001[Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] good afternoon ladies and gentlemen today the board will participate in an equity workshop and if the board deems it necessary a special meeting will follow i now call the board workshop to order at 1 pm on may 26 2021 mrs bass please call the roll district one barbara mcqueen here district 2 alexandria ayala here district 3 karen brill district 4 erica whitfield here district 5 frank barbieri district 6 marcia andrews here district 7 deborah robinson we have quorum with six board members present also joining us superintendent dr donald fenoy general counsel sean bernard inspector general theresa michael and board clerk carol bass senior staff members will join us periodically as directed by the superintendent viewers and listeners can access the meeting today by either
002watching on comcast channels 234 and 235 u-verse channel 99 or by using the youtube link on our web page at palm beach schools schools.org in the event that the link is interrupted for technical reasons please switch over to the tv channels all board meetings are recorded in their entirety and posted on the district website within 24 hours we also offer a listening only option which the public can access by calling 561-357-5900 or toll-free at 1-866-930-7015 the meeting id is 1561-880-1 pound sign this meeting is being transcribed by a closed captioner so remember to speak at a reasonable pace well everyone please stand for the pledge to be led by superintendent fenoy i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god
003indivisible with liberty and justice for all i'd like to welcome any public speakers who are joining us in person today while your attendance here at the board meeting is appreciated please be mindful of important safety protocols that the board now has in place to conform with cobit 19 safety guidelines and school board policies the school district of palm beach county supports the peaceful assembly of persons to express themselves regarding matters concerning district students employees in the community however if such peaceful assembly results in a disturbance those persons may be subject to arrest or other lawful actions so please be respectful of all persons who are present on school disc prop school district property today in an effort to keep all participants and district employees safe everyone must obey all lawful orders issued by law enforcement
004which may include remaining or moving to a specific area location lowering voices for safety reasons or other safety related comment commands please sit only in designated seats do not move any furniture and do not move about the room unless you are speaking at the podium exiting to the right meeting safety protocols and procedures as i have outlined please respect this cautionary warning that in the event of interference with the orderly processes of the meeting failure to follow the safety protocols and procedures or otherwise disruptive conduct will result in removal of the person from the meeting or other action thanking thanking you in advance for helping to maintain decorum and the orderly conduct of school board business before i turn over the workshop to the superintendent we will first hear from in-house speakers followed by recorded
005speakers on the topic of today's workshop as i call your name please come to the nearest podium i'll call you three at a time when you get to the podium it doesn't matter which order you were in out of those three whoever gets there first just take the microphone and please stay your name for the record as you start to speak please watch the clock with a lot of speakers we have uh see we have 45 speakers today so please be mindful of the clock so we can get through everyone in a timely fashion uh if you have three minutes to speak i don't like to cut anybody off but so please don't don't make me do that please try and watch the clock and finish up within the three minutes we'll start with representative
006omari hardy chuck ridley rory gellerman i'm sorry if i mispronounced that one of you all three of you come up and one of you take the podium first hold on a minute what's your microphone on try again can you hear me yes now i'm okay state your name please my name is rory geller mohammed thank you for this opportunity to speak my name is rory geller muhammad and i am here today to express support for the school district's current equity statement i am here speaking as a parent of a three and five-year-old in district three as a licensed clinical social worker a member of organizing against racism palm beach county alliance and today especially i am here representing the palm beach unit of the national association of social social workers also known as the nasw
007the nasw is the largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world with over 100 000 members and 4 259 members in florida i'm standing before you today with my colleagues speaking on behalf of over 500 local members of the palm beach nasw unit many of whom are also parents with children in schools in the district throughout the county not only are we in support of the current equity statement but also here to offer our help in this work as mental health professionals that work in various capacities throughout the county including the school district we understand how important the current equity statement is to ensure that the district is working towards racial equity for students and actively doing the work to dismantle racism and other systems of oppression and inequity as social work professionals
008that work with children youth adults and families we wholeheartedly support the school district's statement and commitment as you have written it to dismantle structures rooted in white advantage and transform our systems by hearing and elevating underrepresented voices sharing power recognizing and eliminating bias and redistributing resources to provide equitable outcomes we know from experience how important this is for the educational well-being of the children and youth in our county in closing as a parent mental health clinician and as a representative speaking on behalf of the over 500 members of the palm beach county unit of the national association of social workers we not only urge you to keep the current equity statement but we are also inspired by it and are here to support you in our community and living up to it thank you i'm
009also a member of the organizing against racism palm beach county alliance and we're calling upon the school board to uphold the current mission and vision statement which is a representation to the commitment of equity for student success the organizing against racism palm beach county alliance is a network of more than 250 individuals representing residents parents nonprofit organizations service providers educational institutions businesses and governments to name a few across the county who want to support each other while deepening our understanding of how to be effective anti-racist we have come together to develop awareness around how racism lives in each of us and in our institutions so it can be strong organized and clear in our efforts to dismantle racism thank you thank you to the boards here the board itself superintendent my name is chuck ridley
010and i represent today the coalition for black student achievement for those who are not aware of who the coalition is our mission and purpose is in our name and we take that and make that statement unapologetically also i'm here to speak in support of the equity statement as currently written i'm not really sure how we got here so let me just start by saying the black children and families of this county deserves better than this from this board your employees deserve better than this from this board and for god's sake you as colleagues deserve better from each other this is absolutely ridiculous for over 25 years the coalition has come to this body advocating for equity and in numerous meetings those of you who are sitting on this board have pledged your support i've watched
011this entire process and not once did i hear from any of you any misgivings around the process and how you ended with the final product in fact i started questioning myself asking had i could have a bad read on you all had you become to understand the very nature and impact of structural racism had you begin to understand how structural racism created genocide created chattel slavery stole mass murder a folk who looked like me and a folk who was here long before any of us got here and i've sat through and watched you as a board challenge when the statement was made by one of your employees and that man lost his career and i saw the passion but i wasn't wrong you are exactly who i thought you were and oftentimes you accused me
012of calling you racist i've never called you racist at a school board meeting that don't mean i haven't called you racist just didn't do it at a school board meeting at school board meetings i call you cowards because you will not stand and i've seen you cave too often to powerful interest so to the remaining of the community nobody is going to come save us so we invite each of you who want to fight for equity for children to join the coalition for black student achievement this saturday look on our website find us and we're gonna tell you how we're gonna organize to end this nonsense after representative hardy'll call three more names be ready please megan bell anita winkas and george borowski go ahead sir okay well um first off uh thank you guys
013for recognizing me and for giving me uh the three minutes during this meeting um my mother retired a few years ago after a three decade long career in education she taught history and so when we did things as a family history education was often infused into it going into the third grade that summer we had a vacation we went up all the way up the east coast we stopped in some cities savannah colonial williamsburg and in williamsburg i bought i bought a toy musket it was the kind of musk that you could hold in your hand but it was very realistic and we had brought our cousins along and so i was playing with my cousin with this toy musket and my mom saw us and she was across the room she rushed over and
014said oh no took the toy musket from me and put it in her person i didn't see that for the rest of the vacation and i asked her i said why are you taking my toy and she said to me i'm not going to allow some police officer to mistake this for a real gun so that he could shoot you now i said in my head not out of my mouth but in my head that this lady's crazy and years later when i saw 12 year old tamir rice played with a toy gun in a park on surveillance camera and i saw him be shot by that officer i realized by the way he was a little older than me i realized what my mother was talking about that is white advantage white advantage is
015being able to do the things that children do and for your parents to not have to worry whether some person looking at this black boy doing a child's thing like playing with a toy gun or walking back from the store as trayvon martin was with skittles and soft drinks white advantage is being able to live your life without having to worry about if those things will kill you so as you guys think about whether you can combat white advantage without calling it out by name i ask you to acknowledge first that it's real that you can't fight it without calling it by name and that what folks in my community need are for our leaders to not be faint-hearted about these issues and to have the courage that's required to do the work of ending
016racism in this country that's all we ask [Applause] [Music] hi my name is megan bell and i'm here to speak in support of the equity statement as it is written first of all i want to say thank you thank you to the board members who are sitting on the diocese thank you for writing the equity policy that you have written thank you for your bravery and thank you for naming names and calling a spade a spade it made me very proud to be a parent of three children in palm beach county school district schools it made me proud to be a teacher and it made me proud to be an alumni to read the equity statement as you wrote it thank you for the time and the effort that you put in to craft that
017statement it is very clear that each word was specifically chosen it's very clear that there's so much time and energy put into that policy when you read it thank you also for putting the 200 000 children that are in your care in your hearts and in your minds as you make decisions on this diocese because you know that you are here to help the children to be strong healthy productive members of society and not to listen to a fringe angry group of parents thank you for acknowledging the world that we live in that we were all born into that has white advantage and thank you for your equity statement which inspires us to build a better world for our children we must name it to know it and to fix it and the equity policy
018as it is written gives words and voice to the systems that we live in as i was talking to community members and family members about this issue people ask me but i know white advantage exists in the world but is it really in palm beach county schools and i had to tell them unfortunately yes it is white children in palm beach county schools are 3.6 times more likely than black students to be in ap classes and because you all keep those children in your hearts you know that that can impact the rest of their lives whether they're in an ap class or not in palm beach county schools black children are 4.2 times more likely than white children to be suspended and because you keep our children close to your heart you know that that
019can have an impact on the rest of their life their ability to get scholarships their ability to go to college their abilities to even stay in their homes also palm beach county schools are considered highly segregated according to national metrics which means that black students are in black schools and white students are in white schools that's not reflective of our communities that we live in but you guys are aiming to do better with this equity statement so i'm asking you to please keep the statement as it is written because naming white advantage is good for all of our students even our white students because if we do not identify white advantage for what it is and we do not name it and acknowledge it then we are taking away from our white children one of
020the best learning tools they could possibly have which is natural consequences as an educator we know that natural consequences are one of the most powerful teachers so please keep the equity statement as it is written for all of our students black white everybody thank you my name is anita winkas thank you for the opportunity to speak i'm a member of organizing against racism palm beach county alliance we are calling upon the school board of palm beach county to uphold the current mission and vision statement which is a representation to the commitment of equity for student act success we stand in opposition to the potential repeal of the recent recently approved school district of palm beach county's equity statement now more than ever it is critical to not only close achievement gaps that have long been
021burdensome to black and brown students but to create a future where every student regardless of race ethnicity gender identity ability and sexual orientation and or other identities achieve educational equity as a voting resident of district 2 i know that removing acknowledgement of white advantage only adds fuel to the false claims that the district is teaching white children to be ashamed of their skin color we know that isn't true and the remedy is not to remove the truth but to educate on the truth the truth is not divisive the truth is not divisive racism is divisive so thank you [Applause] after mr barrowski catherine kamina camineo cindy falco and beverly becker am i on okay hi guys my name is george borowski my sibling and i were born into a one bedroom apartment in brooklyn new
022york we grew up in the inner city streets where everyone looked different but was born into the same struggles regardless of skin tone i had to walk to school and fear every day because of avenue beings when i made it to school it reminded me of my treatment here last week and how i was treated with no compassion for my opinion being met with political police force and metal detectors my middle school in brooklyn felt like a prison windows with metal bars to keep kids inside or being thrown out by gangs in the school it was dirty old buildings covered with graffitis ran by political types like you the color of my skin had nothing to do with the fact i went to public school even though it was hell for me on most days
023to get my high school diploma uh the color of my skin had nothing to do with my choice to work three dead end jobs cleaning bathrooms and flipping burgers while attending community college the color of my skin had nothing to do with the sleepless nights spent studying to get my grades up to transfer from community college to uh to attain my bachelor's degree in economics i always worked low-paying jobs while studying and trying to get my economics degree after college i was finally hired it was because of the hundreds of resumes i submitted relentlessly in finding an employer to give me a shot uh this was because of my effort not my skin color in fact my boss my boss looked differently to me he saw me who for who i was not based on
024my skin color he saw me as a hard-working kid who wanted this job and was going to do the best that he can do for the company after college when i was finally hired all of my hard work was based on 80 hours plus a week working i worked a full-time job and started a business i i maxed out my credit cards to fund my business i worked hundreds of hours a week my full-time job in my business i'm here today to tell you because it's not because of my right advantage it's because of my hard work the message that you're sending to kids is unfair you're teaching them that their skin color is going to put them at a disadvantage it's it's untrue i'm an inner city kid i feed the system what i
025see today is i see political hacks i see something as an adult that i've never thought that i would see i figured out that the path that you were causing for these kids is is basically a path of liberal liberal communism i see that you want to talk about skin color you don't want to teach our kids that they can do anything they can do and that the system isn't rigged against them it's based on their efforts and hard work i have no political affiliation but i happen to look up all your political affiliations and find that most of you are democrats i'm not surprised this is no longer the party of jfk you're now the party of communism you have definitely done a disgrace to jfk in the uh you definitely have made sure
026that i will never register as a democrat [Applause] catherine camillo cindy falco beverly becker first catherine camino catherine camino my name is cindy falco call it what you may but it's the same black lives matter critical race theory now they're trying to fool you with equity embedded system they're changing the word it's all the same lie and it all leads to marxism hatred and murder this is the theater of theatrics and they are using your children to play the part it's straight up communism and hate hate your country hate white people hate anything that is good and true they are teaching your children to turn against you just as hitler did in the time of communism with the jewish people parents wake up do not be deceived by the color coding that they're trying to
027do to confuse you they think they can fool you with nice words and a play on words like equity so you associate it with equality but it's nothing of equality they actually had a workshop on using beautiful words and talking to each other on how they can hide this evil and hatred that they want you and your children to act out here's a few samples they use words like oh we'll use the word embrace or the joy of learning emotional affirm inspire you throw out words like candy to hide the evil that you are doing as many have stated you can't put lipstick on a pig and make evil look good we the people have awoke to your schemes and we will not tolerate one more minute of it deborah robinson says robinson says stop
028killing the children's dreams i say to you stop teaching them to hate and stop muzzling our children they are not your children and they are not yours to experiment on take your hands off of them now frank faber says he wants to bring on board the evil of marxism under the guise of equity embedded system for adoption now really this is neo-marxism parents look it up for yourselves he wants your children he wants to indoctrinate your children he wants to teach your children hate if you're white or if you're black i don't see color i see human beings because we're all created in the image of god and if you keep buying into this system parents about a spin color lighter brown darker brown white or all shades of beige wake up and smell the
029coffee and stop buying into this evil that they're trying to perpetuate on you and myself and who is this mary for takis really she calls herself the educational equity consultant this woman needs to be taken out of her position and i'm going to leave my last words with you but when a long train of abuses and receptions pursuing it is the inaudib it is the duty to throw off such government and to provide new guards for the future i am telling every one of you on the diocese you are fired definition of palm beach county is the following equity means each student regardless of race ethnicity poverty disability language status undocumented status religious affiliation gender identity and sexual orientation will have access to the opportunities resources and support they need to imagine nurture and achieve
030their dreams let us break this down regardless of race my example here is qualifying for the gifted program if you are caucasian and of median income the rules for qualifying under plan a basically a gifted checklist and an iq score of 130 or higher if you are not caucasian and not of median income the rules for you are the same but they're plan b and your score only has to be 112. regardless of disability my example here is a personal one as i have worked in ese for 20 years as an occupational therapy assistant and have seen many inequalities for children with disabilities they have been left out on so many levels school field trips school plays inaccessible playgrounds lack of scholarship and sport opportunities non-verbal students literally have no voice to express even a
031simple yes or no in any format regardless of gender my example here is one question do we offer every sport for every gender regardless of sexual orientation my example here is another question sexual orientation why are we giving equity based on sexual orientation to children ages 3 to 18 who are in school to learn how to read write and do arithmetic why is sexual orientation something we need to give equity to i mean sexual orientation is defined as a person's sexual preference and as we navigate education educating our children amidst social media a rapidly changing society a lack of anything close to normal this last year soaring human trafficking and a billion dollar child pornography industry why in god's name would we even put that language in a public school statement of any kind sexual
032orientation by law in palm beach county where i might remind everyone that jeffrey epstein was arrested for sexual crimes against our children of palm beach county it is a crime for any child under the age of 18 to legally consent to sexual activity again let me ask why are we talking about sexual preferences as it is related to public school education servicing children all of whom are under the age of legal consent it is one thing to come up with statements policies procedures and plan it is a whole other thing to actually implement them and follow them and i personally feel we need less statements policies procedures and plans we need to be kind humans that help all children read write and learn arithmetic because this is school [Applause] i'm not sure if that was
033kathryn kamini or beverly becker she didn't state her name so beverly becker if you haven't spoken come up to the podium if you were catherine camino and you haven't spoken please come up seeing neither one of you look called three more atlanta monath edward delezzo god hello good man hi good afternoon my name is alana monet do not mistake our pants island for acquiesce your voted and entrusted to speak on behalf of the people our children but it is clear you are not fulfilling your job duties and your office last week's meeting mr barbarian said he had no idea what drt was create critical race theory i believe since you have been an elected official for the school board since 2008 when you served as chair and vice pair an excerpt from hillsdale college there
034are a series of euphemisms deployed by its supporters to describe critical race theory including equity social justice diversity and inclusion and culturally responsive teaching critical race theorists masters of language construction realized that neo-marxism would be a hard spell equity on the other hand sounds non-threatening and is easily confused with the american principle of equality there you have it equity embedded school system is not equality and community unity this is programming inciting this division and the laws of children's innocence and here we are today to address the semen of the curriculum you are trying to shut down people's throats under the guise of repetitive descriptive jargon we supplicate people so they are confused by what seems to sound good but don't have the common sense to question it governor desantis said last week if you put
035lipstick on a pig it's still a pig no matter what verbiage you use or change to make it more palatable for the public to agree we know what this curriculum is all about look at the district organizational chart the students parents and community of palm beach county are on top therefore reiterating what the florida constitution it states article 1 section 1 all power political power is inherent in the people we the people decide and choose not you florida constitution 2.01 confirms florida the commonwealth state john adams said a constitution of government once changed from freedom can never be restored liberty once lost is lost forever martin luther king jr said i look to a day when people will not be judged by the clairvision but by the contact of their character this is what we
036want what not anti-americanism indoctrinating equity crt crap and not programs funded by the bill and melinda gates foundation it's fine to play whack-a-mole in palm beach county governor at the scene of this the time is now i yield my time thank you [Music] [Applause] go ahead sir state your name uh good afternoon my name is ed dolezal and i thank you quite frankly aboard for awakening the spirit of we the people in this county you have no idea what you have done and i'm grateful for it i'm here to object to the uh to the community the crt curriculum uh the critical race uh curriculum it is divisive and creates ranker not cooperation and respect for one another i demand you immediately drop and stop this indoctrination of our children there are children not yours
037i recommend you institute intense civics training based on the bill of rights in our constitutions you may want to reread this next i'd like to address mr barb gary arrogan for not recognizing that we the people allow you to serve with our consent ours not yours and we can withdraw it at any time look at your organizational chart by the way the board reports to who we the people that's us also i'm surprised to see miss ayala at this meeting because it's apparently been revealed that she does not live in the district she says she represents it's in the country that can't be tolerated i urge the board to deal with this uh conflict and do it immediately lastly drop indoctrination and return to education and civics oh and by the way as was said
038by my pregas by the previous speaker the governor is going to be addressing the whole critical race theory and will be very aggressive i yield my time [Applause] mr chairman point of information please good miss oil could we please ask all speakers moving forward to refrain from clapping the rest of the meeting during speakers and after yeah i don't think that's going to go over well with as long as they keep order in the room while the speaker's walking up i have no issue with them clapping as long as they're not hollering and carrying on i don't know what's going on in that other room over there the police officer needs to keep those people uh un under control over there because it cuts out the microphone please take care of that go answer a
039state trader all right start my speech does anyone want to make any generalizations about me because of my skin color let me ask you sir do you have a mask on yes i do my name is greg labad and i have two kids in palm beach county elementary school my wife is a palm beach county school teacher it's definitely hard to muster the courage to speak today on such a sensitive topic i'm worried about getting cancelled i'm worried about lee being labeled a racist i'm not a racist but i have to stand up to people like you who divide us and teach the victim mentality to our youth there's more on this topic that unites us than separates us i'm here today because i just don't understand how spending all this time and energy on
040these racist and divisive equity statement helped our children learn reading writing math science history and critical thinking we're seeing other similar racist messages appearing in other areas of school board approved documents the palm beach county gifted endorsement program has a line in it that says white teachers and white children they teach need to understand their position of privilege and need to understand the challenges faced by those who are less privileged because of race class sexual orientation and handicap conditions now you put this equity statement in opposition to systems of oppression and inequality and about wide advantage but there's one hilarious fault in your plan racism is defined as a belief that racist fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race therefore the people who
041made this equity statement is a racist unless you change the definition of racism the hilarious part is that if you read your biographies on the school board website you quickly realize how hypocritical this whole thing is all these people fighting for you know justice and fighting this racist system you are the system all of you sitting up there you are the system of oppression you are the system of inequality and you are the system of wide advantage and how do i know this because when you add up all your years of service you guys have a combined 129 years of leadership in these so-called structures rooted in white advantage that's you guys that made that decision if you were concerned about the children's education you would have held two months of workshops for forest hill
042community high school which ranks 11 447th in the nation maybe you should consider holding two months of workshops for palm beach lakes high school and their 21 reading deficiency and 17 math proficiency maybe you should have spent two months deliberating a statement on how the entire school district of palm beach county only has 53 average reading proficiency and 47 average math proficiency maybe instead of putting a virtue signal statement out you would focus on things like correcting or putting statements out about fatherless homes or single-parent households i was raised to believe that we are all part of one race the human race i implore you to avoid bringing racist divisive neoliberal marxist political philosophy and victimhood mentality into this level of government i implore you to focus your efforts on teaching the educational fundamentals that
043will help our kids on their journeys to becoming productive patriotic members of society we are one american family we are one one american family we're not divided like you guys think thank you for your time with all due respect cindy eldred laura chapman and mandy lip amanda lipke hi and thank you for letting us speak today my name is cindy eldred and i currently have three children attending school in the palm beach county school district and a fourth pretty soon i'm a former educator and have a family full of educators both current and retired i am a product of the florida school system i was an educator in the florida public school system and now i am experiencing florida public education as a parent a little over a week ago as i read our school
044newsletter i was alarmed by the wording of the equity statement the school district of palm beach county is committed to dismantling structures rooted in white advantage i have beautiful christian children that embody all that is good and right in our world they are loving kind compassionate respectful they have good manners morals and values and their teachers would all echo that sentiment recently this divisive rhetoric has been spewed at them daily from all different outlets my children will never be taught to be ashamed of or apologize for who they are based on their skin color nor will they ever be taught to hate others because of theirs after watching the may 19th board meeting it was obvious to me that several of you questioned the viability of the equity statement as written many of you indicated
045at the meeting that you were unsure of the bold and divisive statement you were aware that it would receive pushback from parents yet you proceeded to publish it on the county website without any feedback from your constituents the school system is not the place for some of you to further your political aspirations at the expense of our children who facilitated this equity statement what facts were used to create this equity statement can you predict the outcomes that you believe will be achieved are they identifiable are they measurable will you challenge all the students to discover their best potential for fulfilling future or just some we need to make good decision based on facts not emotions or feeling who is accountable to explain all the research and factual information that went into this statement the board
046needs to be transparent and define the specific steps that will be taken to redistribute resources and provide equitable outcomes how do you plan on identifying and quantifying these equitable outcomes you as members of the school board of palm beach county are responsible for approximately 190 000 students in our schools you're making decisions on behalf of all of our students and we expect that no students will be discriminated against parents deserve to know to what structures would be dismantled and why you specifically chose the word white there obviously are programs that you have in mind and have thoroughly researched in order to be so committed to dismantling them i would ask that each of you clarify what you are referring to in writing and post it on the website just like you did this statement the
047board's judgment is contradictory in its definition of equity and every parent should be concerned with your policy making decisions looking forward you can change the statement but you already have a predetermined agenda here in palm beach county we're a very diverse community all different nationalities and walks of life are living and working side by side you guys have an important task to ensure that students have all your time is up time we'll be successful your decisions have to be better because your decisions have consequences for all of our children okay my name's amanda lipke i am really here to talk to the parents garden guardian guardians and students the taxpayers the true stakeholders in all of this since you won't we need to continue to rally the governor is behind us and more support means
048less funding for this mess and more funding going towards actual tangible resources for our students and teachers i think we all agree on the need for equality and the importance of advocating for all children this is not equity equity is rooted in marxism and the mission statement is filled with the exact same jargon as other radical school districts like beaverton not focused on academic achievement but rather social justice if we focus solely on two words like white advantage then we are missing the bigger picture here because if you take those words away this board has still taken the leadership role on of creating a divisive and marxist agenda for our kids and even worse in a year of a pandemic they have taken an eye away from what should be the main focus and rather
049put that time energy and money towards crt ideology focusing on pushing in doctrine in schools by hiring a consultant from washington state to work on this equity statement holding multiple workshops at times that are not hard for us that are very difficult for us as shareholders to attend and also funding culturally responsive leadership training which is their talk for crt and is currently available on the teachers union website for teachers to take the board has shown where their priorities lie i am asking all parents to get involved please do your research at how crazy this stuff is i know people say here come the karen's because the white we use the white word or we're talking about white kids i have a kindergartner and a wonderful teacher my kid my entire family we are all
050white black and brown all different religions backgrounds gay and straight we know who we are with open minds and hearts we aren't afraid to have the tough conversations as you say and raise good kids because raising my kid is my job it is not yours i am more angry that you are not doing your job that is why i am here quit spending my money on this crap get world-class resources to the children and teachers equally set them up for success you have not even peaked at this job i would like to thank megan bell for the stats that have perfectly outlined how you have not peaked at this job check the reading and writing percentages you're focused on this memo why kids struggles with reading and writing why are high schools doing worse than
051miami-dade this whole mess is led by adults seeking some sort of racial justice and they're using our kids to get there it is time for us to redirect focus and funding thank you [Applause] after laura chapman jennifer show walters jameson sodalongo and allison ramperstad laura chapman good afternoon board members and dr fenoy thank you for allowing me to speak today i have heard that being on the school board can often be a thankless job so i wanted to show my gratitude for the time and effort that you do put in it's never easy and certainly not easy now but my reason here is to make a few comments about the equity statement specifically the line about white advantage i knew when reading that statement a few weeks ago that it would cause an uproar i
052study language and communication such as meaning through words implied intent as well as the misunderstandings between sender and receiver dismantling structures rooted in white advantage is ambiguous phrase perhaps purposely so it confuses people and when people become confused especially when their children are involved they become scared and when people are scared they become angry as you saw last week so i hope my comments today can possibly help you in the rewriting of this statement for starters ambiguity helps not one single person not you his elected board members not schools not parents and certainly not students be specific in your communication about new policy changes for example a school board in virginia voted to eliminate advanced math for the sake of equity agree or disagree at least it's specific when you offer specifics you allow parents
053to form a more educated decision on whether to enroll or disenroll their child from the public school system and also who and who not to elect to the school board second explain why you believe these changes need to take place why do you believe the school system of palm beach county is failing certain groups what's gone wrong and what about these structures what does the word structure even mean in this context why is there white advantage in this county in the first place be specific and this brings me to my last point rather than focusing the equity statement on those who you claim have white advantage why not focus on building up the communities you want to help why tear down one group to help another is that what equity is why not simply focus
054on the people you believe need more help and more access and tell us why we want to help remember please be specific we're counting on you as elected officials thank you um again before you start my clock i've got a copy of my speech and i'll make sure to email you it and i also have some documentation on uh numbers for the patreon please yes i'm jennifer walter you want to talk about white advantage tell that to my son back there who had to be pulled from his critical educational instruction made all the more so by his ese issues in order for us to be here since she scheduled this right before parent pickup i wish you could tell that to my west virginia coal mining great grandpa who died from black lung caused by
055coal dust my father was the first of his family to attend college he worked while studying dropping out for a while to earn enough to go back living off tomato sandwiches in an old trailer growing up with hand-me-down clothes sewn by his granny privilege does not come with a color privilege is a false narrative success in life comes from regardless of whatever circumstance you are in excellence and achievement comes from a family and community involvement where work ethics and values like personal responsibility are instilled we aren't living in 1863 we aren't living in 1963 we already have constitutional amendments and laws against racism there are still problems yet to be overcome but you are trying to deny over 60 years of substantial progress some of you spent decades on this board working in education up
056to 44 years so if you're saying that this there that there's this systematic illegal crisis needing to be eradicated then that's all on you your assertion is correct if your assertion is correct you've allowed employees to act in a racist manner without termination you created the policies the procedures and the selected the curriculum where's the documented evidence that completed state investigations to validate your assertion of systematic white advantage and racism why can't the public access that data let's talk terms equity is not the equivalent of equality equity is a critical race theory term equality is providing everyone the same opportunity receiving the same computer solid curriculum and proficient teachers it frees us to use our talents and natural desire without restrictions along with a strict work ethic to reach our potential equity on the other
057hand means everyone gets the same outcome whether they work hard or not have talent or not it's like a class getting assigned a test some study hard while other others go out and party they take the test the teacher comes back and says everyone has a c equity is teaching to mediocrity it is not teaching to excellence this is to distract us from your fostered mediocre educational system our pre-covet 2019 scores were only 53 percent county reading proficiency palm lake palm beach lakes high was at 21 worse the county math proficiency was at 47 with boynton beach community at 16 and a vomit-inducing college ready index of 28 out of 100 with palm beach lakes high at 9. so how much are we spending on our education again a whopping 3.8 billion dollars where is
058that money going you're teaching emotions but yet the children can't read or write these numbers highlight our kids are struggling with basic proficiency how about you stop focusing on our skin and instead encourage and foster mindsets directed at personal responsibility and work ethic the real question the board should be asking since you've been in charge of the whole system for decades why can't our kids read or do math parents need to be asking why are you i'm sad ma'am yes sir why are you still on the board thank you uh i'm waiting for everybody's attention first please thank you good afternoon i'm jamison serlongo mother of two biracial children in the palm beach county school district as school board members you swore to uphold the constitution in your application along with the state of florida
059i'm sorry to interrupt you pull your mask up please can i get my time started again i'll start over and pull the microphone up so we can hear you mark restarter time thank you good afternoon i'm jamison sotalongo mother of two biracial children as school board members you swore to pull the constitution your application along with the state of florida that means we the people are supposed to be considered one nation under god with equal rights for all i sat and listened to your board meeting on 4 14. miss whitfield miss quinn you both really seem to like the word embrace being part of the mission statement i hope you'll embrace what i'm about to say is with as much compassion and intention my sixth grade daughter came home with a permission slip to watch
060the movie the giver on friday being that this is a board-approved book i assume that you've all read it and know it well when i spoke to her principal he advised me that he had never seen the movie but approved its viewing because the board approved the book i considered myself to be an informed and involved parent until friday i was unaware that my daughter was reading this book because it wasn't allowed to go home with her for those that don't know this movie is about a utopian society where the past was erased from everyone's memory sounds like the current canceled culture we live in to me obedience is demanded by the elite elite tell them what to wear eat sleep play what job they will have being for women being forced to have babies
061only to have them taken away raised by others they murder infants by lethal injection to the brain if they don't thrive to their standards worse scenes with blood body parts flying mandatory daily vaccines to numb the independent thinking and feelings such as love joy sadness it's what they determined sameism climate control a reason they claim to implement utopian city do you think this sounds good so far don't be so quick to say no because in the book they'll murder you for not following the rules head of the elite states at the end of this book people are weak when people have the freedom to choose they choose wrong every time any of us sound familiar with what we're experiencing today how is this embracing our children how is this nurturing them to achieve their dreams
062one kid saves the entire population shows them the truth only in this real life situation it's the parents waking up all at once and fighting back mask mom the permission slip said is to compare contrast plot elements in the theme and novel and film wouldn't the movie and book wonder be better suited for teaching equality can you read can you rename critical face um sorry you can rename critical race theory by calling it equity but we parents see through this we should be teaching our children how to build them up not how to divide them with your rhetoric you've allowed brain pop into our schools already and it's disgusting i'm not sure what else you have up your sleeves but know that we parents are woke and won't stand for it if you haven't heard
063yet we're coming after your seats via recalls and voting you out so don't get too comfortable up there you're creating division not equality which makes you a racist if you support this shame on all of you some of these go ahead ma'am good afternoon i'm alison ramperstad phd 30 years plus educator in college business and technology in palm beach county critical race theory that's what we're talking about not about history not civics not culture not education it's about not even about learning uh literacy or skills development it's pure marxism it's divide and conquer it's rewriting our history and it's unacceptable for our children it's based in lies everybody knows that the united states didn't exist in 1619. it's undermining our children's future with indoctrination it's dividing our country's citizenry i could go on now your
064mission statement on your website to educate affirm and inspire each student what does that even mean three minutes doesn't give it justice but i'll do my best let's start with educate english math sex ed history pornography usual stuff oh my bad i forgot global warming our children are force-fed misinformation daily carbon dioxide it's bad it's bad it's harming the environment it's killing the planet biology features where are you humans need oxygen to live we breathe out the carbon dioxide the freeze the plants take carbon dioxide convert it back to oxygen hey oh wait a minute the children are being forced to breathe in carbon dioxide while wearing a mask for six to seven hours daily so what it's okay for the kids but it's not okay for the planet what kind of science is that
065next affirm what's being affirmed you're black you're white you're hispanic and your point is mission statement says each student doesn't say black white brown just students oh and parents we'd rather that you didn't know exactly what we're teaching your kids will the real racists please stand up okay on to inspire let's encourage the children by telling them they're victims oppressors good guys bad guys toxic non-binary you live in a racist country based on the color you're in you're never gonna get ahead because well somebody's great great grandfather had slaves and we gotta have reparations how the hell does that motivate anybody what are you people doing please look at the organizational chart that i provided for you ever seen it who's on top it's not you students parents the community that's who you work for
066i suggest you educate yourselves in critical race theory it's gonna set race relations in this country back a hundred years bottom line this is not education it's an agenda based on hatred skin color and control children should be pulled out of any school that attempts to teach this crap kids are not born hating they are taught to hate you can change that stand and deliver for our children no critical race theory in our schools angela salvatore david dicrenchenzo jonathan lauren ladies and gentlemen in this room just understand one thing about the mask there are people that came here today that are afraid to come to the building without everybody having mass on that's why we're requiring mass in this room if you don't want to wear your mask we made arrangements for you to go
067to the room next door where you can certainly take your mask off but please keep in mind there are people in this room that are afraid to sit next to you if you don't have your mask on or have you come up and speak at the diocese without the mask on so please keep that in mind when we're telling you to put your mask on state your name for the record when you come up there sir and go ahead my name is jonathan lauren i'm a parent of a five-year-old in palm beach county the only way to get hurt in today's social media fueled society is to be offended apparently being offended somehow elevates the concerns of the offended to a higher priority status well the day has come where i believe the grievance i
068have with the school board is so dire that i'm going to utter this phrase i am offended i am offended that our five-year-old son is being subjected to a learning environment that is less concerned with his ability to read write and reason but rather understand skin color and gender identity are what defines a person i am offended that because of my son's skin color he is assumed advantage therefore resources for his education will be diverted to other to others deemed more deserving based on which checked box the school board deems more worthy i am offended that the school board is so drunk with power that they believe they no longer need to hide their overt racist ideology children are not racist beings it is taught to them by those in authority but it is a
069parent teacher be a parent teacher family member or in this case the palm beach county school board the idea that someone is different than others based solely on the color of their skin is racist this is what i teach my child and i expect the people i entrust with my son's education to be teaching this as well i am all four children having a fair shot getting equal opportunity and becoming productive member of society this cannot however come at the expense of my or any other children's opportunity i will not sit back and watch as my son is tossed aside and deemed less worthy for the educational resources for which my wife and i pay simply because he's checked the wrong box in the eyes of some bureaucrat this is wrong and the board knows
070it this is why they have already backed backpedaling as we speak it's too late the cat is out of the bag your stance has well been well established you can change your phraseology in your mission statement it will not change the fact that this board has this theme for one skin color over the others our only recourse is to vote every one of you out of your position on this board lest we raise a generation of victims and children that are defined by racial lines make no mistake we are more than ready to do so at our first opportunity the board stance beliefs and behaviors are disgusting and we should never be tolerated period with an annual budget of 3.8 billion dollars every child should have more than enough resources to learn what is paramount
071to getting a basic education reading writing and arithmetic and what cost is your execution good afternoon my name is david dicrocenzo i stand before you today in this room of massless people which by the way all of you and people like you around the country created this mess but anyway i stand before you today as a concerned citizen and as a former candidate to sit on the very board that i am now addressing now i was not successful in my bid to be on that boy but i had an agenda then and i have an agenda now and it should be your agenda and that agenda is really simply this everybody sitting in this room the parents and students of palm beach county the parents and students around florida and around our nation you guys
072are dropping the ball with this kind of nonsense you talk about inequity you talk about white privilege please explain to alan west and um dr ben carson and thomas soul and candace owens and so many other successful black people who didn't have so-called white privilege they got off their butts and they made something of themselves because they're talented they're intelligent and they don't have to be told that they can't get ahead because of the color of their skin this nonsense around america and around the world really it has to stop it's going to start right here in palm beach county because you guys are on notice some of you are going to get elected out i believe that some of you by legal met are going to find yourselves on the outside looking in really
073soon every one of you as people have said already should be ashamed of yourselves and i do want to address something that one of the first speakers said she said she referred to us me and the people in this room and most of the people in your room around the country crazed angry parents well you know what none of us are crazy because i think you guys are crazy for the you're doing excuse my french but we're angry and we got a right to be angry because you guys are messing with our children parents have a right and to decide how their children are going to be taught and what they're going to be taught this liberal nonsense must come to an end and that's all i really have to say i'm going to um
074just because i'm going to get angry and i don't want to do that and it's not for anybody that's listening but i will just say this i am very angry and i know most of these people are and we have a right to be and you guys are going to get the brunt of that have a night [Applause] after this lady reverend paul king patsy davis and jordan smith go ahead ma'am my name is angela salvatore i'm here to give a voice to those who are opposing the new agenda of critical race theory now change to equity learning about this i could not believe the subject in this agenda was about first off first off teachers have no role in teaching children children's sexual preference secondly i was horrified to learn that you want to
075teach our children that our white kids have advantages and are inherently racist as you call it white privilege our kids of all ages have a hard enough time feeling confident about themselves and now you want to segregate segregate our white children and tell them they are racist your program wants to classify divide our children and we are not going to allow our children to be treated this way i cannot believe the very people who are serving the board and our children's interests are even implementing such a program this idea will not only teach our children hate one another it also will teach our children to see capitalism as a bad idea and to teach our children welcome into socialism you want a program to change history and teach our children to hate our country and
076to focus only on the worst of america how it was founded your idea is to overthrow the capitalist class and bring in a socialistic society this marxism and this idea is aimed at brainwashing our children to destroy our country and i'm here to let you know that we as taxpayers will not pay for your marxism socialistic and racist program this is not the solution we will not sit idly by we can agree that there is work to be done on having equality for all to learn from past inexcusable actions and more can be done to help all children just a few ideas would be better busing or better choice programs for all families but your solution is not what the community wants it is shocking in how the board with the exception of mrs sanders
077has ignored the voices of the parents and rule in your own personal opinions and political agendas the community you continue to ignore pay for these seats and have the privilege to serve not rule in closing i need to say to the board who think that our schools are biased and only serve privileged children so that you're implementing this new agenda to better serve those who are unjustly treated but why should we trust you with another new agenda this progressive liberal ideology has plagued our school system long enough you need to take responsibility that our pr our problems we are facing are an outcome of this one-sided progressive and liberal control and has gone on for decades it's time that our parents take back our schools and demand their children once again understand and are taught
078the constitution and to learn about america's core value we need leaders who represent every child based on race color religion gender sexual preference identity disability national origin and every background so that all children will have the chance at the american dream lastly remove our mass from our children now stop the abuse the time's up ma'am and governor desantis governor desantis we need [Applause] reverend o king patchy davis good afternoon my name is paul kane and i'm here in support of the equity statement as it is currently written first and foremost i want to thank you for your service to the children to the families and to the wider community here in palm beach county i serve as rector of st paul's episcopal church and day school in delray beach we have an after-school program that
079just celebrated its 21st anniversary with 32 haitian american children enrolled a program in which they receive dinner and tutoring and many other resources to help them flourish i also serve as the dean of the south palm beach deanery of the episcopal diocese of southeast florida in which we have 10 churches and three schools i am a member of the executive board of the diocese of southeast florida i'm also a member of the south palm beach deanery's committee for racial healing and congregational histories i've served as a pastor here in south florida for over 25 years and on a personal note i am the father of a palm beach county public school graduate i'd like to share this statement from bishop peter eaton who is the bishop of the episcopal church in southeast florida and this
080statement is on the wording of the equity statement of the palm beach county school board the episcopal church under whose oversight there are 19 schools in southeast florida including palm beach county is very sensitive to the reality that we are living in very challenging times in which we are managing a great deal of change the last 15 months has have caused us all to re-examine how we live together how we relate to one another and the values by which we want to live the challenges of covid have placed unwanted but necessary restrictions on our lives and only recently due to the vaccine we are beginning to see a return to normal lifestyles where some restrictions can be lifted at the same time we have had to face the social reality that the killing of george
081floyd has brought so sharply into focus and the need to face the reality of who we are as a people and as a nation there is no return to pre-pandemic world either when it comes to covid or when it comes to racism in our society we cannot return to a world view that denies the truth about who we have been as a nation and who we are as a people we must continue to review our history and seek ways to bind up the wounds that exist between us as fellow citizens who share a common heritage of freedom equality and justice reverend king your time is up thank you and i'm sure my congregation would love one of those timers for my servant jordan smith for the record board chair board members and my district's representative
082ayala i stand here in support for the document in its current format thank you all for the hard work that you do every day and caring for our near 190 000 students and i can't imagine the stress and sleepless nights you have all navigated this year and you've guided our students through covet and through the renewed conversations about race in our country i have lived and worked in palm beach county in district 2 since immigrating here from scotland in 2015. i work as a pastor and as a community activist and i see the needs of our community first hand i am part of the organize against racism coalition who you've heard from some of my colleagues today i commend you for your bravery and including powerful anti-racist language in your report the school district as
083we have heard states its mission is to educate affirm and inspire each student in an equity embedded school system for this to happen students need to be seen and affirmed as beautiful and gifted just as they are and all and acknowledges all the things that they bring into the classroom with them how can we purport to provide our students with first-class education preparing them for the world and we continue to enclose a hierarchical system and a system that distorts history we must acknowledge where equity gaps exist and call them what they are the consequences of generations of targeted racist policy that disenfranchises students of color as it did to their parents and to their grandparents white advantage frames this history in a way that acknowledges this just because it is uncomfortable and we get pushed
084back doesn't mean it is not worth doing to conceive would be a gesture or of deference to those who would ban any form of education that is remotely critical of history or of our story as a nation we have to commit to being honest about our past and our present in order to recognize the dignity and worth of all students so that we may build a better tomorrow for our children and for our country board members thank you all for the work you do every day and the time that you give to our county's children i ask you to keep the original language of the statement as it is written my name is patsy davis i have five kids three have already gone through the school system two are still in the palm beach county
085school system since we are here discussing the equity statement i feel like we should probably look at the definition of some of these words we're talking about equity means being fair and impartial okay so impartial means that you're going to treat everyone equally okay well equal means the same so a true equity statement means that we should be treating everyone the same but you've not really written an equity statement because you're talking about treating children differently based on their color all this talk of dismantling structures transforming our system sharing power redistributing resources providing equitable outcome that's all a political agenda and it has no place in our schools you're teaching our children to look at social and cultural issues through a lens of race and ethnicity as opposed as opposed to a lens of hard
086work of opportunity they won't have equal outcomes they can't have equal outcomes they're not exactly the same person with exactly the same strengths weaknesses or interests so they won't have the same outcomes they should have the same opportunity to try to achieve those outcomes that they desire we should be teaching our children to strive for excellence not teaching them that they can't achieve excellence because of the color of their skin or conversely that all their hard work had nothing to do with what they've achieved because it was just given to them i'm all for equal opportunity but you don't punish and to me one group a child children give to another and then expect any of those children to ever actually try to work hard or be the best that they can be you're pushing
087our children towards segregation where we teach treat them as part of a preset group instead of as an individual and that's exactly how they should be treated as an individual you're teaching them to judge someone based solely on the color of their skin you're asking our children to call each other out and reject each other based on the color of their skin we need to be uniting our children and not dividing them we need to teach them to look beyond the color of someone's skin and see the person inside you want my daughter to consider herself an oppressor of one of her best friends just because that friend happens to have a different skin color than her or worse you want her friend to think she can't accomplish anything on her own or with her
088own hard work because my daughter has oppressed her it's absolute garbage and it is so hurtful to all of our children our children are a multitude of colors they are all part of the same human race and need to learn to love each other and help each other let them work together let them encourage and strengthen each other stop trying to divide them and tear them apart jennifer coleman blake hanley richard bacillottie good afternoon thank you for the opportunity to be heard today and for all that you do for children and families in palm beach county my name is jennifer coleman i'm a white mother of two white daughters one is an eighth grader at independence middle school my other daughter is a sophomore at william t dwyer high school i live in palm beach
089gardens represented by barbara mcquinn in district 1. let me start by sharing i am in support of the board's equity statement in its entirety inclusive of the language white advantage my husband and i believe and my daughters who approved this statement that it is of particular importance to make visible the unequal experiences families of color face in all of our systems including the education system using words like white advantage are critical to achieving the goals in the equity statement all students reach personal and academic success white advantage may be difficult for white people to hear it first which we've heard today it was for me but when i truly tried to understand its meaning i realized the truth and my advantages peggy mcintosh is unpacking the invisible knapsack lists experiences that reflect white advantage and
090unfortunately my black and brown co-workers friends acquaintances cannot count on most of these conditions my white skin affords me these same advantages like if i should need to move i can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area that i can afford and i would want to live and i can be pretty sure that my neighbors will be neutral or pleasant to me i can go shopping alone most of the time pretty well assured that i won't be followed or harassed when i'm told about our national heritage or about civilization i am shown that people of my color made it what it is i can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race whether i use checks credits or cash i can
091count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability i can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them i can swear or i can dress in secondhand clothes or not answer letters without having a tribute these choices to the bad morals the poverty or the illiteracy of my race i can speak in public today to a powerful group without putting my race on trial i can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race i am never asked to speak for all of the people of my racial group i can criticize our government and talk about how much i fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider i can be pretty sure that
092if i ask to talk to the person in charge i'll be facing a person in my race if a traffic cop pulls me over or if the irs audits my tax return i can be sure i haven't been singled out because of my race i can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having co-workers on the job suspect that i got it because of my race so i respectfully request the board to keep the equity statement as it is currently written so that we can move towards a just future for all of our children [Applause] [Music] [Applause] good afternoon board members my name is blake hanley i am an attorney a member of organizing against racism palmies count county and i am here as a new parent of a one-year-old child who we
093would like to attend palm beach school system in district four i would like to applaud the board's equity statement as originally written including the phrase the board is committed to dismantling structures rooted in white advantage i thank you for your courage in writing this you all knew you would face backlash as a result of writing this but you stood on the side of truth and on the side of all of our children the term white advantages acknowledges the problem as the board is aware that national and local research and data time and time again show disparities by race in almost every area of life including our educational system where we consistently see far better results for those who are white like myself white people of goodwill may think acknowledging this fact itself is divisive and
094speaking about the truth often is but i believe we must acknowledge the fact of white advantage in order to end systemic racism in our schools and do better for black and brown students furthermore white advantage does not mean that we white people do not have any disadvantages it just means that white people are not disadvantaged by their race and we must be able to talk about race we must acknowledge the past and the realities of our present in order to create a new feature for all of our children i ask you keep the original language as written thank you [Applause] dr richard vascilotti michelle gross emmy kenny and karen holm hello good afternoon my name is emmy kenny and i serve on the district's diversity and equity committee on behalf of the palm beach county
095human rights council i also taught in the district for a few years and i was a student in the district as well so i care about it deeply and i'm here to weigh in on this issue because that's what the diversity and equity committee is for to weigh in on issues exactly like this um and i am urging you to stand by the statement that you carefully wrote and passed so i'm not going to stand here and try to prove to you that racism or white adventure advantage is real because you know that it is and i'm not here to convince any parents of anything because i think that would take longer than three minutes but i am here to remind you of this working towards equity is never easy there will always be resistance
096when school boards desegregated schools in the 60s there were a lot of angry parents who did not want that to happen luckily that didn't stop that from happening and we're at a moment in history where we are pushing towards equity and there will be resistance but you didn't put out the statement because someone said it was going to be easy you did it because it's the right thing to do so you have the facts you have the stats that show you that there are major inequities in this district and i applaud you for taking those head on and i would just like to echo what other people have said where the language in this equity statement is not creating division because the division is already there the division is just being named and and that's
097tough when we have to confront racism when we have to confront these difficult truths about our society it makes us scared it makes us have to reckon with things with reckon things within ourselves and and that's not easy to do so this is your first test of many the decision you make today is going to send a message to all of the teachers your staff your students and their families it's either going to say that you take this equity statement seriously and you're willing to make the difficult choices to to make those words actions and and make real change happen or you can send the message that you you don't really it's another empty promise that you are willing to bend to the will of a few angry parents rather than stand up for the
098thousands of students of color who need you to stand up for them you can't fix a problem if you don't name it first so that's why this is important and i think that if you go back to the facts that led you to make the statement in the first place you'll pass this test with flying colors thank you richard vasilati about me for 30 years i wore an american flag on my sleeve and a badge on my chest risking my life to serve all races i did it equally fairly and without prejudice now i believe there is much confusion between these terms of equality and equity nace the national association of college employers says the term equality means providing the same to all equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same
099place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances it's obvious that we do not all start from the same place but it's how we start and which path we choose to live our life on and this begins in the home school district defines equity as each student regardless of race ethnicity poverty gender etc will have access to the opportunities resources and support they need to imagine nurturing achieve their dreams that actually sounds like an equality definition not an equity definition as i mentioned previously an excerpt from the equity statement states the school district is committed to dismantling racism and i truly believe that every single person wholeheartedly in this room and abroad agrees with that statement are against racism the next paragraph states achieving racial equity requires proactive and continuous investment in historically marginalized groups
100who have endured centuries of systemic oppression the district is committed to dismantling structures rooted and white advantage so your first paragraph really sounds like equality your second paragraph is committed to dismantling racism then your third paragraph goes full-blown racism blaming white people for the shortcomings of others you have called for the smailing of structures rooted in white advantage does this mean you want me to dismantle my children for busting their butts to be the best they can be do you want my children to stop earning the multitude of awards they receive each year would you feel better if my children acted out and got suspended and lowered those grades just so you can alter the numbers in your powerpoint for today's agenda no one will ever dismantle the way my family is the way they
101are raised the kindness and support my children show and give to all of their peers of all races and no one will ever dismantle my children's spirit this brought this board bringing the term white advantage into why some students excel over others is racist divisive ugly and frankly every board member should be utterly embarrassed to deploy such a statement not every white person has an advantage not every black or brown person has a disadvantage and racism does come in all colors racism in palm beach county should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis not a blanket statement blaming white people cbs 12 also reported the other day this board's intent to close the achievement gap what exactly does that mean it means suppressing those that excel and attempt to boost others your equity statement is
102a goal this board wishes to achieve our goals are to be realistic and attainable and i truly believe that this board deep down inside knows that this is not an attainable goal thank you good job state your name please hi i'm karen holm i would like to remind everybody that the school district uses what they call school-wide positive behavior support for the district pbs is a proven research and evidence-based method to have students behave in a way that is conducive to learning by emphasizing positive behavior and de-emphasizing negative behaviors the district has been using this system for years and years it says quote promotes fairness ability acceptance of diversity as well as mutual respect your latest equity statement however is in direct conflict with pbs to illustrate your positive system i'd like to tell you
103a story my boys were about two and four years old when we went to play in the kitty area at the wellington green my boys were running and climbing all over the play structures interacting with the other children they were of all different colors black brown and white then i saw the black woman who was sitting next to me take out a bottle of soda pop her kids stood in front of her and her purse their lips in the era she gave them all sips of soda pop my son stood right next to her children and he perked his lips too waiting for his turn it was absolutely adorable there was this tiny black brown skin boy with long black curls and my kids claiming they're as white as whipped cream and pin straight blond
104hair standing next to each other with their tiny purse waiting for soda pop my son didn't seem color he didn't see a black mom he saw a nice lady giving soda pop it occurred to me at that moment that i had never taught him to see color i taught him to say nice words not hit his brother take turns play nice with others i taught him character when he got into the palm beach county schools i still did not teach him to see color i emphasized character i'm pretty sure that he knew didn't teach him to see color either he brought home all sorts of friends from school that were all different colors my boys are adults now and they have black french jamaican friends mexican friends gay friends straight friends by friends they were
105never taught to see color because they only see character at home they were taught to how to interact with all others at your school your teachers promoted this positive behavior it was for everybody ebs is positive behavior support for everybody your policy of using pbs promotes fairness civility acceptance of diversity as well as mutual respect i encourage you all to keep it this way and continue to help raise kids like mine after the next lady speaks angelique contreras jason moreno and amanda just did go ahead ma'am hello my name is angelique contreras and i'm a proud american of cuban and european ascent we have a race crisis that has been created in the minds of people only by the mainstream media and a few powerful yet feckless leakers in our government who must create a
106credit this to fix as one does not exist in today's present day our kids should be learning about math science language arts history and geography among other things kids should just be kids they are really equally influenced in schools and critical race theory in essence teaches them this country was founded on racism and that our whole system was on racism this is leading them to believe that they can't be more than the color of their skin and society my cook my question to you is what structures in palm beach county were rooted in white advantage where is your data that shows this to be fact the answer is you have not shown us the data to support white advantage exist in palm beach county your statement that there is white advantage is in fact racist
107what you are doing as a board is putting politics over our children's education you are risking the necessary federal funding that is required for our children to get the proper education they need to succeed by pushing this agenda in 2020 zinc board for children to stay home and deprive them of in-person learning in doing so who are the only ones to blame for their decline in academics not racial equality a part of critical race theory shows how race has been used with a tool for those in power to stay in power and make money if that is correct that also applies to you dr fenoy and every member of this board critical race theory reveals how race has been used as a tool to create and exert power in ways that affects everyone of all
108races economically and politically it exposes those who have used race as a pool for their own political and economic gain what you are doing by highlighting this and pushing it on our children is solely to show your abusive power and position as superintendent and as school board members your focus must be on our kids and their education not the color of their skin and dividing them and i'll leave you with this passage found in the bible it is better to be a poor but wise youth than an old and foolish king who refuses all advice all right ma'am good afternoon i'm michelle gross i'm a parent living in district five with a daughter who graduated from dreyfus and a son who is currently a junior at spanish river as a white mom with white children
109i'm here in support of keeping the language in the carefully developed equity statement as is including and especially the words white advantage i want to express my gratitude for the work you do on behalf of every child in the district as our school board members you have a tremendous responsibility to expose our children to more than academic learning you set the stage in modeling values that create a better more humane world for all of us promoting lifelong critical thinking and learning skills your dedication is clear until a few years ago i wouldn't have thought to define myself as white that's because of white advantage i don't have to think about my race or my children's the world we live in was created with white people at the table white people represented in preschool picture books
110white people making decisions about curriculum in a system created long ago to educate white children if we don't take specific steps to write this injustice then we're not creating strong examples of learning from our past for our children speaking here today is completely out of my comfort zone and that discomfort is okay because the alternative is far worse the alternative is demonstrating acceptance of our current reality that contributes that continues to ignore white advantage and perpetuates racist systems i often question myself as a parent what can i do better what should i have done differently last night i celebrated a win and because i saw hope in a better future through the eyes of my kids i knew i needed to use my own voice and be here today they each posted on their social
111media support for continued anti-racism war on the day we celebrated the life of george floyd one year after his murder let's all be real let's advocate for our younger generations be role models and face the unjustness of our current systems let's stay strong grow and learn as a community contrite confront white advantage and work to change thank you [Applause] wait man good afternoon board and superintendent my name is amanda jested i am an attorney and i am a mother i have two children in palm beach county public schools and i'm here to speak with my strong support of the school board's equity statement as written including the statement that the school board intends to work to the goal of dismantling structures rooted in white advantage recognizing structural weight advantage is imperative to achieve equity and
112it is not a moral condemnation of white people as some has suggested or white students nor does recognize it create divides along lines of race to the contrary it should unite us there is a concept of white advantage that i think the board educators and fellow parents might benefit from considering i know i have as a white parent of white children imagine if you could ask a fish swimming along in our beautiful ocean how was the water fish if fish could talk i imagine the fish would say what is water the fish swimming along with no reason to notice the water it moves through structures rooted in white advantage are the water for those of us who are white who are like fish and water like my children it is not obvious or even apparent
113to us that we are swimming through water but that water is full of toxins and dangerous currents overt racism implicit bias structural inequities if we don't examine them and just keep swimming oblivious to the water quality we do a great disservice to all students these things cannot be ignored by the people who they impact and i would argue that they are toxic to all of us only white parents have the luxury of choosing not to talk to white children like my children about these toxins and dangers in the water people of color have always had to talk to their children about racism and structural inequities from a young age white parents have chosen i think in some instances without malice to teach their kids to be colorblind and many parents have advocated that idea today
114it sounds beautiful but it's not because it rests on structural inequities that treat white as the default it erases the feelings experiences and concerns of children who are not white we want race to not matter but the unfortunate reality is that the inequities are all around us the water is not going to clear up by ignoring it that is why it is necessary rather than harmful to acknowledge structures of white advantage in the equity statement and stay committed to dismantling them thank you all so much for your time your service and your thoughtful [Applause] consideration marianna blanco peter green desiree miranda and miss moreno if you're still here oh moreno moreno go ahead mr marie hello my name is jessel moreno i am an alumni of palm beach county schools my father worked there for
115about 10 years as a janitor i came from cuba when i was about uh under one year old i know all the struggles and i know that other people here have said that they've known struggles so that means basically that white advantage doesn't exist that's not the case it takes a lot of introspection and courage to admit that you do have an advantage and what are you gonna do about it that's the next step it's very hard and a lot of people are scared and understand you know i understand that but don't you be scared by their empty threats and a lot of their talking points is really doesn't make much sense to me you know bringing in marxism and things that have nothing to do with this specific this specific topic um i am
116in support of keeping the statement as is specifically with the word white privilege another thing i did not like that some people have said i love that you guys included generic gender identity and sexual orientation i am gay i went through bullying in palm beach county schools i know how important that is they took a shot at it as much as they could on three or four comments those parents don't care about students in palm beach county they don't care about all of them they only care about theirs and theirs being taught the way that they want them to be taught so that they can perpetuate all their hate don't you please don't be swayed by any of those comments please understand that we need you to stand strong we need you to please continue
117on in your mission for equity because without you we can't do it alone we cannot i'm glad that you put it out and now is not the time to backpedal now is not now is the time to push forward if all of these parents students were actually here to speak for themselves i don't believe that they would share all the same views so therefore you need to really i plead with you to please stay on this track to continue with this statement not make any changes everything that is in here is very progressive and i know it's a bit scary but this is the future of palm beach county palm beach county is diverse it has a lot of different ethnicities including cuban americans and i think that we all deserve a chance at equity
118and a lot of people are not afforded that as you can see by the graphs by the data that they posted the the scales are tipped in the wrong direction basically so please be strong please keep it the way it is thank you so much for all you do [Applause] hey please please stop go ahead ma'am good afternoon my name is mary blanco and i am the assistant director at the guatemala my center i became involved with the escuelita maya when i was 15 years old and quickly learned that there was a gap between the community and the systems employees that serve our community suse lee 16 years old from guatemala a recent arrival who fled from domestic violence and poverty to reunite with her dad is now a member of our community facing struggles
119that the majority of us can't even fathom as a 16 year old she should be focused on applying to colleges finding a dress for prom yet her worries are finding a job to pay her debt in guatemala so the gangs don't murder her her family and to fix her immigration case in order to stay with her dad and be reunited she's a bright child who is behind because she's in a foreign country she doesn't speak the language and she's trying to catch up with all the other life stresses stressors that add to her education i mentioned cecilia but she is just one of the recent examples of students who make part in the palm beach school district equity for society matters guiding parents through the school system is nothing new for us and through the
120years we fostered relationships with the schools and lakewood and learned from the staff and leaked from learned from the staff in one of our local high schools that the percentage of english learned learners to graduate are one out of two a 50 chance there's no use of saying that we care about the students if we're not acknowledging all of the outside factors affecting their lives in education racism is very real poverty is very real discrimination is very real the staff and administrators in the surrounding schools are nothing short of incredible and are trying to meet the needs of our families and understanding how we can bridge the gaps in the systems yet they are bound by the structure of the institutions at the center our outreach staff fulfill the indispensable role meeting and guiding new
121arrivals among the thousands of families that we serve each month we have about 20 indigenous employees mostly speakers of whose skills are in cultural competency but for whose generation the school district could not enroll what difference does it make if the teachers show respect for the home and families if people can't recognize the difference between unity and uniformity acknowledging the apart the importance of equity and past structural failures of the school system is the first step towards reaching real change we at the guatemala my center stand by the school board's equity statement and critical race curriculum and are committed to helping the school district in all the areas that we are capable of thank you guys for your work and thank you for having us today [Applause] hello my name is desiree miranda i'm here
122to speak against the equity statement i'm latina half colombian half puerto rican my husband's cuban our country has come so far so far from labels and segregation the usa is the least racist country in the world and the perfect example of that is barack obama if our country was so racist how did he get elected not once but twice let's celebrate how far we've come as a country yes our history is ugly but what country is it let's learn from those mistakes not erase them i am not okay with being labeled as a person of color that's racist my son's high school sent out an email to have virtual meetings to talk about racism as parents we have to check we had to check off if we were a person of color or a white
123ally i've never been so offended being a hispanic america being a hispanic american woman i didn't want to check anything off i'm a parent we're all parents i don't want to be labeled as a person of color and i don't want white allies i don't need white allies we are all one ultimately we are a product of the choices we make in life instead of pushing this divisive language let's focus on making sure all schools have the same resources things that will actually make a change stop pushing victimhood we are americans we are all one human race [Applause] peter green desiree miranda jewel wells james wells that was desiree mariana blanco peter green jim wells james wells here myra demongo david king father franco loughlin could any of you come up to the podium it's
124fine hello hi good afternoon uh i sent yesterday uh 16 ph paper on uh proposing a critical thinking course to unteach racism and uh because we i think it's common knowledge that racism is taught at home indirectly or directly through cues and given the fact that teachers and uh principals meet with students roughly in it on a weekly basis for 10 months it would seem to me that they could be a real positive influence as it relates to teaching critical thinking i think critical thinking is i think we all can agree is a miss in today's environment when um and i'm not being political and i'm independent but for example 56 of republicans today believe that trump won the election when in fact trump left office with the lowest approval rating of any president uh
125in history at 37 so it stands to reason uh particularly after he fired his head of uh election security kris krebs the day after the election when krebs said the day before that uh the election was the most secure in history so i think as a critical thinker we can understand that there was not good faith uh by the former man uh but having said that i think critical thinking would also be um applicable and helpful with today's problem of gun control gun violence today we had a mass shooting in san jose multiple people were killed i think it's high time that gun control be addressed and i think children are very amenable to thinking practically and without bias and so therefore i believe critical thinking again could help in that regard i would also
126like to propose two adjunct courses in conjunction with critical thinking because uh as it relates to unteaching racism and the reason for that is a dialogue needs to be created it just can't we just can't have enough to say in our curriculum uh stop asian bias stop asian these are buzz words we have to um devote time to making individuals think differently and in conjunction with that i think i'm 62 and i was born in 58 so i've seen a couple of generations and i think what's also missing in today's society is the art of manners uh i mean manners and the art of conversation and i think if we can instill that in children uh a better dialogue will will occur a better approach to potential employers a punch potential guidance counselors your time
127is up okay thanks thank you thank you jim wells james wells turn the camera on in the other room please i believe mr mrs wells are in that room yes we are good ma'am uh first of all um i don't have any children in the palm beach county school system our youngest son just graduated from west boca last year and was part of this uh homeschooling stuff and that right off the was a first class joke all right they didn't do anything for him and as far as what you're trying to shove down these kids throats is this critical race theory you're wrong it's not your job to teach our kids about race it's ours as the parents your job is to teach them the basics reading writing arithmetic and teaching socializing so they can
128make it in the world out there just like we do the stuff that you're trying to force down our kids throats is not good we don't see racist parent i don't see race my husband is a 21 year veteran of the united states army and i am a state representative with the florida national guard i am uni frg in charge of family readiness okay and we do not see race in the military we see brothers and sisters in arms what you're trying to indoctrinate with our kids is wrong if you want to play politics this is not the arena you get out of the school board if you want to get on politics go run but do not shove this stuff down our kids throats you have no right to do this you have no
129you have no idea what you're doing to these kids you're wrong on everything that you're doing i have one to say to you all you're fired ahead sir state your name uh james wells you just talked to my wife and yes i'm a 21-year us army veteran i retired in january 2018. i during my time in service i serve with all my brothers and sisters or we had one mission and that was to get to get the mission done to get it accomplished and do what we had to do we never saw a race we never saw color we never even saw religion we all saw simply we were brothers and sisters for all the same cause teaching our kids race in school is wrong and it should not be taught at all and with
130that said you guys need to go back and learn how to how we americans feel teach our kids that we all need to get along as americans also as the mass thing i don't see a point that our children should have any kind of mass to be be warned at all you have no right to say our children should have to wear a mask there is no physical proof of a pandemic all of this just a simply over exaggerated flu of you simply trying to control the american population and make us do what you wanted to say it's not about control it's not about what you want it's what the people want and what who we are and with that said the only other thing i have to say for you is that you're all
131fired miranda myra domongo david king and father frankel laughlin go ahead ma'am good afternoon my name is mario domingo and i'm from a small town in guatemala called hakaltenango where the most common language is popte i'm up to the united states at 15 years old in guatemala only rich people go to school and have a career and my mom and dad wanted us to have a better future when i moved here i went straight into high school not knowing any english and not having any anyone to guide me through the school system my first three years were okay but when i went into my senior year i lucked guidance on how to graduate or go to college senior year i failed all my tests and nearly didn't pass my senior year here until i retook
132the sat and was able to get my diploma right after i graduated i began working at a restaurant where i stayed as late as i 1am every day to help support my family of seven i still struggle speaking english and i knew i wanted to work somewhere else i wanted to help children who had similar experience to me i began practicing my english by myself with phone apps and by watching movies a friend of mine was a teacher and she contacted me about a position open at lakewood middle school in the school district as a pope clf translator i was interviewed as soon as offered a position the pay was really low but i wanted to work with the with them to help the children who were struggling like i did i started to work
133with the school district in october 2019 and they introduced me to a group of kids who could not write or read in english or spanish i had to work with them daily from teaching them to write their names to encourage them to graduate high school instead of entering the workforce at 15 years i know we all worked so hard to help these childrens out with a lot of support and it often felt like they system had forgetting about them when i had arrived in the united states my mom enrolled us in a youth group for teenagers at the guatemalan maya center so we had a place to belong i had fallen in love with the program seeing how they helped people out with everything they could when i saw the work that they were doing
134i told myself that i wanted to work with them in the in the future i need i needed to provide the same services that they were providing me and my family it was a dream come true to work with them and now i'm i now that i am with the outreach program i see how many families come to us because they don't understand basic things about their children's school or their education system works our parents know that the guatemalan maya center is always here to support them and we're happy to see that with the equality statement the school district is showing that they were here to support them too we need to make a change thank you remember the board chairman thank you for this honor um i'm franco lachlan and i'm the at the
135guatemalan maya center i've history of 50 years of worrying about the children of the workforce in palm beach county and martin county it became a kind of a career and at times i've been a nuisance to you people and to the work you do i don't know if you remember can you remember when a migrant child would spend three years in the first grade and never make any progress through no fault of their own you have done miracles transforming the system and what you have undertaken with this statement is the most beautiful and promising thing you make an old guy cry i was in next county up martin county struggling for years with the school board and lovely people though they were eventually had to give up and found at little school do you think
136i wanted to go out and found a school separate from the system i had to go out and find hope rural school in in the county to take care of the kids you what you've undertaken here we can talk all day about languages the languages of philosophy psychology modern science and sociology that we can use to talk about this there can be arguments about the words but there can be no arguments about the disposition of what you have undertaken and there can be no argument about the era in which you have stepped up and done it we need we need all of us to do as much for one another as you have done for us here we need to speak to the realities the truths of our past and present and the future that
137is possible and achievable before us so for this i thank you and endorse you god bless david excuse me david king carl mohamed ezekiel edmonds iii and charmaine good good good evening board chair or good morning good afternoon board chair um board members and everyone in your respective places superintendent and everyone in your respective places i stand in full support of the equity statement as it has been approved while i understand the statements that can be found within this within the equity statement the work was done went out to the community and then was approved the reason why the equity work was done was not only because it was necessary it was to change the precedent that is currently set while i am disgusted my notes came up sorry about that while i am disgusted
138that we are here today i am pleading that the statement stay as it is appeasing one set of the community today without educating the community that is ignorant of the topic is dangerous today one group will win tomorrow will the opposing group have a chance as much as we use the word equity as much as we say we want to see the equity work this is it this is the equity work and as we like to say we see you the rest of my time i'm going to read a few comments from the equity committee members of the equity committee sue davis killing gold coast down syndrome organization and this was passed through staff i would like to see the phrase in question white privilege remove not because i think there's anything wrong with it
139but because i feel that one phrase would distract from the very important work with we have to do with the equity let's not give the racial inequity deniers any ammunition to side track the efforts racial mandaseer in order to achieve the vision that the school district of palm beach county has the children will be embraced affirmed and inspired the school district must be steadfast intentional and committed to understanding how systemic racism has created barriers that are contributing to the achievement gap the disparities that we are seeing in the achievement gap are from systems that are impacted by bias under representation and unequal access to opportunities that time to take action to dismantle these systems and structures that are rooted in equity is now kimberly sphere o esc advisory committee i disagree with the mob and
140believe as a privileged white person that the original language acknowledging the non-white students face educational disadvantages and additional struggles should stay marcia guthrie west palm beach and naacp we are at a critical juncture in our nation our state and right here in the public school district we send our most valuable treasures our children to learn this is a time where if i may just finish the statement quickly thank you this is a time where leadership absolutely matter and bold policy and direction is a must if we cover now the pressures of doing what is right what our children deserve what we will tell them in the future how will we answer the question vice president harris reese when we when she stated years from now this moment will have passed and our children and our
141grandchildren will look in our eyes and ask where were you when the stakes were so high they will access what was it like and we would tell them we would tell them not just how we felt we would tell them what we did and i'll send the rest of the documents to the board directly thank you thank you carl muhammad ezekiel edmonds iii are you here all right board members that that takes care of everyone i think that's here to speak um in person we do have 70 recorded messages that will take us approximately one hour and 53 minutes to listen to so if the i.t department would start running those for us please my name is claus bell i have children three children in the district i'm a white resident of palm beach county
142and i believe that we need to leave the equity statement as is we need to leave the language about white advantage in there for the reason that i think it's important for the schools to take on racial equity in a serious way and doing that requires being honest about the current state of affairs because there's no way for us to move forward as a county um as a state and really as americans without acknowledging the way things have been which is that white people have a leg up in our society in a million different ways um and i think you know for us to move forward as a multicultural society um in the modern age we're going to have to deal with that and so i think it's important for the school to say for
143the schools to pay that honestly so i'm calling in favor of keeping the equity statement as is um and i would i would not support changing it at this time thank you bye hello my name is christian d cersei jr i am a resident of district 1 of the school board area and i just want to call and make sure that you hear my support that i would like to retain the white advantage words in the in the mission as it is written as a white parent i do believe it is important for us to get an accurate view of history and not try to gloss over things that have happened in the past that may not be the most flattering to us i think the only way we learn and grow to people is
144if we both understand our history and are willing to admit any mistakes that we may have made in the past nobody's perfect it doesn't mean they're in any way evil but the only way we can make sure that we avoid repeating the same mistakes is to at least learn what mistakes we have made in the past so again i want to retain the language as is written thank you hello my name is jackie watts and i would like to speak on the equity statement i'd like to tell the board that this is not an easy fix as ms ayala pointed out all of you had agreed ahead of time to stand firm in your convictions because you knew it was a bold statement saying that we parents don't understand what you mean by structures rooted
145in wide advantage is complete horse manure to pretend that you don't know what critical race theory is is hilarious you are either some of the best actors i've ever seen or you have no idea what's going on in the school system across across the country placing such a focus on the theory that white people are born into advantage shows white people in a negative light to children and then going a step further and not only telling kids that white people are born better than you but that um you also have to take away any advantages they might have is teaching kids to be racist this statement that you added in there is racist last week you seemed upset because you were called communist and marxist because the statement that you all put together is just
146that equity is an attribute of being fair and impartial but it goes the extra mile kamala harris and one of her campaign ads on equity versus equality because they are not the same says equitable treatment means we all end up at the same place she also points out that to end up at the same place we all need to start at the same place aka stripping people of their individual rights now systems rooted in wide advantage according to your racial equality institute training means that all white people have enjoyed special advantages since before they were born and that they are still reaping the rewards of racial preference to recap saying that you will be proactive in dismantling structures rooted in white advantage and then redistributing resources is at its core marx's ideology instead of teaching
147children that they all have inherent value and that their character and virtue matter more than anything on earth even their skin color you want to teach them that their value and identity is solely based on the color of their skin i can't possibly see anything more divisive than that lastly i request that you please get those racist brain pop videos out of our children's lives they don't need to learn politics at school moral developments if you cannot see the damage you are doing to our society by targeting the innocence of our children i have no choice but to remove my three children from the palm beach district schools my name is lisa rousseau and i am leaving a comment for the equity workshop meeting um i would like to say that i went to school
148in palm beach county from 1985 to 1993 and during that time i have not noticed any structure that would not have provided equal opportunity for all students in fact there is and was plenty of guidance resources and opportunities for those students who wish to succeed in their own direction if they desire to do so no matter their skin color religion or status do you want to know why it's because they weren't told by the school board that they were less than that they were oppressed and victims of society and that one particular race held all the power to prevent their success in life achievements will be lessened among students with this equity statement implemented in fact just in case you didn't know libraries still accept all people and they are free as well as many
149resources online so if you have the desire to succeed no matter what race or status you are you will succeed because you have that drive now making one group of victim based on their skin color and making another group the blame group is not how you empower people believe that they are successful already they have what it takes and they have the will and desire to make their dreams a reality the way of thinking of a victim is damaging the children they walk into schools thinking that they don't have what it takes and being told that they're oppressed this is the mindset you want do you think they're somehow at a disadvantage and have been all this time based on the color of their skin i see a major problem with that one will never
150achieve success accepting a role as the victim and blaming another for their lack of achievement empowerment never casts blame or plays the victim you and only you are responsible for your success and achievement you cannot raise your value of self empowerment and success on one hand while demonizing and holding blame and accusing another or a school system as the reason you didn't succeed this does not build character let's go back to the content of people's character and not the color of their skin one must also consider the amount of mixed race families and children in the district what will a mixed race child think about this his or her parents if they each have different ethnicities if you haven't noticed we live in the 21st century and many families are now mixed and blended howard
151good morning to the school board of palm beach county my name is maurice mcgovern and i am a mother of two children in the palm beach county school district i am speaking on behalf of the equity topic on the agenda today i'm calling in opposition to the equity statements recently discussed to implement in palm beach county school district as a former californian for the majority of my life i have watched the destruction of the school district and state fair into ruins by implementing these marxist ideals i do not believe that the school district that it is the school that took place to bring race and division into my home it is my job to teach my children how to be a kind loving and accepting human being we are creating creating division instead of doing
152it by bringing these equity statements into the school district who are opening the door and allowing super far leftist marxist ideals into our county in california children are taught about sex race and hate in kindergarten in kindergarten they are sick they just love each other at that point and you are teaching them to hate as a teacher in an after-school private sector i watched my students become more and more brainwashed and hateful towards each other by learning all of these ideals you are teaching them to hate instead of teaching them to love one another help one another and encourage one another to be their best self encouraging them to work hard to earn their achievements reward them based on their ethics and hard work teach them skills to be successful in the future don't let
153them play the victim card that's a disservice to everybody teach them to be strong to be confident mentally and emotionally balanced individuals teach them to be team players while also learning a healthy competitive individual skills this is what our youth needs not your political agenda hi my name is ashley labad i work in the charter section of palm beach county the one section that is disrespected probably most maybe because charter schools tend to do better than public schools let's talk about ethics before equity you are unethical preaching white privilege to teachers staff and students is not okay you are telling these kids they can't achieve anything unless they are white stop just stop how about promoting you can do anything you set your mind to if you truly truly want to get that get it
154life is what you make of it and if you put in the hard work you can get there if my students knew what you were pushing they'd be appalled why don't you spend the last few weeks in our classrooms and i don't mean just five ten 30 minutes spend the whole day and see that racism is being pushed by you not them do the right thing and stop this equity nonsense my students do not want to hear it anymore i do not want to hear anyone i should not be scared to speak up as a teacher other teachers should not be scared to speak up please know that my students judge by character and many of them are mixed and to tell them that you have to be white to achieve something in life is
155telling them they don't have to fight for it please stop this now and get it together thank you so much for your time have a good day hello board members my name is victoria gates i am a grandmother of students in palm beach county and i am calling to give you some food for thought on this equity workshop that you're doing today when i was a student back in the 1960s our government worked very hard to remove segregation from our communities and make sure our students were all together in school together and sharing as peers and making friendships my mother marched against the busing to keep us out keep us in our communities and keep us from being bussed into another one it happened anyway it was the beginning of a wonderful movement of our
156students becoming peers versus seeing each other in color i am very confused by this new equity statement and what you're trying to do in the schools today because to me it appears that you're going backwards and that you're trying to segregate our students based on color once again why are you trying to take apart what has taken so many years to be improved this is needless we don't need to do it and instead of just changing the words you need to change the entire program i hope you consider this seriously and have a wonderful rest of your day thank you for your time good morning i am pastor ray whiteley an organizer with faith in florida we are part of faith in action with more than 1 000 member institutions representing 1 million families in
157150 cities and 17 states the mission of faith in florida is to build a powerful multicultural nonpartisan network of congregation and community organizations in florida that will address systemic racial and economic issues that cause poverty for our families we stand with palm beach county in solidarity with unified and our support for the school board of palm beach county equity statement as is it is imperative that our county's public school system is committed to dismantling structures rooted in right advantage and transforming our systems by hearing and elevating unprecedented voices sharing power and recognizing and eliminating bias while distributing resources to provide equitable outcomes thank you hi my name is julie damsker i know you guys don't like to use colon comments very heavily after lasting day you made a decision without listening to all the phone
158calls but um because you set these meetings up at a very inconvenient time for working parents i am unable to accomplish i just would like to say that i find your mission statement and um your equity statement is very damaging very um i mean i don't know how anyone could have declined in that after what it was previously um i really would like to learn more about what this curriculum is and what you're going to be doing doing our children's books um also i it doesn't matter what topic you're talking about going forward you have the parent's attention if you decide you want to change food on the menu at school we will be there listening commenting dissecting you because we have zero faith zero trust that you actually care about our children thank you
159good morning my name is trinidad rutherford with faith and florida we are part of faith in action with more than one member institutions representing 1 million families and 150 cities and 17 states the mission of faith of florida is to build a powerful multicultural nonpartisan network of congregation community organizations in florida that will address systematic racial and economic issues that cause poverty for our families we stand with palm beach county in solidarity to unify and our support of the school board of palm beach county equity statement as is it is imperative that our county public school system is committed to dismantling structures rooted in white advantage and transforming our system by hearing and elevating underrepresented voices sharing power recognizing and eliminating bias and redistributing resources to provide equitable and equitable outcomes thank you good morning
160i'm professor thompson with faith and florida we are part of facebook action with more than 1 000 member institutions representing 1 million families and 150 cities in 17 states the mission of faith in florida is to build a powerful multi-multicultural non-partisan network of congregational community organizations in florida that would address systemic racial and economic issues that cause property for our families we stand with palm beach county and sovereignty with unified in our support for the school board of palm beach county equity statement as is it is imperative that our county's public school system is committed to dismantling structures rooted in white effort advantage and transform our system by hearing and evaluating underrepresented voices sharing power recognizing and eliminating bias and redistributing resources to provide equitable outcomes thank you good morning my name is evangeline ward
161with faith and foul florida we are part of faith action with more than 1 000 members institutions representing 1 million families and 150 citizens 17 states the mission of faith in florida is to build a powerful multicultural non-protestant network of congregation community organizations in florida that will address systematic racial and economic issues that cause poverty for all of our families we stand with palm beach county and solidarity with unified and our support for the school gorge a palm beach county equity statement as is it is imperative that our counties public school system is committed to dismantling structures rooted in white advantages and transforming our systems by hearing and elevating underrepresented voices sharing power recognizing and eliminating values and redistributing resources to provide equitable outcome for all thank you very much rebecca miller and i'm calling
162about the equity workshop um i would prefer for the teachers and the school system to get back to teaching math english and things that are needed not a division between white and black i'm having a real issue with this that this has been taught at school we need to get away from that i'm seeing that y'all are putting a division between our children at each other i've had children come home and crying to me that how horrible that we are that because we're white people i'm tired of it and this must stop and it is not the teacher's place to bring this to the children and make children feel bad because they're white this must stop this is cruelty this is i can't even believe that i'm living in this present time that we would
163be doing this spending home children crying thank you yes my name is tiffany young and i'm calling to speak on and labor recorded message on the equity program i raise a hispanic grandchild i have three biracial grandchildren this is teaching hate and division within families this is causing so much damage and has absolutely no place in our school system you are dividing families you are causing conflicts between families you are there to educate our children you are there to teach them their basic needs and to educate them on math reading spelling science history not things that belong in the household spoken about this needs to end now this once again has no business being in our schools thank you my name is nicole tarcia and i'm a concerned community member of palm beach county i
164am aware of and continually learning about my advantages as a white woman the school district of palm beach county's equity statement as is is a bold declaration and a language dismantling structure rooted in white and managed to remain in a statement i do not believe that we can dismantle racism and systematic oppression if we do not also confront weight advantage which fosters and perpetuates these systems if we take out the language regarding weight advantage we are not confronting ourselves our history and systems of oppressions inflicted on marginalized communities i know many white people don't believe weight advantage exists they think i'm also struggling i've had a difficult way how can i have weight advantage no one is trying to say that you are not struggling or to lessen the impact of your experiences but you
165still have advantages many of them unrecognizable to you that enable you to navigate the world without fear and consciousness that the color of your skin impacts health how others perceive and treat you when i walk through the aisles in my local food store i see bleaching creams marketed to just light and dark skin why do you think that is why are black people thought that they are not worthy as they are that they should be something other and why are all of us regardless of skin color thought that weight is right families communities churches businesses financial institutions government health care law enforcement housing prisons and schools societal systems all intertwined perpetuating racism and impacting generations it is a continual cycle and we aren't willing to call it out our european ancestors came to this country
166with many good intentions a chance to succeed and create new lives for themselves but at what cost the truth is that this country and all its strength was founded on genocide and slavery even as our constitution of fast freedom for eastern european white people and even after slavery ended on the books we continue to experience the ripple effects today white people have the luxury of not noticing these ripple effects and that is white advantage which is why the district's language should remain as is board members please be brave and keep the language as is and community members and open your hearts to learning something new about yourself our shared history and what people other than you are experiencing good morning with states in florida we are part of faith in action with more than 1
167000 member institutions representing 1 million families in 150 cities in 17 states the mission of faith in florida is to build a powerful multicultural non-partisan network of congregation community organizations in florida that will address systemic racial and economic issues that cause poverty for our families we stand with palm beach county in solidarity with unity and our support for the school board of palm beach county equity statement as is it is imperative that our county's public school system is committed to dismantling structures rooted in right advantage and transforming our system by hearing and elevating underrepresented voices sharing power recognizing and eliminating bias and redistributing resources to provide equity outcomes thank you morning my name is laura jesse i'm a mother of three in jupiter and i'm calling regarding the equity workshop today or critical race theory
168um that is being introduced to our schools i'm shocked and appalled that anything is being taught in our schools except love and acceptance and that skin color is only a matter of difference of melanin that is all i cannot believe that the educators on the board actually think that this is okay to teach our children anything that is provide and hate should not be part of the curriculum whatsoever the only thing that should be taught i repeat again as well and acceptance of all peoples in one human race i'm sitting here with my baby and i cannot believe that we are actually having this conversation it makes me think that the people on the board are not good to serve our children i hope you make the right choice and change the curriculum to love
169and acceptance of all good morning school board members i am calling in regards to the equity statement um i'm miss taylor i am a white mom of a 14 year old student of the school district of palm beach county i'm calling in support of the equity statement as is the problem is many white parents do not truly know what white advantage is they don't understand the language or the terminology it's the fact that i don't have to have the talk with my son about keeping his hands ten and two on the steering wheel if approached by a police officer in order to keep him safe and alive i don't worry when i'm followed in a store they're usually trying to upsell me they don't think i'm trying to steal something i'm not looked at every
170day and judged based on the color of my skin i don't have to think about the color of my skin every day i don't worry that my son will be bullied because of the color of the skin my child can easily see himself in books because the pictures and stories are vastly based on white culture i don't worry about being treated differently by the police by doctors or nurses because of the color of my skin i don't have to talk to my son about he how he will be treated based on the color of his skin that is my advantage i didn't ask for it but it's mine because i'm a white woman thank you hi my name is kara jennings i'm the parent of two children in palm beach county my son will be
171entering third grade at highland elementary school i'm going to make a comment regarding the equity statement that the school board released i fully support the equity statement i think the term white advantage should remain in the statement i think the statement very clearly addressed the issues that we face in this county as a white person with two white children who um my neighborhood school is a majority non-white school i meet families all the time who are concerned about sending their child their white child to a school that does not have the advantage of having a majority white students as there is a perceived and a real advantage to schools that benefit from having more white students due to the economics and the white privilege that come along with that i think the school board statement
172very clearly addressed this issue and the need to make changes so that this inequity does not continue i hope the school board members will stick to their guns keep the statement as it is and allow us to move forward as a county and a community to address the inequity that is prevalent in our school district thank you good morning we're going dr jarrod dicklin president of the palm beach county clergy alliance on the agenda item concerning the palm beach county equity statement we the clergy of palm beach county stand in solidarity with unify in faith and florida as well as organized against racism and our support that the school board of palm beach county equity statement remains as is it is imperative that our county's public school system is committed to dismantling structures rooted in
173white advantage and transforming our system by hearing and elevating unprecedented voices sharing power recognizing and eliminating bias and redistributing resources to provide equitable outcomes we stand in solidarity because it's necessary for the well-being of all of our students i want to say that as clergy we understand that the well-being of our kids is paramount so when we understand when we eliminate bias and eliminate advantages that should not be there it makes it an even playing field for all and we achieve the equity that we all also desire thank you so very much good morning i'm juliet knight with faith in florida we are part of faith in action with more than 1 000 member institutions representing 1 million families in 150 cities and 17 states the mission of state in florida is to build a
174powerful multicultural non-partisan network of congregation community organizations in florida that will address systematic racial and economic issues that cause poverty for our families we stand with palm beach colony in solidarity with the unified in our support for the school board of palm beach county equity statement as is it is imperative that our counties public school system is committed to dismantling structures rooted in wide advantage and transforming our system by hearing and elevating underrepresented voices sharing power recognizing and eliminating bias and redistributing resources to provide equitable outcomes thank you hi my name is todd lavogue i'm a 53 year old white male and a teacher in palm beach county schools i think the new equity statement that you have created is important it needs to stay as is keeping the phrase white advantage in the statement
175is important and i just wanted to let you know as a again as a right now i do think that this phrase is important to remain in the equity statement and it's important that we we address this issue of systemic racism and our society thank you good morning i'm christy ward with faith in florida we are part of a faith in action with more than a thousand members institutions representing 1 million families in 150 cities and 17 states the mission of faith in florida is to build a powerful multicultural nonpartisan network of congregation community organizations in florida that will address systemic racial and economic issues that cause poverty for our families we stand with palm beach county in solidarity with unified and our support for the school board of palm beach county's equity statement as
176is it is imperative that our county public school system is committed to dismantling structures rooted in white advantage and transforming our system by hearing and elevating under represented voices sharing power recognizing and eliminating bias and redistributing resources to provide equitable outcomes thank you have a great day good morning i'm angela jackson with faith in florida we are part of faith in action with more than one thousand member institutions representing one million families and 150 cities in 17th state the mission of faith in florida is to build powerful multicultural nonpartisan network of congregation community organizations in florida that will address systemic racial and economic issues that cause poverty for our families we stand with palm beach county in solidarity with unify and our support for the school board of promise county equity statement as is it
177is imperative that our county's public school system is committed to dismantling structures rooted in white advantage and transforming our system by hearing and elevating unrepresented voices sharing power recognizing and eliminating bias and risk and redistributing resources to provide equitable outcomes thank you hello my name is rabinowitz and i am a white resident of palm beach county i am an educator and i am very concerned to hear that the board is considering dropping the term white advantage from the equity statement was beautifully thoughtfully crafted it is a very important guide to future policies and behaviors within our schools and it absolutely should remain as written i urge you not to give in to pressure from people who don't actually understand the purpose of this statement who and their fearful response is a clear indicator for the
178need for this statement itself so please stand firm and do not revise this very well written equity statement thank you so much good morning i'm devan peace with faith in florida we are part of base in action with more than 1 000 member institutions representing 1 million families in 150 cities and 17 states the mission of faith in florida is to build a powerful multicultural nonpartisan network of conservation community organizations in florida that will address systemic racial and economic issues that cause poverty poverty for our families we stand with palm beach county in solidarity with unified and our support for the school board of palm beach county equity statement as is it is imperative that our county's public school system is committed to the dismantling structures rooted in white advantage and transforming our systems by
179hearing and elevating underrepresented voices sharing power recognizing and eliminating bias and redistributing resources to provide a global outcome thank you good morning my name is emily daloff and i'm a parent twin second graders in this district and i'm calling in support of leaving the verbiage in the equity statement as is and i will read it now the school district of palm beach county is committed to dismantling racism and other systems of oppression and inequity achieving racial equity requires proactive and continuous investment in historically marginalized groups who have endured centuries of systemic oppression the school district of palm beach county is committed to dismantling structures rooted in wide advantage and transforming our system by hearing and elevated under underrepresented voices i am a white jewish american and the enabling of an elevation of the voices of
180racist bullies is clear not only in our community but within our nation and that can be um evidenced by what was the insurrection of our capital back in january i find it absolutely intolerable that the voices of racist bullies were in fact elevated for seven hours straight at last week's board meeting we have to continue to teach our children that the voice that the words and the tone of our voices matter and that they clearly do damage evidenced in fact by the horror of many of the events including the insurrection that occurred in the last 15 months we have to continue to teach them but the first amendment is the right for all of us and last week it was made clear by these verbally abusive bullies that not everyone's concerns were valid enough to
181be heard without booing in the background and bullying of the people who spoke those very words and concerns abusing the first amendment right in the middle of a deadly pandemic with this anti-mask anti-doctor crusade and enabling these anti-massacres who to believe that they have the right to scream yell pitch fits and verbally attack public officials is a slap in the face to the founding fathers of our constitution last week marjorie taylor green compared mass and vaccine mandates to treatment of jews by nazis during the holocaust and i am absolutely outraged because i heard the same anti-massacres also referenced nazi germany more than once during both school board meetings in the last two weeks for these parents to compare public health measures intended for to protect the public from the consequences of the deadly virus to
182any part of the horror that was the holocaust is insulting to any part of the horror that was the holocaust is insulting to every single jew who perished and i am very concerned hi my name is angela sanchez knudsen i would like an explanation as to what the definition of white advantage is what do you consider white advantage with that being said all students should be given these same opportunities and be treated the same no matter their ethnic background and or skin color that is to be applied to all students no special treatment to a particular race or ethnicity minority or not this should be applied in the classroom and in all sporting activities all students should be able to follow their ambitions dreams and move ahead based on their strengths i am extremely disappointed
183about the terminology used in the equity statement with a panel of intelligent people you decide to use race and divisive language to state all students should be treated equal there was no need for any race fading there is no place for racial discrimination in any manner in our education system and in society by using racial terminology you are creating more racism in our society please help us parents and the community understand what the changes are what does this look like and what is the plan please consider changing the equity statement to be more inclusive for all students thank you good morning i'm stacy davis with faith in florida we are part of the faith action with more than a thousand members institutions representing 1 million families in 150 cities and 17 states the mission of
184faith in florida is to build a powerful multicultural anti-partisan network of congregation community community organizations in florida that will address systematic racial and economic issues that cause poverty for our families we stand with palm beach county in solidarity with unify in our support for the school board of palm beach county equally equality statement as is it is imperative that our county school board system is committed to dismantling structures rooted in which right advantage in transforming our system by hearing and elevating unrepresented voices sharing power recognizing and eliminating bias and redistributing sources to provide equitable outcomes thank you very much good morning i am tanya lopez with faith in florida we are part of faith in action with more than 1 000 member institution representing 1 million families in 150 cities and 17 states the mission
185of faith in florida is to build a powerful multicultural non-partisan network of congregation community organizations in florida that will address systematic racial and economic issues that cause poverty for our families we stand with palm beach county in solidarity with unify in our support for the palm beach county equity statement as is it is imperative that our county's public school system is committed to dismantling structures rooted in right advantage and transforming our system by hearing and alleviating underrepresented voices sharing power recognizing and eliminated bias and also redistributing resources to provide equitable outcomes thank you very much for your time and have a good day good morning my name is pastor richard dames organizer with faith in florida we're part of faith in action with more than one thousand member institutions that represents one million families and
186over 150 cities in 17 states we stand with palm beach county in solidarity with unified and our support for the school board upon this kind of equity statement as is it is imperative that our county's public school system is committed to dismantling structures that is rooted in white advantage and transforming our systems by hearing and elevating underrepresented voices sharing power recognizing and eliminating biases along with redistributing resources to provide equitable outcomes thank you good morning i'm sean bruns with in florida we are part of faith in action with more than a thousand members representing 1 million families in 150 cities and 17 states the mission of faith in florida is to build a powerful multicultural non-partisan network of congregations community organizations in florida that will address systemic racial and economic issues that cause poverty for
187our families we stand with palm beach county in solidarity with unifying and our support for the school board of palm beach county equity statement as is it is imperative that our county's public school system is committed to dismantling structures rooted in fine advantage and transforming our system by hearing and elevating underrepresented voices sharing power recognizing and eliminating the bias and redistributing resources to provide equal to provide um resources to provide is equitable outcomes thank you hello this is nicholas gubitas i live in west palm beach please keep the equity statement as it is written if you fail to recognize that there is such thing as white privilege then you will miss the mark on any equity statement white privilege and wide advantage are facts of this country they are part of the foundation of this
188country it was started to benefit white people the laws were written to benefit white people the police were formed to work for and benefit white people the infrastructure was developed and built on the backs of labor which was not from white people if you are trying to make an equity statement then you must accept this reality please do not allow and anti the antenae sayers to convince you otherwise they have opinions we have facts please pass the equity statement as it is written including this controversial white advantage and white privilege hopefully it will no longer be controversial to accept facts in the future if you pass this thank you good morning i'm janeiro wright with basin florida we are part of faith in action with more than 1 000 member institutions representing 1 million families
189in 150 cities and 17 states the mission of faith in florida is to build a powerful multicultural nonpartisan network of congregations community organizations in florida that will address systematic racial and economic issues that cause poverty for our families we stand with palm beach county in south solidarity with unified in our support for the school board of palm beach county equity stated as is it is imperative that our county's public school system is committed to this nationally structures rooted in white advances and transforming our system by hearing and elevating un disrepresented voices sharing power recognizing and eliminating bias and undistributing resources to provide equitable outcomes thank you good morning my name is dr linda collimore the country of palm beach county stand in solidarity with unified as well as faith in florida in our support for
190the school board of palm beach county equity statement as is it's imperative that our county's public school system is committed to dismantling structures that are rooted in white advantage and transforming our system by hearing and elevating under-represented minorities sharing power recognizing and eliminating bias and redistributing resources to provide equitable outcomes thank you so much good morning my name is annie isil i'm a resident of the blaze and i'm calling in support of the current school district of palm beach county equity statement as a member of the blaze and organizing against racism palm beach county alliance i am calling upon the school board of palm beach county to hold the current mission and vision statement which is a representation to the commitment of equities for student success the school district for palm beach county states that
191its mission to educate a firm and inspire each student in an equity embedded school system what does it mean to have equity embedded school system is the system that is unwilling to address the realities of what caused an equity this entails educating every student about all facets of history and inequities and how structural policies and laws have affected life outcomes for black indigenous and people of color how can we purposely provide our students with a first-class education and preparation for the effective contribution to the global stage if we continue to enclose and defend hierarchy and oppressive systems that distort history we must acknowledge that equity gaps between student based on race and ethnicity ethnicity and income persist and thrive at the most institutions and specifically in education and as a greatest president i have seen
192this firsthand the very premise to which our educational system is still has created the vision and advantage primarily on along racial minds acknowledging and affirming the ripple effects of conservatives and education one step towards realizing an equity embedded system as the school district's newly adopted statement envisions equity center policies and practices must be incorporated into the school district learning strategy as well as initiatives and policies adopted their aid in the reduction of faculty deaths we must talk about race race mutual efforts not only harm our black and brown children but it harms every student because they create ignorance towards others so therefore i'm asking that we keep the language as is and i thank you for this opportunity good morning i'm a re-round tree with faith in florida we are part of faith in action
193with more than one thousand members institutions representing one million families in 150 cities and 17 states the mission of faith in florida is to build a powerful multicultural non-partisan network of congregations community and organizations in florida that will address systematic racial and economic issues that causes properties for our families we stand with palm beach county and solidarity with unified and our support of the school board of palm beach county statements as in it is imperative that our county's public school systems and is committed to dismantling structures rooted in white advantage and transforming our system by hearing and elevating underrepresented voices sharing powerful recognizing and eliminating bias and we just redistributing resources to provide adequate outcomes thank you my name is pam weisbrod i'm a resident of jupiter and i have two grandchildren in the public
194school system in palm beach county i'm calling on the topic that the board is currently considering i'm very upset that the board is considering removing the phrase white advantage from this carefully crafted equity statement the board spent a considerable time workshopping this and this phrase is important as it underlines the cause the root causes of the lack of equity in our school system for the board to cave into a radical group who opposes this phrase because of their racist belief aligns the board with racists we have no place for this in palm beach county and we certainly have no place for this in palm beach county schools i've taken the time to teach my grandchildren and my children that racial equity is important in the school system and in our community and it is incumbent
195upon the school board to keep the proper phrasing because white privilege is real thank you hello my name is liam team brown i am a resident of west palm beach a voter and supporter of many of the current and past board members of the school district of palm beach county i am calling today to stand in opposition to the potential appeal of the recently approved school district of palm beach county's equity statement now more than ever it is critical to not only close achievement gaps that have long been burdensome to black and brown students but to do so by acknowledging the ripple effects of historical inequity and education in this country we must tell the truth about race in this country because only the truth will foster change race mutual efforts not only harm our
196black and brown students it harms every student thank you for your time and attention to this matter and i look forward to continuing to support you in these efforts in the very near future hi this is laura goodwin i'm a student at west bertone high school i am making this call to encourage the school board and more specifically frank farviary our district representatives to keep the equity statement as written it is important to this infrastructure the right advantage in this country including our education system so that all students use the opportunities and access to succeed this statement is to not offend white people but to identify that all of our systems in this country are meant to advantage white and disadvantage people's color there is much to do to repair the essays that come for
197p there is much to do to repair the inequities and outcomes for people of color these efforts do not harm or take away from white people but benefit us all collectively i am hopeful that we can put these words to action to ensure equity for all my name is lynn jones i am a parent of a student in palm beach county i am calling in reference to the equity workshop tonight i will not be able to be there but i would like my comments uh put in front of the board uh we will not have you stoking division with our schools within our schools my son said that prior to this prior to 2019 they had no problems in the school they did not look at race they did not look at color they looked
198at friends and values and and respect and that's who they chose as friends i do not want those comments those divisive comments kept in our mission uh and again i will not have you stroke division within our schools thank you hi good morning my name is crystal rambert and i'm calling in support of keeping the equity statement as distance i am the parent of two bilateral children in the palm beach county school district i myself am a woman of color and an immigrant and i have lived experience of systemic oppression and i strongly believe that our students deserve to be taught the truth to be taught fairly and most transparently possible and i think it's the responsibility of our school and school district to ensure that our children are given an accurate account of history
199to inform their education and their lives going forward thank you for your support and i appreciate the attempt you started with the equity statement i would like to keep this positive thank you all right hopefully i'm getting this in under the wire my name is david king i'm calling because i understand white privilege i am white and uh i read the equity statement and i think it's fine as is i think calling to remove it is going backwards uh we need to be inclusive and acknowledge reality please keep the statement as is i think that's best for everyone and it addresses reality and helps heal our nation thank you hi members of the board and uh dr fenoy my name is kyla rios i'm speaking on the equity workshop that's happening today and i have
200to be honest with you you have a lot of parents very nervous about this because of the critical race theory that's being thrown around in our nation right now um i wish we kind of knew what was going on with what you're thinking and i do think it needs to be something that you include the parents on every step of the way um as of late i've noticed that we as parents have been having to been way more motivated to babysit your abort because a lot of things are coming down the pipeline that are making us extremely nervous um can i tell you a quick description of my children's day when they come home they usually tell me something that happened i'll ask them oh who did that funny thing on the playground and they'll
201respond with something like oh the girl with the glasses or the funny one or they'll say something like oh the boy with the curly hair never once had my children come home and said to me oh the spanish one or the black one or the white one and that is because i have worked my butt off as a parent to teach my children to judge a person according to the content of their character and not the color of their skin they just don't see it they don't see the color of their friend's skin they see their humor they see their intelligence they see their ingenuity it's really actually beautiful because i as a parent as a child i wasn't really i didn't grow up that way i had grandparents that didn't teach me that so
202for me to have that attitude for my children it literally makes me almost cry because it's so beautiful um but now we're starting to see that there's something coming down the pipeline where we're trying to reverse that we're trying to tell children oh this is something you need to know about that other people of other skin colors have this place in society and you have this place in society and we're actually putting the glasses back on their faces that we've worked so hard for them not to have i would suggest dr fenoy and members of the board that you go sit in a classroom and you tell me do you think these children need to be taught how to see their friends differently how to judge their friends based on the color of their skin
203because right now they don't they don't see it that way because we as the parents we have to talk in that way so please do not reverse the hard work that we as the parents have put into our children to teach them that all of humankind is beautiful and wonderful and they don't need to differentiate between their friend's skin color uh let me just check my notes i've heard that you it said that you've awoken the mama bear let me assure you that you have and you've also awoken the papa bears in this county and we are watching very very very very carefully about what you're doing right now we will take action to make sure that you do not continue to harm our children with the policies that have been coming down and now
204with this racial rhetoric thank you so much for yes my name is sona shorington and i am a parent and i am a woman of color and i'm an educator and i'm an advocate and i urge you to accept the equity statement as written as is and i urge you not to edit the statement in the spirit of equity thank you hello my name is christine janiszewski like many parents i'm not going to stand by while you try to push division and racism on our children your new so-called mission and push to teach racism is nothing but a movement to drive white people through the mud and bring back the race wars of the past dr martin luther king jr would speak out against your movement he would remind you that he fought for equal
205rights and love and that you are taking a huge leap backwards you are fueling hatred within people who have never had it before let me just point out some so-called white privilege that you speak of that my son for example encountered in your district first of all a few years back he was being tested for giftedness he misqualifying by a point why because he did not earn extra points for being a minority oh wait that isn't white privilege is it that's minority privilege but we do not fight against the perks and extras that are given to minorities equal opportunity these days could mean minorities have an advantage as in minority quotas on jobs and college assistance skin color and ethnic backgrounds are constantly taken into consideration when planning classes in the district as well you
206see there is no white privilege going on in our schools or in society ben carson is a highly intelligent man who did not come from an affluent background and yet he was able to become an outstanding neurosurgeon and a cabinet member hand-picked by a white president wow oh wait that isn't white privilege because ben carson is black and i must note that i respect and look up to ben carson he has more intelligence in his pinky finger than any of you or all of your brains combined and i don't mean disrespect i'm just pointing out that you have a very very ignorant push with this racism i could go on and on for hours about the successful black people who have had and help by the system to get where they are and also those
207who did it on their own and also about white people slighted because of the system or did it on their own but i won't it should be taught that hard work and determination gets to places all have the opportunity to get where they want to be no one should be handed anything or have anything taken away because of skin color or ethnic background that is not equality so you do not need to force division and hatred towards all white demographics we as parents need to teach love tolerance and acceptance of all people we need to teach our children to look at people as individuals and not judge them by their looks or by history we should never generalize you should not be involved in the teaching of values and morals to our children because you
208are one-sided and very very wrong your crt is a theory a very racist theory and we will not stand for it you are a disgrace to the educational institution stick with teaching academics you know nothing about love and peace hello my name is marissa stevens i'm calling as a mother of a black son and a white daughter and i'm calling because i oppose the new equity statement and whatever you guys are doing we're trying to introduce the critical race theory that we came here to florida from california where they were using the critical race theory to abuse our children my daughter was told that slavery was her fault she had to constantly apologize for being a white child and my son was told that if he were to encounter a police officer they would kill
209him on the spot and first of all none of this is true if you look at the statistics policing in america is not killing one race more than the other one white people are getting killed just as much we have um his father who is a officer black officer agrees with me and he's highly against this propaganda you guys are trying to push so i don't know how you think that makes black children feel he was also told that that hard work and um turning in work on time being a good person are all attributes of whiteness that he would never be able to be that because he doesn't have white advantage and that's terrible it's terrible to be pushing this on these children um and i personally feel like if alexandria and megan bell
210and all these other white liberals feel like they have white advantage then why aren't they giving up their job why aren't they giving up their positions that they've gotten with this right advantage and letting you know other uh black or pse individuals to have those positions okay why aren't you giving all of your money to all the other black people that are not working okay and uh furthermore megan bell is trying to get rid of a black member of this school board so she's saying that she has all this white advantage but then she wants um marsha to be fired so personally i feel like liberals are exactly the same as they've always been the teacher activists the school board activists these union activists are basically just the kkk reincarnated okay they want to make
211black people feel like they cannot ever succeed and when they stay above them they want to show all their white advantage their white privilege i mean it's pretty much equivalent of the kkk okay and i will not tolerate it i will take my kids out um we've had it thank you hello this is amanda silvestri i'm calling on the equity agenda good evening i'm sorry to the parents that i could not be there in person one to six does not work for many of us the board knew that already though i would like to start by saying that as opposed to this equity statement as i am i am also not ignorant to the fact that you the board have already began your indoctrination mission long ago i will quote from a gifted endorsement course
212document white teachers and the white children they teach need to understand their position of privilege how dare you call out a race like this that is racist there is a book students are reading called ghost boys this is a story about a boy of color that was killed by a police officer what are you attempting to teach these children what is wrong with you i would like to quote mr barbieri from the equity meeting on 414 that nobody knew about he says quote we do not want to take this out to the community for them to start wordsmithing this like ms robinson said they will say now you're taking opportunities