging other advisory committees our policies recognize that the Western plaster Community has a diversity of opinions and perspectives and to that extent the district is required to seek input from stakeholders with diverse backgrounds and perspective under its policies because curriculum and instructional materials are so fundamental to the core mission of educating students the policies read as a whole contemplate a multifaceted and deliberative process engaging various stakeholders and assisting the board and making the ultimate determination on which curriculum and instructional materials best support our students School awards are given the Authority Under state law and all support policy to decide a curriculum and a public input process and thoughtful comments we are having tonight help School boards best decide how to serve their students [Music] [Applause] no questions all right thank you so as

114uh Ms Laden has bringing up her PowerPoint presentation I know that there were some comments about the validity of the of the surveys I am going to uh share the results of it because we did indicate that we would and I want to honor the um the statement that we already put out in terms of how it was it was put out Mr Maul who's our director of personnel Emma oler Communications officer myself watched the results um as they were coming in and we did receive 1500 responses the first 500 came in the first hour right immediately after the survey was was put out um I know that somebody mentioned that they didn't have the opportunity to submit the survey we did receive information about concerns of validity and whether or not it was being

115pushed out the next day for people to take it multiple times after the first 500 responses came in the next 1000 responses did not vary the read the first 500 response uh significantly and we have briefing to to feel based on our review of the of the of the responses coming in that uh given that that first hour the results didn't change significantly after that that they were likely indicative of of the parents receiving that push out from the texts and the emails immediately and responding very quickly and if there was any potential double ultimately that could have occurred in in any of the responses and uh and then the uh the posts that we see on social media that ultimately drove us to shut down we shut it down very quickly after we saw

116it and between the time in which the post occurred and when we shut it down there were about 15 responses and it did not at all impact the results at that time so well I appreciate that there there could be reason to be concerned um and and they're they're certainly I I wouldn't say that it's 100 valid or that you know wording wise I completely appreciate respect that but it is data that we did collect and I I do want to share it so the board did receive all of the comments because there was the open-ended aspect and there were 747 responses from our community that the board has received um and had an opportunity to review briefly in terms of percentages of uh of results the survey indicated from the 1521 responses that 48.8

117percent of our community of those that took the survey support the use of the materials with no concerns whatsoever 6.8 percent have some reservations but trust the district and as teachers to use the materials well 8.9 percent have strong reservations but believe that an opt-out um is necessary and 35.6 believe that it is inappropriate and should not be in our curriculum all right um first off I have to give a huge shout out to my custodial team um to studying Florence to make this meeting available and accessible to our community so thank you Mr Florence thank you to our custardial team that's running around come from me second my role this evening is just to be a representative of a variety of communities um that are represented by Lincoln High School 12 Bridges High School

118as well as nursing opposite Services team um the board has a digital copy of his presentation that was sent to you as well as a print copy the digital copy has hyperlinks all in it so if you want to like check out things further it's all they're available for you and third I would say that there are several staff here from our English 19. it's specifically if I'm from Lincoln from 12 Bridges and as well as district office staff that are available to answer any questions I am not an expert in all these spaces I'm just this spokesperson I will do the best I can to defer to my team on our team whenever possible I'm doing the speaking today which is crazy because I'm like the fastest talker on the planet but Heather doesn't

119have a voice so it is and then lastly I just want to acknowledge that the transition of rooms means the presentations behind you so you can follow along over here that's helpful for you can see through Facebook there okay so there were several areas of interest that were presented as the last meeting so first we're going to talk about the curriculum and instructional material selection process I'll then speak about the unit material selection then we'll speak about the instructional activities for this unit on leadership and lastly we'll speak about how he supports the Indian Equity a voice in the classroom this is a quote that was actually um read and given to me just this week from a staff member who attended an avid training I'm in scoby and I'm not going to read it

120to you but I'm going to leave it up for just about a few seconds and let you take approval addicts I think that it was relevant to the conversation we're having today so the first thing that we're going to be talking about is how the materials that are in our Englishman curriculum are selected and again I'm not an expert in this but I'm just going to point out a few more policies as well as educational code that guide how the school board helps us make decisions alongside us as we're making decisions about how to provide instruction to our students first is foreign policy in AR 6161.1 which speaks to the selection and evaluation of instructional materials and it also it specifically addresses the way the district would use material and selects and adopts curriculums there's

121a lot of language in there that speaks to them it also indicates that the complaints should be addressed through a process which is outlined specifically import policy 1312.2 the board policy also indicates that instructional materials should present a broad spectrum of knowledge and viewpoints and it references a variety of Ed codes that indicate that our materials was accurately portrayed society's cultural and ratio of diversity the second set of materials that I want to point here point out for you is where policy in ar06141 which relates to curriculum development and evaluation and this particular board policy addresses how curriculum should be evaluated and selected and it indicates that the board has an expectation that we offer a well-articulated curriculum and that the board has the opportunity to review our recommendation as well as to participate in

122an evaluation process of our recommended curriculum the next uh set of four policies six one six one point one one which speaks to supplementary instructional materials and if that if that terminology is unfamiliar for the board supplemental materials are things that are not in our adoptive curriculum but that supplement or augment what we're teaching so often that looks like um articles uh video clips and other things that are not given to us by the publisher but that supplement the work that we're doing so although the hate you get is not a supplementary text it's actually for an adopted curriculum we do use supplemental texts in our classrooms and in our libraries to meet the diverse educational needs of students and to reflect a condition of cultural pluralism there's also a board policy related to controversial

123issues which is for policy 6144 and it speaks to the recognition and controversial issues may be included in curriculum as a part of adopted curriculum and should be designed to develop students critical thinking skills their ability to discriminate between fact and opinion the respect for others as well as the understanding and tolerance of diverse points of view so when we think about how we adopt curriculum starts with actually the state level and the State Department of Education drives the standards the Frameworks as well as vets and identifies appropriate curriculum options for schools to schools together we get a menu of curriculum options and then teachers go through with stakeholder input in order to evaluate all the different options that the state has pre-identified as being appropriate given the standards the framework and the values in

124the state of California second the curriculum developers take all of those materials all of the standards and Frameworks any design and publish curriculum that's based on State on those steep standards Frameworks as well as on student development the theory so they're thinking really critically about not only what are the standards but some standards move up from kindergarten all the way to 12th grade so they're thinking critically about what does the standard look like in kindergarten versus sixth grade versus 12th grade and they're developing materials to guide our teachers in order to ensure that we're providing appropriate curriculum that is um in mind with students developmental needs once we have that information about the framework as well as the options for curriculum the district then engages in a process where teachers use a collaborative approach to

125review curriculum and as well as to collect parent input and student input often this District process includes a piloting process that happens in classrooms so that we can try before we buy if you will and it gives an opportunity for teachers to really see how does this material function and work in actual custom setting then once a decision has been articulated and thought through and that's brought to the school board and we will have the opportunity to um to provide guidance to the district about that through your board policies and regulations and your responsibility and per board policy 6141 is to adopt a curriculum that reflects our District's philosophies responds to student needs and abilities and is consistent with the requirements of Law and so far as possible that curriculum should also reflect the desire

126of the community and the needs a set of society as a whole and then finally once I've worked on the board does approve our curriculum our Educators may get under the hard work which is actually figuring out how to do the teaching in the classroom and they spend like gazillions of hours and I'm thinking about how we build curricular plans how to do so in a professional learning environment they're going through consistent cycles of inquiry where they're evaluating whether or not the curriculum is meeting the objective needs our kids learning the standards that we're expected to teach and then refining and refining and refining and we refine all the way until we do the process all over again in particular our teachers really take pride in my being on reflecting on student learning outcomes and

127making sure that they are building curriculum that best needs needs the students per the standards in the framework that were obligated to teach for the State of California the last thing that I would indicate is that when we're deciding on curriculum materials um there is a process for complaints and concerns and that's outlined through the board policy 131 2.2 and it talks about how concerns about the adoption process should be managed and after conduction process is completed so the Western cluster School Board firmly adopted a material that was approved by the um the state of California called the study sync and that was approved back in 2017 for implementation of the 2017-18 year and it was going to be used it was adopted to be used through the 2024-25 school year so we're about halfway

128through the adoption of this ninth grade curriculum which is called study we'll refer to study repetitively throughout the presentation so from 2015 to 2017 the Lincoln High School English team which was the only English with District oversight went through this adoption process the materials were piloted by multiple teachers at Lincoln High School priority adoption there has been staff turnover obviously since the curriculum was adopted but our teams continue to make adjustments through a collaborative process with the adoption until this new Adoption cycle comes up so the district um through this recognized that there was a need to have this continual dialogue so they actually supported our teachers in developing A Five-Year Plan within the language arts department to support this work and part of this came because we knew the new high school was coming

129and we knew that we weren't going to have all of our teachers in one building anymore and it was the need to be sure there's a collaborative process that which both high schools so through this collaborative effort it's possible that not everybody's in agreement right that's how the collaboration works like we're trying to come up with the best option we can all live with but the team does recognize that the decisions are made for both Lincoln High School as well as for 12 Bridges High School going forward our schools I will be on engaging in a joint adoption process where the district is leading a process that happens simultaneously at full of high schools to lead to one piece of curriculum that is adopted for both schools right now the first at the very first

130joint High School adoption process has recently started and that's in our world languages department so we're we're doing that hard work right now and um and it's time all right the second thing I want to speak about is specifically this unit which has created a lot of concern I mean the community and amongst the board and this is this study's thinking that's titled leadership so beginning in um 2021 as I mentioned the district directed the high school to engage in a five-year strategic plan process to encourage collaborative dialogue between Lincoln High School and 12 Bridges High School as we knew the new high school was coming to import The Plan called for four priorities that were established by the school district the first one was that both high schools should teach one full text per

131quarter so what that means is that every quarter one book should be read from start to finish in the classroom second is that the full text must be common between Lincoln High School and twelve ridges High School third was a 75 of the material must come from within the adopted curriculum so from within study sync and adhesive of freshman English and before there was a priority to diversify text Choice using the lens of quantitative qualitative and reader and task and these ideas of quantitative qualitative and revergling tasks are established in the language arts and ELD framework which is linked for you and it's available on page 70 at that link so the topic of the of the um the topic that we're talking about and study State curriculum is the topic of leadership and the

132school district has established two essential questions that they want students to be learning and be able to respond to at the conclusion of the of the unit the first one is what role should a leader play and the second is what is the what are the responsibilities of leadership so when our teachers are teaching over the course of a quarter everything they're doing is trying to get kids ready to have a thoughtful response to those two questions through their supplementary and District adopted curriculum materials so up on the screen I'm Andrew Packett on page 13 is the final assessment prompt at 12 ridges high school plans to use this year in order to assess the leadership Union so under using a it's a they're using an article and then the students will be asked to

133produce a piece of writing so the prompt is using your novel writing five paragraph essay and discuss how your main character Compares or contrasts with the qualities of a leader based on the article what does it mean to be a leader by Dr Josh ax so that's what 12 Bridges is I'm anticipating you being at the end of this quarter to assess a student understanding and comprehension of a leadership unit Lincoln High School has a different final assessment prompt and that's okay like that's not one of the tight things from the school district it's okay for us to have different prompts as long as they speak to the same essential questions so Lincoln High School's final assessment promise to write a literary analysis and they hate you give in which you examine the theme of

134leadership and the ways in which Andrew Thomas conveys her message about the role and responsibilities of a good leader choose a character from the novel that exemplifies the characteristics of a leader in your opinion be sure to include at least two and that's big hold with the number and of the word uh quotes from the novel to support your claims your literary analysis analysis should answer the following questions and you'll see that the two essential questions are listed below so I'm not going to read this to you but I'm going to leave this up for a moment and give you a chance to read it this is one student assessing conclusion Lincoln High School and I'll speak to this in a little bit actually taught this book last fall so this is actual student writing

135one student's essay conclusion from their final assessment from the leadership unit so pause for a minute to let you in the audience review that conclusion it's on page 15. yeah I apologize I should have clarified and then we're going to flip to the second one which is on slide 16 and this is the second Student Response um to the same prompt this is with Todd Lincoln High School and I apologize I think I may have said that we taught this book last fall we actually talked on a tour it was part of our quarter three unit in the 2021-22 year so I apologize for me speaking but this is a second student on peace and I'll pause for a moment for you to read it about 10 more seconds thank you all right so as

136we mentioned this unit is about leadership and this curriculum is adopted from study seeking so I want to take a minute to share with you some information about the novels that were presented in the adoptive curriculum to use this full text on novels um for the Freshman English so there's a chart on page 17 that's up on the screen on the left side there are four novels that were options through the adopted curriculum for us to use the first poem was the Odyssey the second was bless me Ultima the third was in 1984 and the fourth option was the hate you give we did not choose to use the book The Odyssey at Lincoln High School last year because um because it another classic Romeo and Juliet is taught in a unit choir and so

137we wanted to have a diversity of texts and so teaching two Classics just wasn't the right move for our for our team and we do teach excerpts at Lincoln High School from The Odyssey the second book is bless me Ultima this is also I'm not our primary novel but we do teach excerpts from this novel um you know at Lincoln High School this text was not chosen because it is written by a Chicano author and the team teaches The House on Mango Street earlier in the school year and that is written by a Chicano author and so again in the spirit of having a diversity of text this text was not chosen as our primary novel The Third text that was an option was the text in 1984. again we teach that sort of from

138this at Lincoln High School and it was read by our seniors up until 2021 we did not slip this text because it was found to not be particularly engaging for students I'm let alone freshmen so um that stuff just know that it's just not going to go well and they want to make sure it's a productiveness of their time the fourth option presented by studies think was the heat you get and it was identified as a primary novel and it was chosen because number one it was recommended by her adopted curriculum for this unit number two it allows our students to examine excerpts from additional other novels which we felt was valuable for that diversity of text and number three is it accomplishes the priority of our district to diversify the text taught and the

139guidelines outline and the guidelines outlined in several Court policies which are listed for you so some may wonder what's the relevance of this text to our topic and our essential questions so one thing that um that our staff have really valued about the book they hate you give is that there are multiple types of leaders and multiple individual leaders they're depicted in this book and something that is valued about this book is that these leaders are representative of various communities there are perspectives presented of leadership from students or from people of various ages various races various experiences in various professions and that was valued because the theme of the unit is leadership second is book The Heat you give is relevant relatable and written in contemporary vernaculars I'm a very smart person whose name is

140Mike wall who used to be an English teacher and his sister principal and principal at Lincoln High School I'm he's an English teacher for many years um I gave Heather and I this information he said to actively depict the environment of the main character some authors use language and imagery that makes the story more understandable and relatable and so we felt that that was a relevant reason to use the hate you give in our materials in addition this book speaks specifically with Steve and our district goals of effectively teaching inclusive curriculum including controversial curriculum and there's several import policies there's listed for your reference well we are preparing this and again my goal is just to provide you with information but I can't not acknowledge on the way that this book speaks to people and

141the way that it supports inclusivity in our schools so it is important that our texts reflect the experience of all students every student at Lincoln High School 12 Bridges should feel heard feel seen and feel valued in her schools second is that some students feel unsafe and unseen when we read texts that do not illustrate their experience and our curriculum must be representative our curriculum not a book but our curriculum must be representative of all of all communities in our schools including our upper upper under represented groups excuse me as Educators it's our responsibility to create a safe learning space for all students and we use things like the youth development framework which you all are intimately familiar with to support this priority our teachers work very very very hard to create safe spaces where

142students can discuss diverse perspectives and where all views can be respected and lastly our teachers want students to be interested they want them to be engaged they want them to be excited because it's a long 90 minutes that they're not I mean that's just the reality of it so you've seen the board of seeing this survey on our student board member from Lincoln I'm going to share this with you last week this is very specific to Lincoln High School because Lincoln was the only school that's taught this book prior this year so this is a ranking of interest in engagement from from current 10th grade students who have the opportunity to read this book and then prayer or to read all of our books in any degree and it's evident that the hate you give

143was the number one um best book in this in the Freshman experience followed by Romeo and Juliet which made our our English teachers who are very happy and then um followed by the house on Mingo Street and then finally they'll be doing a choice novel unit and that was the fourth most valued unit in the four units we teach and we taught last winter or last school year at Lincoln High School I want to be very clear that this is only representative of Lincoln High School perspectives so I've alluded to this before but we introduced this unit this leadership we have made his text in particular to our freshman students and quarter three of last school year the 2021-22 one student of all of our over 300 freshmen spoke directly to their teacher and asked

144to opt out of the book and we were able to accommodate that we we worked it out it was it was not a problem and it went well and the student was able to achieve their essential learning um based on the the writing that they produced um they actually chose to read the text in 1984 which is another one of the adoptive curriculum materials throughout the unit Lincoln High School received positive feedback from students and parents about the use of this novel in grade 9. 12 Bridges chose not to teach this book last year right I understand that and the reason for that is because they were opening a brand new school there was a lot going on at that school and they made a conscious decision that was supported by the team at Lincoln

145High School to hold for one more year make sure that they were settled as well as to be sure that all the English teachers at 12 Bridges High School last year and had the opportunity to read the book and be sure that they felt comfortable and confident teaching the book in a way that promoted safety in the classroom and as we approach this school year the 12 Bridges team agreed to integrate the text they hate you give into their curriculum this year and they remain in favor of including the novel as an option in our leadership unit even in light of community feedback and I believe they've sent you a letter to that effect I also want to make sure that it's clear that every teacher at Lincoln High School and 12 Bridges High School

146informs parents that this book is being taught through the inclusion of our syllabus the book is listed in the syllabus which goes out to every student and is shared with families again through back to school and materials so again this is some feedback that is exclusive to Lincoln High School because we're the only school that has taught this book over the course of the year um through its entirety at this point so there's a couple of quotes here from some parents on this is the only feedback and writing that any of my English learning teachers received last year and so these are those three things and this is what they are so I'm going to give you a moment children quotes they're on page 22. all right now I have not seen the written feedback

147that was produced in a survey that went out to the community but I think I heard um Kerry mentioned there were over 700 comments that we're sharing we all have that so that would be more representative of what the community feels now these three quotes were specifically from Lincoln High School families last year all right the next topic we're going to discuss is instructional activities because that was another point of question that was brought to us by one of our board members so um our focus is giving students the opportunity to think critically it is not our focus in order is our job and or is our responsibility to tell students what to think that would be inappropriate it would be unprofessional and it would be against the tenants of being an educator and that's

148outlined by board policy 6144 and your materials on page 24 and it's easier to link to it you'll see a curriculum map that is a part of the five-year planning process this is a joint curriculum map that exists between Lincoln High School and 12 Bridges high schools and the map is not complete it's a five-year process we're actively building it but that's linked there for you in addition I've linked for you the pacing guides with all the activity details from Lincoln High School last year as well as what we anticipate doing at Lincoln High School this year please keep in mind that Lincoln High School has not started teaching this book it is not our plan to teach this book until quarter four we do not plan to teach this up until April 12th we're

149just high school started sooner than we did and so I just want to be very transparent about that in addition there's also some links in your materials that is the pacing guide for 12 Bridges as well as a folder of instructional material so you can see exactly the worksheets and materials that students are being exposed to for the book they you give at child purchase high school right now you um Miracle I've given you so much information that one of the district's expectations is that 75 of materials must come from adopted curriculum which is studies think in the case of freshman year 12 or just High School is using three additional supplementary materials um one is Dr John access what does it mean to be a leader and that article is linked there for you

150and you might recall that this is the article that they're a final time second they're using alternative text which is called a town like Alice and by Norway as well as open-ended internet research to help identify and speak to three team leaders locally in the I believe it's in the country as well as globally sorry thank you 12 Bridges is also providing instruction to address the leadership theme that is a part of the student including the ancillary materials provided and study sync they're using psychotic seminars to Foster dialogue in the classroom they're using self-reflection on engagement after every single lesson as well as discussion board posts and they're using I think something that I thought was kind of cool that's a trade trucker where they're keeping track as they are and engaging with different pieces

151of writing and material on different traits that make someone an effective leader or maybe where they've missed the work I think that's the language they use is missing the mark and that's and that that treat tracker comes from I'm Dr ax's text what does it need to be leaving again the the final assessment prompt is available on page 26 I'm not going to read it to you again but it just just couldn't have it all in one place at Lincoln High School we're using several supplementary materials and again we we're not these are things we used last year and they're in the process my team is in the process of evaluating what they're going to use this year but last year they used a guided adult and pure interview process so that students could consider

152what does it mean to be a leader they use something called a visual dialectical journal A via Google slides and it is very easily modified for any text and there's a link to that for you that's basically a Google slide and for every slide you're listing of photograph or like you're finding a picture that represents what you read and what it means to you and then use and identifying the quote from the text that really spoke to you in that section of the text and they're also using a couple of YouTube videos one that's called a conversation with the police uncomfortable conversations with the black man episode 9 which features police from Petaluma California and then second a YouTube video that's called Inky Johnson's Inspirations and I don't know Inky Jackson very well but I

153understand that he's a former athlete that was injured and now has used his voice and his platform in order to to support diversity and awareness and for Korean people in addition we use materials from study sync for every single text that study sync recommends and we do have some planned changes for this year and the plan changes have really nothing to do about what's happening in our community but really are about what we learned from last year that worked and didn't work and the journey of our freshmen this year which is different than the majority of our freshmen last year well and um I hope you do because it's significant it's a different proper freshman this year than last year which is wonderful we do love for 10th graders though they're a spicy group so

154um the um the instructional materials changes that we anticipate making in April is one we plan to use literature circles and Socratic seminars in order to read and process this material and it allows potentially for multiple texts to be read concurrently in a classroom if needed second we will not be reading the text out loud which we did do last year and third last year we showed the film The hate you give and the teachers reported to me they didn't think that was a valuable use of instruction time because the movie does not depict leadership in the way that the book does so it just wasn't appropriate so we're not going to be including that foreign and again I have that final assessment prompt which I I believe that we plan to use the same

155assessment problem this year as we did last year all right the last thing I want to talk about and oh my gosh we're just going on and on and on it's about supporting safety and Equity of waste in the classroom but this is really important so we are providing quite a few proactive supports and this is on starting on page 30. so some of the proactive supports that our freshman English teachers are busy is they establish classroom Norms at the beginning of every school year and they revisit those Norms throughout the school year they're they're posted in the classroom the students have built those Norms together as a classroom community and they revisit those Norms in order to reflect the themes of the units that they're studying the classes our classes are designed to be

156relationship oriented and respect oriented certainly sometimes that doesn't happen the way we want it to but that is what we are aiming to design and we're aiming to facilitate second if students are explicitly told not to use the language that is foul or inappropriate out loud in class third is that when requested by Guardians 12 Bridges students have been taking their instruction in a different location from a credential language arts teacher in addition um Lincoln High School has planned these literature circles where peers are grouped and reading the same book together the way literature circles work is that students at the team decide how far they're going to read so they're kind of driving their own instruction with some guidance from their teacher and then conversations about the texts are taking place in small groups

157the instructors in the ground they're able to assess students learning based on listening to conversations and asking additional protein questions and monitoring their progress at 12 Bridges they've developed classrooms that they feel are safe where students can ask questions and can share Insight on students engage in Socratic seminars and the teachers again monitor the seminars to be sure that all voices are heard and after every seminar and this is available in the links of the child purchase materials they have a pretty cool like on a self-guided rubric where students are providing self-related feedback to how they engaged in a classroom experience and how they learn from their peers and what worked and didn't work for them for themselves as well as from their classmates so this allows them to continue to think about self-reflection leadership

158um also and I think this is very important both high schools use and like high schools across the country use modeling to demonstrate how to engage in difficult conversations difficult conversations are difficult they're not easy and students don't know how to do it and part of our job is to help them understand how they might do it in a way that they feel like they have voice and the way that they're hearing and understanding diverse perspectives that they may not agree with they can hear and listen to them proactively and actively and with respect to make their own opinions um so we are engaging and modeling around critical thinking all year long but it is explicitly done related to this particular unit because we know that the material and this particular book could strike a

159core for some people in addition study theme provides us and is attached to the right back of your packet um like a six or seven page document that talks about how to address sensitive content and it provides instructional support strategies resources and tools for our teachers to our friends if they're coming up against the difficult um set of conversations or they're not sure how to handle something now as much as we want to be proactive and we want everything to be sunshine and Roses sometimes it doesn't work that way and we know that like for high school teachers and Educators like it's the world out there and so reactively if a student were to overhear a student I'm using an appropriate language or harassing or bullying other students for their beliefs um then we would

160refer to our discipline Matrix which is published on their student handbooks in order to provide student accountability and this could include discussions parent contact or even removal from the classroom and that is something that we do as we need to um I I Mr Heather Pierce has shared with me that there have been no student reported nor teacher observed instances of bullying or harassment based on book choice at on Lincoln High School last year nor at 12 Bridges High School this year I know that every heard from some parents if so that's not the case and we want to hear that and that's when they reach out to their administrator or their teacher even better to say I hope this happened and then we need to address it and the teacher will address it and

161we'll come administrator for support as needed 12 Bridges High School teachers in fact have reported very positive responses between peers regarding student and guardian choice of what text they're reading in addition we have a tool called stopit.com and that link is listed down on the bottom of page 33 for you this is an anonymous reporting tool that students and Guardians can use to report issues anything like it's not just about this this wasn't creative for this book it's just a tool that we have so students can report information anonymously to the school administration so in conclusion we've talked a bit about instructional materials and how we select them about the unit material selection about our instructional activities as well as how we work to support safety and Equity of waste in the classroom I'm going

162to leave this quote back up on the screen and I'm happy to take any questions that the board may have and again I may not have the answers but I can defer to my incredible team and the team to help answer questions that you may have thank you Jim my pleasure was very comprehensive well thank you I do trust you here okay are there any questions for Virginia sure use your microphone foreign you said that both schools are working collaboratively collaboratively both English departments and so they're using the same textbooks correct generally speaking that's true but that's not always the case and so the district's priorities indicate that we're supposed to have one shared novel which is the hate you get as well as other priorities but not everything is locked between the high schools

163not everything is even lockstep between classrooms yeah so there are here's my follow-up question to that would one school be able to choose a different book as part of their leadership unit well then versus the other one suit the um more further demographic of students they wanted to you sure can I please please what I would offer is that the school board has adopted studies link as the materials that our students are supposed to be learning from in English nine and there are four quarter text novels that are chosen the alternative text that 12 Bridges is offering is actually not one of the core coordinates it's not one of the adopted no it's not it's not one of the adopted materials um that the board is approved the hate you give is one in addition

1641984 and um bless me all tomorrow okay so I would add also with a book I would add also as a reminder that in our board policy um it's specific specifically states that it is a uh well articulated uh course of study a district articulated and so while we 've certainly uh want to ensure that teachers have some professional autonomy within their own classroom and that sites have some autonomy um it's it's important that we also adhere to the policy that does indicate that we're going to ensure that it is a well-articulated course of study not just for a particular School site but for the entirety of the district um at Lincoln high and twelver's high school are experiencing this for the first time because we had one high school and so they're well articulated

165course of study was Lincoln high schools well articulated course of study and so now they are are feeling um ultimately the The Growing Pains that our two middle schools in our elementary schools have been experiencing for years and how they have been working together to ensure that it's well articulated across the district at the end of the day the most important priority is that the materials that we teach from support the standards and the framework is outlined by the state of California okay any other questions thank you for all that yeah you're welcome um what would book Choice look like because I'm not sure I understand that so we use a we have a novel study approach that we do use in order to get a quarter one two yeah so we have a quarter

166one choice unit where students have there's an essential theme and I don't have those details with me but there's an essential theme and then the teachers have selected a series of books that respond to that theme students have the opportunity to have some choice in the books for reading in those situations are the teachers are passing out a variety of books there might be I might be how many do we have eight so Lincoln High School had eight choices how many did 12 I just have four okay so we had eight choices for our choice unit 12 we just have four um choices for their choice unit and students got to pick from amongst those um the schools did a little bit differently but essentially every student was given the opportunity to preview a little

167bit of every book and to make a decision about the one they wanted to really dig into deep some students especially I can't think for 12 Bridges but like our honors students might have done maybe two texts instead of one text um but then the teachers are because it's always done an essential set of questions the teachers are generating curriculum where students might be talking between like amongst one book or across books about how those themes are relevant and are represented in our texts but that sounds like a separate um the required test right so you have kind of a choice section yeah but then with this particular textbook when I hear people say well why can't they read a different book maybe the class continues to read this one but some young people choose

168to pick a different book is it what would that look like and I'm going to let Heather speak to that a bit but but the reality is is that we need to provide one text that every student's reading um between both high schools every quarter and so we the the choices what I would assume then be limited um sorry right so our that if we were to offer a choice book it would be um from one of those four study sync options um I would assume now as Heather's mentioning there is the option that 75 of our material should come from the study State the 25 that come from without so there's a possibility you could have in there Lincoln hasn't done a choice unit for this particular unit so I'm going to let um

169Heather because she can speak more how that's actually happening at the children's high school um I don't want to speak for you but it wasn't the intent to do it that way that's just what has evolved on over time so accurate to say your choice unit for for this particular unit squirters [Music] and a choice we recognize the books they tend to report walked in need to do so so we provided a choice unit talking with my ninth grade teachers after their choice unit or less engaged because everything was fragmented there weren't a ton of there was an overall unit but there were very different topics happening in all the different books thank you for that um could you repeat them um I want to talk quickly about the mom towel right is is an

170octet required by account I'm not aware that there's a need to have an opt-out required but I'll defer to carry who's probably more familiar the board more recently updated um and then it's definitely not all five of you because two of you have been more recent but there was a a more recent change to our controversial issues policy that did allow for um and opt out the the technically with with edcode and law the only opt out where they are need to be provided alternative options is with the comprehensive sexual education and HIV and other CE prevention in our case the board had taken action to allow for an opt-out when when it pertained to something that could be by some as controversial and allow for an alternative we also through our our complaints regarding

171social materials there is an opt-out option in that case that if there is a formal complaint while we take our our steps to address the complaints that students are allowed to have an alternative assignment and well the the materials in question continue to operate as as planned in the packet you have on each 51 is a copy of the controversial issues board policy and what Kerry is referring to is the last three paragraphs of that and it says um just for the benefit of the audience that parents and Guardians shall be given ample notification prior to the instruction of controversial issues which we do through our syllabus in the fall second that um in addition to being notified in advance for comprehensive sex Health sexual health and HIV or prevention is required by law parents

172and Guardians shall be notified that they may requested writing that their child will be excused from instruction and that they decline such instruction may be offered an alternative activity sexual health education the third sentence speaks to a student or parent or partying with concerns regarding instruction about controversial issues making the team directly with the teacher or principal and or appropriate use the appropriate District complaints procedure and that complaint procedures also in your pocket as well I'm 21. I think this is a good time to talk about that particular procedure right so as I understand it um that procedure typically starts with an informal complaint usually to a teacher and then the past principle right right so typically that's what we we prefer and when parents come to us directly with a complaint by about another

173human on our campus or about materials we defer them to the teacher first before we speak to them as an administrator and then after that a formal complaint would be generated right correct that's a that's a formal process correct um after that I believe um you would then probably work with the superintendent to try and resolve that complaint by way of you know working through the issues and then right um and then at that point I believe that the board will receive some sort of a summary do I have that right so far so particularly if there was a trend that we were seeing where we were finding that we were getting similar complaints coming up regularly then that would certainly be a call for us to make some evaluative have evaluative conversations in our

174curriculum on our teams or our school sites or what the school board Heather and I wouldn't come to you in public comment be like hey there's a theme like Carrie would bring that to your attention through the through the processes that you all have internally so that you're aware and can decide what to do about that so the other way the other piece that I understand is that at the end of your process in which you have tried to work through these issues with complaining if there is no resolution reached then that's when the issue would be brought to the board as sort of an appellate process right so the one time that I've actually dealt with a a uniform complaint process that was brought to the staff member and this was not an instructional

175thing it was a personal thing it was brought to the to the um to the like the teacher the instructor it was brought to me um I did an investigation they appealed that process to the school district through the policy and the school district initiated an investigation and report it back to all the interested parties and then we moved forward from there um and I just want to have we received a formal complaint okay those are all my questions thank you thank you and I like that you took a page from Cal with your humor [Music] oh George did you have questions yes you mentioned the one school has eight books to choose from there has four where do these selections come from is this from the state who who makes the overall book selection

176I actually if it's okay I'm going to defer to Kelly Ward who's our um Lincoln High School English picture and you can perhaps speak of it to him and his team are you comfortable with that Kelly speak to that I'm a Jennifer or John do you want to do it let's have we'll have Jennifer Clemens to come up she's one of our educational service specialists who works specifically on English language arts English language arts has been guiding The Five-Year Plan so she's best student s um can you repeat the question for me please repeat the question again yes okay uh one school has eight books to choose from the other has four where do these selections books or determined Z books that you have to choose from thank you yes so um in Spring of

1772021 we came together as a team knowing that the two high schools were going to but there were going to be that there was going to be an additional high school and we came together to develop our unit maps and our unit plans and one of those units particularly in ninth grade was a choice unit and the teachers developed a list of novels and a list of books that addressed a variety of topics that addressed the theme that they came up with and these books were created in a list and they were vetted over the summer and one high school decided to use the fullest and the other High School decided to select half the books on the list so our our teachers selected these books our teachers selected these books for a variety of

178resources decided on those books correct it wasn't from the state or anybody I was internally okay Clara [Music] um [Music] at one school because it didn't uh correlate with the demographics of the school what did you mean by that I'd like to yeah and I speak without like going into full contest against me sometimes so we have a vast majority of parents in favor of this book from Lincoln High School and I've had about and quite a few more opposing the book from Paul Burgess high school I'm not asking to remove the book at all that's one thing tonight I'd like to clarify never did I ask for a book ban my option was if it not be correct toward um required curriculum that be put on the choice reading list on the quarter where

179they get to pick a book prepare for kids that want to read it parents that want their kids to read it no desire to pull the book out of the school district um and I was wondering if if that was an a viable option for like the parents at the 12 Bridges High School if that was something if both the schools had to teach the same book for the same units or the books could be played in rotation in different ways where it can be used differently instead of being a required reader could be part of the choice read segment well it wouldn't be part of the choice read segment because that addresses the different set of standards and learning outcomes and objectives so the hate you give is in this particular unit because it

180addresses the standards that we need to teach in core4 so if you pull the book out of if you made it part of a choice unit it would be taught in the fall and not in the time when we're talking okay so is there a different book that could be taught in place of that for that unit and still have the hate to give and the choice reading in the fall there could be specific to 12 Bridges there could be and I would I would that's what I'm asking I would suggest that it would be one of the three other books that is on the studysync approved novel list which is the Odyssey in 1984 and um blessed me Ultima is there any other books that's it sure I mean there's tons of other books

181but those are the four that are part of the district adopt a curriculum that was adopted in 2017. okay yeah and so but there are other books if we wanted to add to the curriculum for more interesting reads that um I mean that could be more you know age that kids would find engaging this book is very engaging for children I understand why they like the book I've read the book twice I mean you know it gets that and it gets their minds going these other books um The Odyssey is one of the hardest books to read I mean you know it's so I I think I'm hearing your question so forgive me if I'm wrong but what I'm hearing is you're looking for choice for the hate UK 12 or just high school if

182it's not a choice at Lincoln High School if that is what the if that is what the majority of parents would like to have and then we have a different required reading you're saying we have a order we have Choice reading students get to pick a choice book right yeah so let me let me try to see you and make sure and I could be wrong so sorry I'm trying my best up here too um the first the first unit was Choice unit okay and so the book surrounded by that were specifically chosen because they fell within that theme I would be not I I could not speak to that I'm really sorry um the second third and fourth units right those were not choice um and those were required once again one of the

183tights that our school district has um had with our English teams is that 75 be the same and one full novel be in every unit so that didn't work out that way the first it looks like I got some information for me um the very first uh unit was empathy the second was dreams and aspirations the third was love and the fourth is leadership so you don't think that you could fall under empathy I don't think it's that we don't think that I think it's that the board adopted curriculum indicates that this is what we're supposed to do and so if there's gonna be a change then that should go through the board adopted processes yes no and and that's a consideration but I want to make sure that you know we keep this book

184for the students and the families that want the book I don't want to go through this rigorous process of changing a curriculum when it's not going to meet the alignment of how things have to be talked to I appreciate that but my understanding from the four policies and regulations is that what's supposed to happen is that you have to go through Rivers process to adopt curriculum I'm trying to see a way that we keep this book for the students that want it at the 12 or just high school and the parents and also be compromising to not and that's why we provide a doubt so because some of the families are taking a classroom next year together this year we had a you know because of the opt out they can't be they're not being

185taught the same room I'm trying to look for a viable way for all of our students to stay in class together for their English class yet be able to read this book at some point in a unit if they choose to and it not be required for the students who don't want to it could be removed from a classroom do you see what I'm trying to get to here and try to keep our kids together and so have this book is anybody who wants to read it can but in a different unit so that way nobody is separated in the classroom were students was the requirement that they opt out that they had to leave the classroom okay the the um parents communication I received some parents said my student must be removed some parents

186said um you must ban the book some parents said I hope my student isn't removed in order to help respect parents who put in an opt-out we did move to have students go into another classroom should any Family Express to me hey I know I opted out my kid who liked to be in the same classroom we will make it happen with the understanding that in that classroom there will be discussions about the book the um portions of the book The F Word the sexual portions anything of that nature is not something that the team is going to be discussing aloud because the theme is leadership if the parent felt comfortable opting out of the book but having the students stay in the room knowing that we have 30 high schoolers in a room and

187we can't control all of them every second but if they felt that then our teachers have asked me several times if they could do it we would be happy to extend that uh last year when we had one student asked to opt out of the book that hey you gave one out of I don't know 300 or whatever it was freshman we had um but that student picked a different book from the record from the like the optional list from study sync um they ended up going to read the book in the library that was the decision that they made with the teacher I was best I understand the parents were never involved it was just something that the student worked out with the teacher directly and so the way that we handled it last

188year for that single student was they went to the library and did readings based on how they worked it out and then the teacher would check in with them in the class time when other students were engaged in more independent work um where he didn't have to actively be engaging there and get engaged with that one single student so that's how we handled our popped up last year I can't speak to what we would necessarily do at Lincoln this year if there was a request for updates because we're just not there yet like we're not teaching this unit for another three weeks we haven't sent out any reminders to families that this is coming I mean I think everybody knows now but um but it's not something that like we just we're not we're not

189as far along um because they're a puppet over a month ahead of us in terms of their curriculum Leasing um I just want to make sure because we have and I talked to um I talked to the principals about this before is we want to make sure Lincoln high and 12 Bridges High do the things the same and um because we have we are trying to build that sister school so I don't want one book taught at the other and another one taught in another or not allowed to be taught that's not okay [Music] what kids need to learn the same thing and have empathy for the same out of the same book out of the same curriculum I just don't think it's right teaching one school differently than the other there's already I don't

190want to say animosity but there's you know we're getting better but I think we need to make sure that we teach the kids the same um I just have like a clarifying question about the opt out if a student were to opt out of reading the required book um you're saying that the student and or their parent would have a choice and whether or not they are removed from the room for a they can stay in the room a parent couldn't ask for to be in the room and room in the room we'd be happy to allow that that is not a problem at all the the problem is is that the the opt-out and the opt-out reasons for parents were that they were exposed to what was in the book and therefore the things

191that were in the book are going to be discussed in the room so we had to respect that space of you said you wanted out and kind of give you a space in which you won't be talking should any parent reach out to me and say look I I I trust that leadership will be the only discussion they just won't read that book I am happy to have the kids in the same classroom I think that what's important to note is that the the like curriculum complaint procedure asks for this student or the family to speak to the teacher and then to work with the administration to find a solution that is effective for them and at the end of what I'm hearing from others experience is that um that there have been lots of

192different experiences so there's not one answer um there's not one like this is what we would do but that's just not it because everybody's got different reasons and thought processes and backgrounds that are influencing their thinking any more questions okay I have a feud uh first question how do we justify to the students um students have let me get the wording right because I didn't write it down how do we justify to the students us assigning a book with language that we have said is not appropriate to use in schools the one other things that we value about this book um is that the book speaks in a way that is relevant to the student experience and so although I don't like to walk around and hear the F-word in fact my first week at

193Lincoln High School I had no idea that there were so many parts of speech you could use to effort and I was praying people extended um yeah it's pretty stunning um and so so we don't we don't value that and we don't we don't want to um we don't want to hear that in the hallways but at the end of the day this is a book that's representing an experience and that language is a part of that experience so we're not addressing and teaching about the use of the f word or any other language that's actually we do teach about the use of words and literature but but the F word's not one of them that's not the part of it so so we're not we're I wouldn't say glossing over but we're just not

194addressing it um every time it pops up there is conversation happening as they're preparing to read the book about some of the themes they're going to hear and the ways that they're going to handle that in the classroom um so it's not being read out loud it's not being um it's not being celebrated as a word that we want to use but it is a piece of representation in that book that is that is a value I would also um responded it creates the environment the use of that word in the book creates the environment that is relevant to that character in that environment at that time and makes it real if we were to look back at books that were written um before abolition men of slavery he would use the n-word regularly they

195wouldn't call someone black or African-American does it make it okay no but when we read books in that time period that uses that word that is something we use because it creates that environment we don't celebrated just as Jennifer said we don't encourage it we recognize that it creates the environment that makes the book come to life yeah that's a very good example Heather so um Mike and hug Finn when they use the n-word do you address that in class then why don't we address the f word in the class and what do you mean by thread addressed like if we address that using the n-word is not appropriate and we have and we tell the kids that the same thing as the inappropriate language in this book how come we're not addressing that also

196if we would have addressed the other well I think in part I think there's a couple answers one is that we do so at the beginning of the reading of the book there's discussion about the things that they're going to hear in the book and about how that speaks to the character of the book like Heather was just saying um but also creates a line in the sand that's not language we're going to use in the classroom right if that makes sense yeah yeah I didn't hear that before so thank you for clarifying well I think that was going to be my question is are we reading other texts that have words that are not appropriate to be used on campus how long have those books been in in use my first year being the

197principal at Lincoln High School I did an observation I'm in third quarter of a freshman English teacher reading To Kill a Mockingbird and in that particular book there is um there's quite a bit of profane language as well as I heard students talk about other books they've read um Mice and Men and things like that where there's a lot of really challenging language and imagery that's included so then under that logic you would also then have to stop reading all of those books because they contain words that are not appropriate to compete in general public yes that's not where I was going at all I was honestly asking how we address I honestly wanted to know how we address that it was not leading anywhere else um I think it's important enough and we talked

198about this but I know I gave you a lot of information that we really do work on creating a safe spaces in classrooms and part of every time we launch a new unit is to talk about the historical context or the community context or the um the um the the modern context of those to create some relevance for it before we launch through the book we don't just open it up that's what I was looking for with this book and listen to all the f words right and that's not just done an English classrooms I've extended every classroom in all the Western Plus or Unified School District Schools I say that with with full confidence that is happening in band class that happens in history I was a history teacher that happens everywhere we create

199those Norms with students voice in that process so that we all care about one another respect one another and then have difficult conversations with uh about like hey this is what's being represented but we've chosen this group of expectations together that we don't use that language in here thank you I appreciate that um so um before I became the principal at Lincoln long before I was a science teacher at Traveler just Middle School I taught seventh grade science this is the fact back before ngss and so as a life science teacher had the responsibility to teach Evolution which is another very controversial topic and so in those situations you don't you're not talking about topics like Evolution or or anything for that matter um without making sure you know exactly what the standards are you're

200trying to teach and your focus is on the standards and the framework that the state provides and the novel is just a or the lesson it's just a mechanism to help you teach those standards no I appreciate that and the reason I say that is because as these you know as these kids move on to the professional level out of high school use of this type of language will get them fired will give them filed upon we'll get them sued so we I just I'm just that's where I'm very concerned about this type of language in books that we offer I'm not I'm not saying demand but I'm just that's where my question is a great point I think uh you can tell how educated and professional a person is by the by the low

201level of profanity they use everything I think your Point's really valid and I think a really great thing for us to consider as a team about how are we addressing that in particular how are we introducing the leadership standards that show up on our CTE standards and other places to be sure that we're emphasizing that that kind of language would not be being as professional and we do have um state standards that speak to that okay so I think that's a great Point thank you um the the next question I have is seeing the prompts which I really like because actually Carrie and I had a question about these types of prompts earlier would it be doable for a teacher to administer these type of prompts if there are three or four books being read

202in a class and would that be really difficult um would it make sense and and having those global discussions where nobody if if you let's say you're three or four books to be selected on leadership and then you prom you gave those prompts would that be possible for the teacher to read um or to teach the value in each of those books I know they'd have to read books right that'd be a lot but um the value in each of those books on leadership based on those problems would be too much do you think it's doable um yeah I think that I'd love to see if Mr Ward or any of our other English teachers would like to come up and speak to the challenges Pros cons of doing Choice units and and how that

203looks in the classroom are you all prepared for that well done [Music] [Applause] hi uh my name is Kelly Ward I teach English nine um at least hi um yeah as far as challenge the president's of reading eight wheels over the summer um the airport choices was really hard um but uh but yes we if you go to page 14 of your guide you can see that we created a prompt that kind of is you can replace the book name and the author's name in there so yes it is definitely doable not too much for a class like would it would uh the students get it in University in class and say okay uh student number one you read this book two three four people like you guys read books can you share like your

204ideas were on leadership in the book would it lose students um I think Alexa said that tracings can do a little bit less engaging because we're not all sharing the same the same like context the same the same idea we don't we don't all know the same plot and so if students Miss part it's a good chunk of the pot they may miss a good chunk of the of the information but um the idea that the students still reading a book that demonstrates a theme and they're still talking about that that from our prompt it's how does the author represent those qualities and how that and they get anything else in the author and of the book great thank you appreciate that yeah I just wanted that to say okay next question is um do

205you think if the full disclosure of the content of this particular book was given to the parents and requesting to get their approval uh prior to the reading of this book I guess this is for you Heather maybe also just yeah um would you do you think more people would have opted out when we use when we inform families we include a link to Common Sense Media that speaks I mean obviously I'm guessing many of you have been a Common Sense Media and it speaks to all the kinds of things we've heard about today and the way ones do not doubt last year okay and I I can speculate if people more people would opt out or less this is her first time doing it um I do fully recognize and carry on my shoulders

206that we didn't put back paper first um it had worked well we've from our colleagues at Lincoln High School it included in the syllabus and the student just felt the need and talked to a teacher and it all worked out um I I in the future 12 Bridges High School will put the opt out in the future should we continue this route will we uh put the what why like what type of content is the book like perfect like kind of like a movie you know of like you see 13 profanity death whatever you know whatever PG-13 is or are like um which would there be um some full disclosure about profanity sexual content that type of stuff yeah we have we there's never an intent to hide anything there's never intent to be not

207transparent so we would put it out there and we would do it beforehand yeah I've learned that last night and um doing the full disclosure thank you um last question no not last question do you think software Ed or Junior would be a more appropriate age for this book so the book is adopted and study thing for grade grade um and so for me to make make that assumption I am not quite sure um I would really like to talk to the english team respecting that I have another classroom for five years and while I spent meant a lot of time in classrooms watching great teaching we have seen different students and so I can't accurately answer that okay okay fair enough so when we I was speaking with Mr Ward about our opt-out and

208it did not specifically say like foul language sexually like I didn't say that but I didn't say that that there have been expressed concerns and so it referred families to Common Sense Media in order to do that investigation for themselves and if you're comfortable I'd like to invite one of our teachers who told Bridges um miss lady lens who's going to speak a little bit about the choice unit question you asked earlier if you're okay with that uh which one which question you were asking about the impact and the challenges of teaching a choice you know multiple times yes character good evening um just wanted to provide a little bit of a perspective on the chose unit I think what we found is that it's really valuable for allowing students to make those choices but

209it requires a great deal of self-management and students to kind of direct their own learning and what happens is sweet it takes away from an Educator's ability to really lead and facilitate that instruction that we know our teachers are doing and we want to incorporate into our learning so I think that's why offering choice in too many units we worry about the ability for teachers to have those conversations and be doing the close reading and really building the vocabulary and emphasizing the competition all those pieces that really require a teacher and so I think that's why the opt-out is an option but the choice unit doesn't allow for those opportunities in the same way that all students reading the same text creates thank you part of the the reason why the parameters were set at

210the district level as well is to make sure that we work in compliance with all the aspects of the board policy as well as what the California framework requires for the standards and an aspect of that um that is reflected in the policy that's also an expectation at the state level is that students are exposed to a variety of materials that provide diverse perspectives and so if every unit was a choice unit um and students were ultimately choosing the same book from the same perspective or Viewpoint than we've essentially not complied with with the expectations from the state as well as our policies as they exist now so that's that's a concern as well because when they have the choice they may choose not to pick perspectives in those units one other thing that Anna

211mentioned I think is important is that while we're teaching at the leadership right we're also teaching text structure we're teaching vocabulary there's a lot of other English standards that are not necessarily the book but might be represented in the book or an excerpts or supplemental materials that we look at alongside the book so the theme of leadership is a huge part of the learning there's lots of other English learning that's happening so her point about like teaching vocabulary is a really good one not the effort but other vocabulary um okay so this is my final question and this is the prude in me okay come because I really I did read the book I just like a language just gets me I just that's me and my family makes fun of me and they say

212you're no fun to watch movies with good that's me so this question is from Mom okay is there a redactive version of this book I don't know if there's a redacted version but I think that it's something that Heather mentioned before that I would just reiterate is that part of the use of the language and I understand it I understand that and I felt that way too when I read it April like I was like what there's so much language um but I think that the language is there because it helps to illustrate the experience I get that I was just I know I know how to explain that to me I I don't know if there's over that I um I was not raised in a bubble I had a very hard life growing

213up I get that I was just asked to ask you was a reductive person I don't know if there's a redactive version do you all know that difference version yet also just three states so it's based on our knowledge and research there's not an average version available or a redaptive version available in this text oh um can you guys hear me yeah okay cool I would like to expand upon a previous statement week by April um uh you mentioned that people who use uh more vulgar language are less likely to get hired for a job and no I said more likely to get fired from them I'm talking about interprofessional when you're at work or main character before she goes on the news and before she talks to the lawyers or any important adult in

214her life she is conscious of the fact that if she's about minimum wage she's less likely to be her she constantly has to um shelter herself and like kind of uh pick and choose what word she is because she doesn't want to appear like to put like the angry black ghetto girl and she's like that's a part of what she has to do and um if you're that's like thank you no no thank you for that because obviously star and I think are like okay and if it's fair for me to stay on declare's point that one of the themes in this book that comes out that I think is very relevant is the idea of code switching and the idea that people have to present themselves differently in different environments and that's a real

215and shared experience of people that live in this community um that is really challenging and I think I've heard from several of your earlier speakers about how they saw themselves um they saw themselves represented for the first time ever because they live in a space where their code switching between those communities [Music] um this would be for you guys or Cliffs and Carrie and everybody how do I get another book put on um the um that unit for leadership for parents who choose to opt out how would we get a book adopted onto that that would um be more engaging than the ones that are on there now I sent a couple to carry as options that I had found like the voice of that bar it touches it's a true story anybody knows basketball

216knows about what is it done before I thought that would be a great alternative for students who don't want to read or parents don't want them to read this something as close as I can find without the language that was leadership coming up coming from a rough neighborhood making something of Our Lives you know I would like to be able to play some more engaging book for the students who opt out on the reading list here you can probably speak more to the specific word policy and how that works but what I will say is that the way that adopted curriculum is selected is that it starts with the state it goes to the curriculum developers and then the teachers are the ones that are leading the process with guidance from board policy so Carrie

217gives you to the more policy piece of it but I would I would like to think that our teachers would be a part of that process as well yeah of course and there isn't um there isn't a lot of um ultimately because Edco and other doesn't require for opt-outs other than in the comprehensive sex education um or if there's the formal complaint and so it really is a matter of making sure that our teachers have time to establish an alternative uh assignment for our students uh if if something suggestion part of it is in order for our teachers to do it due diligence they need opportunity to read it right and so there was the aspect of having having the time to develop and plan for right and build out both lessons that go with

218it um the I know October High School on my understanding was initially it was going to be the Odyssey the teachers came together quickly and worked to make the the alternative assignment a town named Alice and instead and they to uh to put that together to ensure that they could prepare something something different and ultimately it was it was left up to the teachers to decide that but that was based off of The Odyssey being um expressed by those who were seeking to opt out as not as engaging and so we are certainly open to ideas for the future as far as what might be a a engaging opt-out option for our students so that that's that's what I'm looking for here like you know we can certainly work towards that the the train has

219left the station so to speak so the the unit has has started and so to ensure that our students have access to material right now um I I'm not sure that it is would be doable in this moment but I I think that but is it doable for next school year absolutely and for maybe I don't know Lincoln High School students as well if they chose to I know you only had one last year but who knows now you guys have got a Learning lesson from us you know you better are you more on the parents ahead of time so you don't get the laugh much we would like the example of what not to do right I think our teachers are committed wholeheartedly to ensuring that our students are are engaging in relevant meaningful

220material and so uh if there is a desire based on feedback like we're absolutely open to and I don't want to speak for the teachers but I'm pretty sure the teachers are going to that's what I would like to know are you willing to look at other alternative books for those family or students who choose the opt out next clear that would be more engaging more at the same level as this book is that you know is intriguing for teenagers to read [Music] any questions anyways just a reminder that we're going to have a board discussion afterwards yes so we have a process in which we are constantly reviewing and evaluating curriculum and we have meetings quarterly with the English Department where we have to cross-site um collaboration days where we work on these types

221of topics and I assume that on our next one this will be a topic of conversation and we will continue to have those conversations but we will follow our procedures and our policies as we do that [Music] thank you [Music] thank you thank you thank you [Music] talk I'm so sorry okay so now we're gonna open it for the board discussion I would ask now the audience is just observing us so um keep the reactions either none or really minimum I mean no yelling out or raising hands or anything or just this is just the board discussion so you can episode any discussion oh let me remind everybody too that we have already agendized looking at this ninth grade curriculum right and English or the English curriculum and the process by which we have done

222all those um I would offer that we also need to go back and look at our controversial policy because if we do not have a definition of a controversial awareness so uh any discussion uh yes first of all I want to thank everybody who stuck around and everybody who came tonight it's an awful lot to ask and uh I appreciate it briefly I'd also like to say that and I can't speak for the entire world but I think I'm accurate in this I don't think anybody here certainly not myself ever wants to ban books I that's one of the worst things you can do I don't think we'll ever do that we have to work around problems that parents have with different folks and I believe that's what we're trying to do here but I

223don't want people to lean thinking this board wants to ban books because that's certainly be inaccurate so foreign that we review um curriculum and how to create a parent advisory parent to be involvement with curriculum too yeah that's part of the process yeah that's an outlined earlier it's as they create their curriculum the teachers the administration parents and the board right can I have all this right thank you discussion okay um hi everyone I'm from Phoenix High School my name is Shelby I am neither for or against this book and don't have much to say about it because this book is not a requirement since my school does not have a 9th grade class and we have a different curriculum because we're a special school but when I asked fellow classmates of mine what they

224thought about this book and what their hold on just a second and what their opinions on the situation we are currently in and I got very very mixed opinions about um the book but a lot of students told me they love the book and called it powerful eye-opening beautiful and inspiring I had never read the book and I understand both sides of the argument and think that we shouldn't ban the book entirely because if you tell a student that they can't read it at all they're going to feel wrong in for reading it or read it and feel like they're getting going to get in trouble if they get caught so we shouldn't ban it because students need to be able to have the chance to read books that will teach them about new situations

225they might not know about I get that parents might have concerns but at the end of the day we're here for the education of students and not the feelings of parents I don't like seeing the language in the book and get how it can make people uncomfortable but at the end of the days kids here and way worse and if you think the cussing and sexual language is the only time they're hearing this and and opting them out is protecting them from having language then you're wrong because they hear and see this type of language left and right just by walking into school or hanging out with their friends thank you [Music] so because this agenda item has attached to it the option for Action I I want to talk a little bit about my

226concerns around action um but before I do that I want to say something to the young people in the room I don't know if you feel this way but I can see how you might feel a little mislabeled or dismissed um I think what you're doing is brave I think in doing that you're growing and I see all of you and I think the fact that we're sitting here debating on how mature you are while you stand out there and present well-articulated arguments really shows the blind spot that might exist on our side of this table so I just want to thank all of you for doing this and for caring because at the end of the day engagement is more important I think I would rather be in an engaging conversation with somebody who's

227wrong than me talking about the weather with somebody is everything so I appreciate all of you and thank you for for doing all that you have done tonight to help us see that thank you specifically to action tonight I'm fearful at the brevity of this meeting it appears or could appear exclusive as if we said quick let's hurry up let's get together and make a decision I do not like in any way the Optics of that and I don't think it Fosters trust so I'm just saying this for the benefit of my board colleagues that to act upon this issue tonight could bear with it that label processes I think as we've learned by the way I had no idea how hard it was to pick books for for high school kids so I mean

228there you go complicated stuff obviously these are very thoughtful processes and two two supersede something very thoughtful with something very brief I think it shines a light on how badly that can go so again my caution is that as we start to wind down here I think action on any part other than to revisit this at the future board meeting we've already established would be irresponsible so that was what I wanted to say could I yeah um so there's just a few things I've wanted to talk about um you claim that we all have one thing in common that we have the students best interests at heart and I am asking you to prove that to be true and I said this last meeting I'll say it again we're discussing an aspect of curriculum and

229the sole group of people affected by curriculum are the students I surveyed 136 students who said that the hate you give was their favorite book they read last year Brooke bird collected over 500 signatures in support of keeping this book in one day several students came here and did you hear a single one of them speak out against the book no you didn't and I should tell you something you would think that you would listen to the one group of people actually affected by whether or not we keep this book if you choose to remove this book from acquired curriculum it it says to me that you don't care to listen to student voice and if you don't care about student voice I I don't know why the three of us are here I don't

230understand how our jobs hold any importance if you don't listen to the voices that we represent so um please prove to me that you do have the students best interest at heart and listen to them [Music] thank you [Music] okay okay can you hear me okay cool that's a good mic um so as Ariana said the students are supporting this and I'm gonna tell you why so I prepared an amazing speech explaining why the sex drugs and conversations about police brutality are important in this book but I don't feel I need to repeat what everyone else has said this book must be included in our district in every school it's our stories and that's why it's so relatable because as much as you want to deny it this book connects to young adults through Reading

231do you understand how hard that is to do when I hear white ignorant teens in my classes saying racist slurs and throwing gang signs they need to know what they're saying they need to know why what they're saying is so damn important I read this book and I'm changed this book could change someone else's life someone may be more accepting with someone else advocate for their own rights lead others and change the world because of this book so yeah the hate you give as many deep deep complex topics and if you're uncomfortable with your child hearing this then talk to them explain yourself conversation how your life experiences have shaped your own beliefs and truly talk to your child if you believe a topic in this book is misguided then explain that to your child

232but please don't ruin a book for everyone because you disagree with one aspect I mean I disagree with Romeo and Juliet I think they were stupid teenagers teenagers shouldn't fake their death and run away together but I don't think we should dismiss their story because every book is not one-sided every topic has multiple perspectives so please don't generalize an entire one and remove it because you disagree with one point of it take a step back and try to understand that please [Applause] okay I just had a couple things to say um I know this book is uh has a lot of controversial topics and it teaches our kids critical thinking um and I really do believe that this is something that our talent needs our city of Lincoln we are not just LHS and we're

233not just 12 Bridges High School we are Lincoln I don't agree with multiple uh academics being taught at different schools they should all be the same and I know I hear different demographics you know that we all can have a better understanding of the people that are in this community every single day with us [Music] yeah and also I just want to note that I have every faith and carry and her cabinet and her principals teachers to do the right thing for our children [Music] I guess I'll finish this up so I'm going to just let the youths know that I am very proud of you for getting up here it is not easy it as a matter of fact I asked her principal to give you extra credit so um we may not all

234agree on everything but please don't think you weren't her tonight because we have been sitting here for five and a half hours on a Friday night listening to you so I hope you know the value that you are and that we do we do all value you up here we also value the parent input of course in the teacher of the administrative income input and with that I would recommend no action tonight on this item well we already have two agenda items coming up then that's when is more appropriate for action on anything that would affect any type of curriculum in this district and would be fair to the administration to the schools to the students so I would recommend no action tonight George yes I agree but I I wouldn't want people here to

235know when the action will be needed thank you it is something that if there is action taken or if there is an action taken that it should be done thoughtfully it should be done with the correct process because we don't want to get this wrong because that is more dangerous than just leaving it as it is right now that's my thought any of us on my thoughts okay [Music] um no this was for discussion and action possible received information they've discussed when they are choosing not to act right yes so there's something to go wrong okay oh my goodness I'm not thank you so cool