001good morning welcome to the september 3rd 2021 state board of education meeting board members engage your microphones before speaking and turn them off when you are done speaking and please turn off your cell phones thank you live web streaming is available through the state board of education website www.education.ne.gov state board agenda item 1 call to order patricia tim contacted me in vance in advance to let me know she would be absent from today's meeting the september 3rd 2021 state board meeting will now come to order agenda item 1.1 andrea please call the roll patricia tim lisa fricke here deborah neary president patty goobles here maureen nichols here jacqueline morrison patsy co johns here robin stevens here commissioner bloomstead president okay seven president one absent thank you andrea please rise and join me in the pledge
002of i allegiance allegiance to the life of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you agenda item 1.3 information regarding the open meetings act is posted as you enter the room from the main entrance stores the open meetings act is also posted on the state board of education's website www.education.ne.gov state board agenda item 1.4 coveted 19 meeting protocol commissioner yes so um underneath uh and posted in spark and also just for the awareness of folks in the in the meeting we have a written set of protocols that describe maximum attendance considerations for attendees to access the public meetings including accessibility mass hand sanitizer physical distancing and then maybe most important just personal questions questionnaire about if you
003have any of the symptoms that might be coveted to please uh um refrain from being in the in the audience otherwise there was also something pointed out to me that on our meeting protocols handout there's actually an incorrect date or setting correct dates about the terms of board members where it says january 2 2022 it would actually be january 2023 so thanks for pointing that out otherwise i think that's it okay thank you commissioner agenda item two is there a motion to approve the consent agenda second lisa motion made by robin seconded by lisa is that correct did i get that right i didn't but i will oh i thought i thought you pushed your microphone oh i did okay all right so motion was made by robin and seconded by lisa per board policy
004there is no discussion on the motion to approve the consent agenda andrea please call the roll tim fricke yes mary yes nichols yes morrison co john's yes stevens yes so board member niri we didn't hear your vote so i want to make sure yes seven yes one absent thank you motion passes agenda item aquest teaching learning and serving domain committee lisa is there a motion on the statement of the health education standards yes madam president i move the state board of education hereby postpones the development of the health standards the state board of education receives substantial input on the draft of the health education standards and recognizes that now is not the time to continue the process furthermore the covid19 pandemic has placed very demands on school districts parents and families and communities the intent
005of the state board of education is to determine the most appropriate time to address the health standards after taking into consideration the state of the pandemic the needs of children schools and communities and the readiness of local school stakeholders the decision to continue the process of developing health education standards must be supported by a majority vote of the state board is there a second i second that motion motion made by lisa seconded by patsy lisa would you like to speak to your motion um i would like to defer to my other state board colleagues if they have any comments i have none at this time patsy thank you lisa thank you i support the motion to postpone the health standards for for many reasons i do want to make it clear that we will return
006to complete the standards as soon as the issues that are impeding the progress of this work are alleviated what are the reasons that i would recommend of slowing down other work of the state board of education and the nde staff such as accreditation approval accountability teacher certification finding alternatives to the praxis so schools can fill their teaching positions and postponing the health standards all of those reasons make it possible and make it right to slow down some of the reasons are evident and some of those reasons you may have not thought of number one one reason for postponing should be to support our school systems the students in these systems and the teachers who teach them i think we discovered during the first wave of the pandemic how much how unselfish they are in their
007giving to our students and your children they are again being asked to risk their lives to care for each and every child they are tired and stretched to the limit and worried about vaccinations and mass and distracting distancing and return to virtual learning and their own families and the ones that they love two meanwhile our superintendents and principals and school boards are being asked to make decisions concerning these issues with very little support and in many cases with a lack of respect and civility they deserve the time to focus on focus on these life and death situations for children and make the best possible decisions children in nebraska are now poor children are hungry their parents are stressed children have witnessed people they love get sick and many of them have watched people that they
008love die children sense our unrest as adults children are afraid children miss their friends and teachers and want to return to normality more than we ever know and school is part of that normality the whole process has been over politicized from the start and words like scrap them and crts campaigning for the future offices allegiances to parties and not to our people our children should not be about political parties or used as stepping stones to the next office by interjecting topics that have nothing to do with the health standards number three facts everyone should know state board members are not paid we volunteer volunteers have hundreds of years of experience supporting children and in education and in non-profits that work with children state board members did not write the standards they are asked to discuss
009the standards suggest return the document to the writing and advisory teams for improvement to follow the whole process this process was tenuous and interrupted from the start we will do better and we hope our citizens will too standards are suggestions they are not books they are not lesson plans they are not mandates nebraska is a local controlled state every district has the option the right to fit the health curriculum to their community they do not have the right however to exclude any student from learning about their health and their sexuality these communities are charged to give their students the information needed to have successful safe healthy and happy lives state board members are charged to assure all students even the students who are marginalized by situations in life and labels are included in this process
010whether you call it equity or equality and education doesn't matter that is a matter of somatics not children both are part of the foundation of our country we said the pledge of allegiance today and in that pledge we said all that is not an oversimplification it is simply the truth we will return to the health standards and we will complete them for all of young people we have sworn to serve i support this motion as written and asked my fellow board members to do the same any further discussion by members i wanted to make some comments but i can wait i'm certain discussion discussion's not i can't hear you discussion is matt do you have the michonne oh okay okay yeah um i just want to thank patsy for those comments um it's uh you
011said it perfectly and it's one of the reasons i feel honored to work with all of my fellow board members i also want to thank make sure that we thank the writing committee and the advisory committee and the department of education who have been through quite a lot in the last six months i think they did a commendable job and i appreciate all the work that they did they worked diligently and they focused on teaching skills and knowledge that would help youth to better understand the complexities of our modern society and these concepts are especially important for preparing students to be more successful in their future occupations and endeavors after graduation when we started this process we gave many parents teachers and youth that i know we gave them hope and then this week we
012shattered their hope abruptly i am disappointed about the tremendous chaos that we created and the damage that we have caused i do believe we can do better today you're all going to hear some of my emails read that clearly express my frustration throughout this entire process i believe there was no strategy about when and how the standards should have been released there was no discussion as our vote as a board about whether the timing was appropriate at the time the standards were released we were already focused on working on language arts standards and on our accreditation regulations and we were still in a pandemic and knew that there was going to be much work ahead to address the learning gaps from the previous school year to this day i remain unclear about why this timing
013was not given more consideration before we started the process furthermore you are going to hear today content from my many emails that i sent complaining about the lack of inclusivity transparency and accountability in this process and the lack of focus on science i didn't need to get into these details now but suffice it to say that i was very impressed with the university of nebraska at lincoln and how their president ted carter works strategically with all members of his board utilizing two different committees to discuss their crt and to help board members better understand the topic in order to make their decisions although please don't misinterpret that there is no crt in our health standards and so that has not been anything that we have needed to discuss a similar process could have been undertaken
014by us and perhaps we would have had less chaos more unity and a better outcome instead we left all the decision making to four board members and the commissioner yet press releases were sent and press conferences were held that appeared to represent all eight members of the board of education and this is such an ironic point for some of you here since some of you really believe that i had a leadership role in these health standards when the truth is i have had no input into the work on these standards at all and neither have my peers that represent the larger urban areas in douglas county and lancaster county there's also some who think that i influenced the makeup of the writing committee and the advisory committee which i did not my emails stated very
015clearly i was scrutinizing committees the way i have scrutinized every single committee that has come before our state board for approval because if we're going to approve them then we need to know what we're approving and i have always scrutinized asked questions to make sure that we have diversity of thought expertise and different backgrounds that may not have been thought about so that we have an inclusive working team my primary interest in these standards was to make sure that we were preparing our students to be successful in the complex world that they will graduate into getting along with people and finding common ground amongst our differences is a crucial life skill and based on my communications i do believe that my constituents want health standards that teach about healthy relationships pregnancy prevention and they want
016us to ensure that all youth in our schools are heard and they are supported there has never been any question from me that the standards were based on medically accurate information and endorsed by many doctors and state and national medical professional organizations in spite of this information being medically accurate in both drafts of the health standard there were some individuals in our state that tried to gain notoriety for themselves and or for the organizations they serve and they did this by attacking lgbtq youth and by intentionally spreading fear-based misinformation these same bullies exaggerated the facts of our health standards in order to create a following and to attack our public schools what saddens me the most is that any health standards that might be passed would not have been mandated as we've said all along
017not mandated for any school district or school and parents would have always had full control over teaching their youth instead of having them learn these lessons at school no one was taking away parental control but these standards were in part about making sure that we are doing what is best for the greater good i don't know when we as a society decided that our only responsibility was to make sure that we were looking out only for our kids the kids on our block the kids in our school the kids at our church and the kids that look and act like us because when i grew up i was taught that we all had a responsibility for looking out for the success of everyone and that is what these standards represented to me i want my
018peers on the board to know that i truly value every one of them i especially enjoyed and appreciated some of the conversations that we had yesterday it inspires me to know as i've always known that each and every one of my peers on this board all want the same that i do they all want what is best for nebraska's youth and i believe it's very healthy that we disagree with each other about what that means big [Applause] i agree 100 teaching pornography is not healthy and that's why i want standards so kids are not learning about sex on porno sites that's why these health standards are important to me but i'm done i do hope i only have a few more words i do hope that if we take a pause on this work that
019during that time we will consider a better process that will allow for conversation diversity of thought input from the medical community and input from the entire board and a focus on the non-discrimination statement that our board voted to uphold thank you further discussion robin i questioned whether i was going to say anything but i did have some prepared remarks just in case and i think that possibly it has become appropriate for me to to share these remarks listening requires two of three things to happen either hearing and thinking or reading and thinking listening is best done with our mouth closed it eventually leads to a response listening does not equal agreement anymore then disagreement equals not listening today we the state board of education are being asked to respond to our listening we are voting
020on whether or not to postpone our action as they relate to the nebraska health education standards process personally i believe health standards are needed at the state level just as much as fine arts physical education world languages and career and technical education are currently our non-core standards we have been listening to the passionate presentations of our at our school board meetings we are listening to phone calls nearly every phone call we are listening to nearly and reading every email we are listening as we read the results of this survey we are listening to our local school boards our local administrators our teachers our community our legislators our governor and many others who like us want what is best for our children today it is time for us to respond to our listening i will vote
021yes to postpone the nebraska health education standards process nde and the state board of education have been listening and we will continue to do so thank you madam chair for further discussion jacqueline yes i'd like to make a motion at this time i'd like to motion to refer this statement back to the committee for further discussion [Music] second you can do that that we have a main motion on the floor and this is a subsidiary motion just give me a second please thank you jacqueline it's been moved by jacqueline seconded by lisa to refer deborah i'm sorry thank you for clarifying moved by jacqueline seconded by deborah to return would you to refer the statement back to the committee thank you discussion discussion on the motion as a as a as maker of the motion
022you may speak the mic is not working there we go okay got it so i did not prepare any statements because i was thinking through the night on what to say and what i wanted to do i'm asking that we refer this statement back to committee for several reasons the first is i'm concerned with the procedural part of it as i was looking through the parliamentary procedures last night in robert's world of order i started thinking about main motions subsidiary motions and in that motion or statement that we are making we're actually i would say making a motion to postpone indefinitely and then i started thinking well where does that fall in the order of lowest motions to highest motions and then i got to a point of i called someone who knows these rules
023pretty well and said they said that probably is not the way that it should be done procedurally and so then it got me wondering why are we doing this this way if that is not what the recommendation would be from a parliamentarian of our board then whose idea was it and did we talk to our board parliamentarian to ask if this is the way we should be doing it that's the first reason that i think we have issue with this statement the second reason that i have an issue with the statement is because of the same issues i've been raising that i raised at our last meeting and that i've raised since the beginning of this rollout of the health standards i've gotten emails and people have reposted things on facebook and i'm talking to
024board members now not the public about my part of this health standards process i took office in january i thought this was going through the teaching and learning committee in the teaching and learning committee which i am not on had their eyes on it and the people on the stage or who are sitting beside me who are on that committee are maureen patsy i'm sorry patti goobles lisa and robin if i didn't call their name or not on the committee through which these health standards came out of but the more i started talking to board members who were on that committee i learned they didn't really get a heads up before they were released either there was a rush and then the second draft came out right before the last meeting and again i thought
025well maybe they got more of a heads up than i did and through asking more questions and learning not really so who was really monitoring this and watching the process or was this being done by staff and the commissioner so at the last meeting i made this long plea to all of you everybody on this board can we start thinking for ourselves can we start asking questions can we start demanding some type of transparency some accountability can we start holding people accountable for the decisions we're making and about a week and a half ago i was driving home from work i work in lincoln i'm driving omaha and i get a call from a state senator who i've never spoken to in my life i don't even know i didn't even know why she was
026calling me or why she had my phone number but i had talked to other board members about what we were going to do with the health standards and i kind of knew where peop what people were thinking some people wanted a third draft and said let's go back to the drawing board we didn't do this right the whole process has been botched we need to go back and figure it out and i thought leaving that a lot of the people on this board that's where we were some people were okay with the second draft but some people wanted a third draft but that phone call came on a friday afternoon and i couldn't figure out what was going on until i got a little further in the conversation and there were hints being dropped what
027are you guys going to do about the standards the superintendents would really like for you to postpone this they don't really like the heat that they're getting from locally they don't want to deal with it locally can you guys just push it off and do something different with it and i said well that's for the board to make and if the people want to go to their local superintendents in their local school districts we are a local control state and that's where they should go i support that so i can't say that i'm going to make any decision when i think that locally is where it should be handled i'm not upset with the people for doing that that was my statement so the next morning i wake up and i uh got an email
028from the commissioner and in that email i heard and saw the exact same things from the conversation that was going on from that phone call i got so i go there's a push on us to make a decision to do this and would you believe within the next week we had this statement saying this is exactly what we were going to do so it is so hard for me to believe that this is the statement and this is what this board wants to do when i know where we were coming off of the last committee meeting i know what i spoke to people about and then i started hearing other little pieces well if we don't do this then so-and-so is going to do this and so-and-so said we should do this because otherwise we're
029going to do this and now we're doing exactly what we're being asked or told to do when we're supposed to be a board that makes our own decisions so i came here yesterday disappointed and hurt because i felt like i pleaded to all of you to do something different and you turned around and this statement is exactly what somebody else wanted us to do so i can't vote for it i can't support it and i told and i'm telling everybody now why i'm not but beyond that the health standards to me are important as we deal with covet we're talking about mental health and kid with kids that's in the health standards that's something that's pressing we know that the legislature is currently dealing with how did we gonna handle behavioral issues in classrooms that's
030mental health that we need to be talking about there are a lot of other things about physical health with kids in those health standards that are important and so to say we're not even going to be allowed to talk about the health of kids that we're going to cut off the department of education for talking about anything that might even be related to health because because that's what we're being asked to do all i wanted was for us to go back and figure it out to create a better process and to get it right but we're not going to do that either we're going to vote to say health is off the table for now because it's too hard i don't agree with that so for those reasons i am asking that we take the
031statement back to the committee and we come back with a different decision it doesn't have to be this month it doesn't have to be in three months but we should not stop talking about health in schools and what a standard for health should be that's what we are about and that's what we're here for [Music] and that's all i'm going to say [Music] further discussion on [Applause] is there further discussion on the motion to defer refer refer to a committee refer to a committee yes is there further discussion to refer this back to the committee robin i'm going to ask when or if it is appropriate to convene into executive session give me one it would not be a matter from legal advice for legal advice could i ask uh when it would be appropriate
032in other words are we saying we have to act on this motion before we go to executive session let me speak this is a parliamentary issue a parliamentary procedure when we're talking about how to deal with the motion in the discussion i don't know that that is appropriate for executive session particularly not appropriate to retreat to executive session for legal advice on a parliamentary issue that is not my purpose for requesting this before any retreat to executive session we would need to know the purpose for the executive session and if it's acceptable to go under executive session under the public meetings law my purpose i'm sorry are you through scott share your purpose for going into exactly my purpose would be to prevent unnecessary harm to an individual that's an appropriate purpose under the statute
033but i think we would need to understand more about the nature of that reason robin you could ask for a motion to recess jacqueline what was your statement robin you could ask to take a break and then you could discuss what you need ask your questions uh scott did did you hear what uh jacqueline mentioned we could take a short break for you not a quorum of the board to discuss with me say that again please we could take a short break for you to discuss with me your reason but not with the quorum of the board okay so what is my best process then to do what you have suggested here to take a recess is that correct how many minutes move to take a recess of the stated amount of approximate minutes it
034requires a second and requires a second it is not the biggest madam chair i i seek a uh a uh five minute recess okay do i have a second oh second okay further discussion no no discussion do we take roll okay andrea take roll fricky no morrison yes tim co johns yes google's no neary yes stevens yes nichols yes five yes three no two no motion passes you have five minute recess the state board of education meeting will come back into come back from recess is there any further discussion on the motion to refer to committee i have a question before you speak the audience is having a hard time hearing in the back so please hold your microphone up closely and if you can do that there should not be a problem i the
035question that i have is we're asking about the motion to refer to committee but prior to us taking a recess i believe robin had made a motion was that motion accepted or on the table or told that that motion was unappropriate i just need to know where we are procedurally before we left jacqueline i'm not i do not believe that there was a motion from robin okay so we are back to is there any further discussion on the motion to refer to the committee refer back to the committee deborah i um was satisfied with the resolution that we had talked about yesterday but as i thought about it last night and that it was going to require five votes to bring it back public votes i knew that we were essentially killing the health standards
036because i didn't see them coming back and i do feel for our school districts and our superintendents and i am sorry that we let this timing happen the way it did i'm not in a rush to pass anything but i feel that it would be highly inappropriate for us to postpone it without some further discussion since there is and there has been in this past week a lot of confusion and i don't see any harm at all in taking it back to the committee even if it's just for another month but this is an important issue lives are at stake and i do hope that we can give this a little more consideration before we take a vote that's essentially going to kill the standards for a very long time that's there anything further discussion
037jacqueline yeah i will uh say one more thing it was asked of me why didn't i let people know yesterday why that i was going to do this or make this motion and i started thinking about it yesterday and again talking to board members i said the statement that was put out had some ambiguity in it and i can't support it but what i'll do is i will make two suggested drafts that the committee could put out and i'll write them up and then it will go back to the committee and they can vote on which one they liked that was the last thing i did before i left yesterday and the committee met and they accepted one of those versions and not the other which was the decision of the committee now the one
038that came out was the one that said in order for this to be brought back it'd have to be have a majority vote of the board but what that would require is for the committee to put it out it would have to go through the teaching and learning committee and then it could come back to the board and then it have a full vote the other option was that any board member could make a motion at any time to bring the health standards back on their own motion to the full board and do you know which one the committee the teaching and learning committee chose the one that keeps it with them so that they get to decide when it comes back and not any other member of the board well my history with this
039committee i just told you so i could not have made that decision before you guys decided on which version you were going to do once i saw which version that you were going to do which is the one that takes away the ability of any board member to bring this forward and to act but says it has to go through your committee then i decided i would like for that statement to go back to your committee to be reviewed that is why i said this today and not yesterday so that answers your question [Music] further discussion seeing none andrea please take the role on the motion to refer the motion back to the committee is that correct the statement back to the committee co johns yes freaky goobles no morrison yes tim nichols stevens no
040neary yes three yes four no one absent motion fails so we go back to the main motion lisa would you read the main motion again may i make a statement first read the motion first okay i move excuse me i move the state board of education hereby postpones the development of health education standards the state board of education receives substantial input on the draft of the health standards and recognizes that now is not the time to continue the process furthermore the covet pandemic has placed varied demands on school districts parents families and communities the intent of the state board of education is to determine the most appropriate time to address the health education standards after taking into consideration the state of the pandemic the needs of our children schools and communities the readiness of local
041and the readiness of local school stakeholders the decision to continue the process of developing health education standards must be supported by a majority vote of the state board of education is there any further discussion lisa first of all we didn't come to this conclusion because it was hard work you just heard why we kept in mind children communities parents leadership officials in schools from across the state we are not going to abandon working or developing health standards i as i read this and with jacqueline's addition at the end my understanding as the chair is that a board member can still request to have the health standards on the agenda so that it can be brought back at a time deemed appropriate considering what was mentioned in the statement any further discussion patsy i need to
042have that qualified the way it was stated by jacqueline was that it couldn't be brought back by one person right it had to be the whole board or the whole committee and i would like to know because that would make a difference in how i voted on the how i voted on the next process lisa you want to address that yes do you have your microphone on no i'm sorry um when jacqueline discussed this with me first of all i respect the opinions of all my board members and when she came to me yesterday and wanted some things changed i wasn't quite understanding exactly what she intended so she talked i believe with three others and they asked her to write down her suggestions which the committee got together and spent quite a bit of
043time five o'clock yesterday and decided we appreciated the last statement and so we took that and we in considering the statement remembered that thousands of emails thousands of people on the survey we took time to look at the themes of what all of you across the state decided needed to be addressed in draft one we ask that if they review all of that information from you decide the themes that you were worried about it came back to the committee the committee did not take this work lightly i can't tell you how many zooms we have had since draft one and the reason the statement came forward isn't because it's hard work because we have been doing hard work since the first draft was introduced so it's my understanding that and maybe we need to clarify
044i think we can clarify a statement easier than we could clarify another way i as chair would hope that this means that any board member can request to have health standards on the agenda when it's appropriate to address them again as patsy stated earlier as stated in this now is not the time for the various reasons stated in the statement and vice president co john said at the beginning drag one mask and earrings are hard so i'm i realize everyone who was not on the committee might not have seen the statement so i'm going to read to you the two different options that the committee had the first and this was not my addition to the statement this was my clarification asking that we get this right which it reminded me of one of our
045stories that we teach kids uh about uh henny penny and chicken little and the sky is falling where there's this consistent urgency of the sky is falling about pandemonium that we have to hurry up and hurry up because this has to happen fast and that's everything that's happened with these health standards is that we have every time something's presented to us it's with such urgency that we don't even have time to take the time to figure it out because we think we have to move so fast when what is the expediency when we're trying to get something right for kids i don't get it so let me say what this said because these were the two options that i sent to the committee the decision to continue the process of developing health education standards must
046be supported by a majority vote of the state board of education that was option one option two said at any time a board member may motion the full board to continue the process of developing health standards the motion must be approved by a majority vote of the state board of education that was the second option where it specifically said in the statement at any time a board member may on their motion motion the full board to continue the process your committee did not accept that option the committee accepted the first option so it's hard for me to listen to everyone's understanding was that any board member can do that when given that option that's not the one that the committee went with madam president lisa that wording was in the original statement that we had
047that one board member could do that in talking to jacqueline we decided okay she's thought this out the committee just discussed it at length and my understanding was that we could go with the first option and to me that did not mean that one board member couldn't bring it before um the full board at any appropriate time and i would um i would be okay adding what the original had back in because that was in there originally then you sent us two possibilities and after talking to you and i don't know how many other committee members you talked to we selected your option one okay i want to i want to make it clear neither of these were my options what i said and i brought up the first draft so we can read it
048together the decision to continue the process of developing health education standards must be introduced by a state board member and supported by a majority vote on the state board of education that was the language from the bottom however there was another sentence in the there that says the intent of the state board of education is to determine the most appropriate time to address the topic of health education standards after the pandemic has concluded as determined by appropriate national state local and health officials what i said was those two sentences made it unclear about how the process had to be restarted was it after the state board of education had determined as a board that the pandemic had concluded or was it upon the motion of a board member because the way that they were written
049were incongruent with one another the process was not laid out clearly in the statement so when i started asking board members which was it was it the intent for the board to first decide that the pandemic was over and then a board member could bring the motion or was the intent for a board member to be able to bring it at any time i was getting different responses which made me believe it wasn't clear what you guys were trying to do so i said i don't agree with the statement at all but i will write two options that are clear and then the board your committee can vote on which one is their intention so that we at least know what you're intending to do based on the one you chose it showed that the
050intention was not to allow a board member to bring it at any time but rather to go through a full board of the vote it's not my statement i was not trying to change your statement i was saying it wasn't clear and it needed to be we needed clarity on what the committee meant and now that one has been decided we're still debating what what was your intention versus what the words say that means you need more time to figure it out madam chair lisa then patty i want to make it perfectly clear that what you just read was not the final statement that came out of the committee i informed every board member to go on spark and look at because we didn't like the word concluded because we thought maybe this won't be
051concluded till 2030 or whenever we took concluded out so that indicates to me you're not even looking at what we put in spark as the final statement that you were adjusting you added to an in not the right statement that came out yesterday which every board member i personally said this please go to spark and read what we've adjusted so so i can read patty madam chair i would like to ask our parliamentarian what the process is to call for a vote on the motion on the floor requires a second and a two-thirds vote all right i moved the previous question okay it's been moved to go back to the main motion that again essentially okay the question has been called to cease debate is there a second second moved by patty seconded by robin
052discussion no discussion okay we need a two-thirds vote in order for this to pass andrea call the roll stevens yes tim co john's no morrison no google's yes neary no fricky yes nichols yes four yes three no one absent motion fails further discussion right patsy i can vote on this with a clear heart about making the right decision if i know that one board member can come forth and bring it back so that we can start the process again if we just let this process be tenuous and we don't know what's going to happen with it then we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing which is creating health standards for the children of nebraska commissioner could you please read b6 so part of part of the issue that i think has been raised
053is about whether or not a single board member can bring something forward so i want to read from policy b6 the board's own policy the agenda is developed by the commissioner in consultation with the board president and will contain any item requested by individual board members that's the first line of policy b6 patsy do the president and the commissioner have the right to exclude just i just want to know i'll just read the policy or the first line of it the agenda is developed by the commissioner in consultation with the board president and will contain any item requested by individual board members thank you sir lisa um that discussion uh took place in committee and the policy was referred to and that's why when i said my understanding was that anyone in in light of
054that documents our document edit that we accepted from jacqueline we considered policy b6 any state board member can request to be on the agenda for a particular topic for discussion so my question to the people that voted knowing that this can be brought back by one member clearly according to policy b6 i was running wondering madam chair is there anyone that would change their vote to accept this knowing that any board member can do that jacqueline lisa my computer just died but um yes the statement just to clarify the second statement that was issued yesterday by your committee that came out around noon time i think it was it was no longer up on the website so what i was reading was the first but the change that i sent to the committee came from
055the second draft so yes i did read the second draft and if i hadn't that change wouldn't have been in it when your committee got it so but here's my question and this is a parliamentary or i guess a procedural question if we pass a statement that says the intent of the state board is not to visit something until a basically a an event has occurred and we've made that statement which one supersedes the event occurring or our policy by law which one takes priority can i be heard now yes it is a procedural uh question but my reading of it would be that b6 is does prevail that any board member can bring or request the item beyond the agenda to consider beginning work again on the health standards it says that the board
056has to vote on that so that would be the discussion on an agenda item brought by any board member placed on the agenda is now the appropriate time given the board's intent language that would be the discussion is now the time to bring it back vote on the matter doesn't prevent a board member from requesting and having it put on the agenda the discussion would be amongst the eight of you vote up or down does that does now appear to be the time given the statement when it's adopted that's my take i have a question jacqueline when you refer to the board's intent language typically if we were looking at legal proceedings or we were looking at the legislature and they passed a law we would go back and we watched the recording of what
057they did or we at least read the transcript to find out what their intent was if our committee meetings don't have that transcript that people can watch or go back and look at where is it documented our intent language for the board where do we keep that where do we keep those intent documents or language where is it preserved i guess lisa every state board meeting is recorded and archived so people could scroll to the place that they want to get quotes from understanding from that's one source that i know of there might be more i don't know there's meeting minutes right i mean i think as lisa described the intent of the board is actually what we would be referring back to on a matter that had been there i think the intent language
058within the particular statement uh is is also i think in this case relevant i think to your point knowing when that intent is done but that's stated in your in your dialogue with around this particular statement as a full board robin uh uh colleague co johns would you mind answering a question from me i don't know robin hey based on this conversation is your question do you feel that your question has been answered i feel like that because of the clarification in in our rules as a state board that i could come back at any time and bring this up and put it on the agenda and it would be accepted and i feel like that i would have if it somehow did not go on the agenda i would have the power to go
059back and say i have the right to have that on the agenda get it on the agenda so that we can work on it robin would it be appropriate for me to call the question are you calling the question i'm looking to our our people over here if i can call the question the proper motion would be i moved the previous question i pre i moved the previous question is there a second second okay moved by robin and seconded by patsy not debatable just a vote andrea please call the role google's madam president um i guess that's what i was asking for it's moving the previous question which is essentially a way to cease debate on the motion on the consideration he knew that but i just needed to hear the motion again thank you
060okay would you like to read it lisa no no no no previous question it's not that the motion is the previous question well then say it called the rule call the rule call the roll google's yes nichols yes stevens yes morrison no neary code johns yes frankie tim 5 yes to no one absent motion passes we now go to vote on the main motion lisa could i have you re-read that please yes okay they say the third time is the charm so here we go i move the state board of education hereby postpones the development of health standards the state board of education receives substantial input on the draft of the health standards and recognizes that now is not the time to continue the process furthermore the covid19 pandemic has placed varied demands on school
061districts parents and families and communities the intent of the state board of education is to determine the most appropriate time to address health standards after taking into consideration the state of the pandemic the needs of children schools and communities and the readiness of local school or local school stakeholders the decision to continue the process of developing health standards must be supported by a majority vote of the state board and as policy b6 has clarified that that could be an individual member andrea please call the roll neri abstain nichols yes stevens yes morrison no tim co john's yes freaky yes googles yes five yes one no one abstain one absent motion passes prior to moving to agenda item 4 public comment we will take a 10 minute break the board will come back from recess here
062agenda item 4 public comment period we will now have public comment period this period of public comment is available for any person who wishes to address the state board on subjects within its authority please note that public comment should be on topics related to the state board's constitutional and statutory authority thank you to all of those who have come today those wishing to speak signed in at the table outside of the meeting room do we know how many public comments we do not know how many public comment cards there are the board voted yesterday to limit public comment to end by four o'clock p.m where each person may address the board for up to two minutes the board may take a 45-minute lunch break during such time announced at a time prior to recessing if
063you have not yet signed up for public comment please sign up with the nde staff at in the entrance at this time as provided under lb 83 from the 2021 legislature the board waves and does not require that persons that address the board in public comment provide their physical address the board does however request that you state what town you are from i will announce the names of the next 16 speakers so they are prepared to come forward and sit in the front row this is number one and there's number two deb savage pig fung tara mcguire cami riley brook stewart kathy adams cindy guthrie alyssa critfield cripfield lori woolsey melissa mcclanahan trish legg judy derr jenninger moni starkey deb savage welcome dad thank you good morning my name is deb savage i'm from the
064crete and denton area i've been a nurse for 38 years and a college professor for 28. on 9 26 19 board member deborah neary contacted ryan four and stated and i quote i want to make sure that lisa schultz is selected to help write the nde health standards please help me know please let me know what i need to do to make sure she is selected you've all received a copy so you can follow the timeline we're going to set out for you this timeline will show the board member neri has worked behind the scenes in an effort to influence all of you to adopt standards which were initially written by teachers across the state but were then taken over and manipulated by activists working secretly with ordinary most of this was kept from you
065which is why there has been so much controversy and confusion with this entire process many of you on the board and the nde trusted the process without knowing someone was manipulating the process by the end of this meeting you will see exactly how this unfolded without your knowledge on september 9 19 or on september 30 2019 board member deborah mary contacted brian four and stated i will not involve myself in the selection process as we discussed i want the process to happen organically as it should then between 9 26 and 9 30 of 2019 miss mr four spoke with miss neri and recommended that she should not be advocating for certain people and that she should trust the process this timeline has been developed by reviewing a large number of emails and text messages received
066through public records requests served on the department of education over the past six months on october 10 or on 10 2019 neri emailed ryan four and matt bloomstead informing them and i quote i'm very disappointed that none of the folks that i recommend to participate in the nebraska health education standards writing team time were selected thank you deborah thank you peg fall welcome pig thank you good morning my name is peg fong and i'm from kearney number two on october 23 2019 the equity officer for the department of education recommended abby schwartsworth from out nebraska based solely on her lgbt advocacy in that email exchange lacey peters the pe and health education specialist for the department of education said it was not pertinent whether ms wattsworth had any knowledge about health and or health education
067soon thereafter the list of the writing team members and experts were revised to include the names of lisa schultz matt avey and liam hearton rodriguez which were all selected by board member niri abby swatsworth had been added as well in spite of the fact that no one knew whether she had any knowledge about the health education on september 16 2020 lacey peters shared a website of resources with zayn abarida which contained equity picture books and other resources for schools included in these resources were books such as i am jazz i'm a girl pink is for boys and julian is a mermaid these and other picture books are produced for ages as young as three years old and deal with gender identity ms rita replied wow these are great resources this shows that officials in the
068nebraska department of education are interested in more than simply developing broad standards specific resources of interest as well december 18 2020 lisa schultz and her team were working on an advocacy plan for the health education standards in an email to an employee with the department of education ms schultz specifically discloses that she is working on an advocacy plan so she needed to know the timeline the nde had established for the adoption of these new health education standards this is the same lisa schultz board member neri had made sure to be a part of the process you've all been provided a copy of these emails so you can follow the timeline we're setting for you thank you very much thank you peg [Music] tara mcguire welcome tara hello my name is tara mcguire and i'm from
069gretna in early 2021 possibly january lisa schultz sent a text to board member neary in which he stated quote we are going to make some linkages to suicide prevention especially for lgbtq students both oregon and idaho have had a lot of success with that approach end quote it is possible that the advocacy plan developed by lisa schultz included using suicide to convince people that the lgbt and comprehensive sexual education aspects of draft one were necessary to save the lives of children because quote both oregon and idaho have had a lot of success with that approach on march 5th 2021 miss schultz text miss neary informing her that schultz had national experts ready to review draft one on wednesday march 10th remember that lisa schultz personally selected by board member neri had developed advocacy plan for
070the inclusion of lgbt and comprehensive sexual education in the health education standards and now lisa schultz was bringing in national experts ms schultz had also volunteered to meet with people behind the scenes to discuss her experiences in convincing the omaha public schools board of education to adopt comprehensive sexual education in omaha you have all been provided a copy of these emails so you can follow the timeline we are setting out for you thank you tara tammy riley welcome cammy hello my name is kami riley and i'm from norfolk lisa schultz the person board member neary personally selected for the writing team text missionary to inform her that she will love our new health standards fact sheet this means that some or all of the facts and information used by the board of education and the
071department of education especially those portions related to lgbt matters and comprehensive comprehensive sexual education came from lisa schultz who was one of the people specifically selected for the writing team by board member neri by late afternoon on march 10 2021 the day the first draft of the health standards were released lisa schultz had provided the nde a set of talking points and a fact sheet to be used in order to defend the first draft within 20 minutes of receiving ms schultz email ryan four nde's nde board relations rules and regulation officer had forwarded mrs schultz email to all nde board members it appears board members and the nde staff leaned on these documents as calls emails and media interviews ensued if you recall lisa schultz hand was hand-picked by board member neri had been working
072on an advocacy plan several months in advance of this had provided a fact sheet to the nde on comprehensive sex education and lgbt issues and had been working with national experts as soon as the public began contacting the nde in response to draft one there was a obvious bias against people with conservative views in the email on march 11 2021 a member of the subject matters t expert team and an employee of the nde referred to and concern referred to a concerned grandmother as crazy because she did not agree with the sexuality training in the standards the email was sent to lacey peters and pe the pe and health education specialist for the nde you all have been provided copy copies of the these emails so you can follow the timeline we are setting out
073for you thank you cami brooke stewart hello my name is brooke stewart and i am from albion on about the same day draft one was released of march 20th 2021 lisa schultz put jay irwin in contact with board member neri informing her that mr irwin was ready to mobilize mr irwin was the uno professor of trans studies at the time this is the same lisha schultz who was hand selected by board member neri to work on the health standards and who developed the adverse advocacy plan fact sheet and talking points for the board members and the nde employees on approximately march 11 2021 lisa schultz text board member neri and referenced a big partner meeting on tuesday presumably march 16th at which they would discuss draft number one it was unclear who the partners are
074but may include andrew aylman abby swatsworth and sophia jod wessel who was collaborating with at the time or possibly she was referring to certain financial supporters which have been significant financial backers of the omaha women's fund which was lisa schultz employer at the time after march 10 2021 lisa schultz informs board member deborah neary that she has four youth for may referring to the board of education meeting lisa schultz later informs board member neri that she had hired four new youth social media influencers and that schultz assistant's assistant tiffany was now speaking regularly regularly with ryan which may refer to ryan four in nde the bylaws of the board of education require members to treat fellow members and staff with kindness civilty respect patience and honesty it appears that the board member neri did not
075disclose to any of you that the person she had personally selected to work on the health education standards had made arrangements with youth advocates all of this has been provided to you thank you brooke kathy adams welcome kathy hello my name is kathy adams and i'm from kearney number six on march 12 2021 board member neri was thanking lisa schultz for helping her prepare for a tv interview on draft one in front of one of the omaha schools the prepared comment includes a reference to youth suicide due to youths being bullied for their gender identity or sexual preferences you might recall an earlier text from lisa schultz to board member neri which stated we're going to make some linkages to suicide prevention especially for lg btq students both oregon and idaho idaho have had a
076lot of success with that approach apparently this approach was part of the advocacy plan talking points or fact sheet prepared by lisa schultz the same lisa schultz who board member neri made sure to be appointed to be to the process by the department of education on march 16 2021 lisa schultz advised nde's corey eppler we have a plan for the next six months and will be ready for the april 2nd meeting we meet with key partners today the plan and the key partners come into more focus later in the communications between ms schultz and board member member neri on that same day march 16 missionary informed board president marine nichols that she had a zoom meeting with the women's fund of omaha directed by lisa schultz to develop the public relations strategy for the health
077standards so by march 16 2021 lisa schultz board member neri's personal selection for the people working on the health education standards had not only prepared a number of documents advocating for gender ideology and comprehensive sexual education she was now developing a public relations strategy for the health standards you have all been provided a copy of these emails so you can follow the timeline we are setting forth for you thank you kathy cindy cindy guthrie hi my name is cindy guthrie and i'm from kearney number seven on approximately march 22nd 2021 it appears that ms neary began contacting friends to encourage them to provide positive and supportive input for draft number one one person even emailed ms neary stating it was wonderful to talk with you on the phone yesterday and i am so glad we
078got to have a conversation about the proposed health standards i wanted to follow up and ask you to please email me the survey you mentioned i would like to fill it out thanks again for taking the time to talk to me on april 12th ms kangas emailed ms neary once again stating that she received ms neri's email with the link to the survey on march 22 2021 board member neri began to encourage the nde to bring in experts to talk to the board about the need for lgbt sex education in the health standards she specifically mentions her hand-picked advocate lisa schultz as well as dr deb tomic and a parent of a transgender student as experts she would recommend for this task board member neri reminded nde board members and staff how she found lgbt
079advocates to bring along a couple of their fellow board members who didn't understand some of the wording she was able to get into the non-discrimination policy the board had passed the previous year you've all been provided a copy of these emails so you can follow the timeline thank you cindy alyssa crittenfield hello my name is alisa crifield i'm from kearney on march 30th 2021 board member neary emailed a document titled sample talking points to president nichols this may be the talking points ref referenced by lisa schultz earlier in the month the talking points include many references to the process which unbeknownst to most people in this room up until now was not being allowed to have it happen organically at least this is what i think many of you are now coming to realize what
080was supposed to happen organically was being guided by the hands of several individuals including at least one member of the board of education lisa schultz on march 31st maureen nichols emailed a set of attachments to all board members and several nde officials which defended the sexual education in draft one of the standards which included information provided by lisa schultz earlier in the month including the link to suicide which lisa schultz identified as being helpful in oregon and idaho's advocacy efforts on april 15 2021 board member neary began reaching out to facilitators who could meet the board members and work on a value statement to supplement the non-discrimination position statement the board had developed under neary's guidance several months earlier the individual individuals board member neri contacted seem to include one common trait support of the
081lgbt lifestyle you've all been provided a copy of these statements thank you alisa lori woolsey welcome lori thank you good morning my name is lori woosley and i'm from omaha number nine on april 23 2021 board member neri reached out to two members of the board of regents elizabeth o'connor and barbara white's to see how the board of regents dealt with the public comments on controversial issues according to board member neri her discussions with the regents heightened her disappointment with the way the nde was handling the public input on the health education standards in an email to tiffany yoki at the omaha women's fund on april 23 2021 board member neri stated i am very disappointed that ryan and maureen see this as a both sides need to be presented all the time it is
082irresponsible in my opinion when one of the sides is based in science and fact and the other is based in religion that is why it was important for me to learn how the regents get around the both sides nonsense they only allow 30 minutes of public testimony a month and they do not put much emphasis on all of the public input end quote miss neary represents that she had spoken to more than one regent but in fact she only spoke to elizabeth o'connor barbara white's did not respond to miss neary's email until may 2nd and ms neary informed her on may 3rd that elizabeth o'connor had answered her questions already therefore miss neary only spoke to one regent but led others including the other board members to believe that she had spoken to at least
083two you have all been provided a copy of these emails so you can follow the timeline we're setting for you thank you thank you lori melissa mcclanahan hello my name is melissa mcclanahan and i'm from nebraska city number 10. on april 26 board member neri emailed president nichols vice president patsy cojones commissioner bloomstead and ryan ford to try to get the nde to change the way they were receiving public comment board member neri specifically stated it is not enough to just listen to public comment and i tend to think it is irresponsible if that is all that is allowed and i am not only concerned about our board having the information they need but i also want to set the example for the local school boards it is also horrifying thought that they would merely
084lead the decisions about these standards to only the public comment portion at the same time board member neary was attempting to bring in an lgbt advocate as a facilitator to help create the value statement for the board of education she was trying to minimize the predominantly morally conservative message the board was receiving from the general public many of whom included professional educators medical providers counselors and overwhelmingly parents and grandparents of k-12 students this is proven even more thoroughly by ms neri's email to ryan four on may 5th 2021 in which she tried to get the value statement on an upcoming agenda and stated i think the value statement is important as we make our health standards decision in a following email mr four agreed to put the value statement on the agenda in text messages
085on may 8 2021 lisa schultz and board member niri make it obvious that they are not only advocating they are fighting it to keep as much of the cse and lgbt advocacy in the health education standard as they can board member neri was concerned about a third draft which was too cleansed you all have been provided a copy of these emails so you can follow the timeline we are setting for you and i just wanted to add please don't call me a bully because i don't want my child indoctrinated thank you [Applause] thank you melissa thank you trish legg welcome trish hello my name is trish legg and i'm from doniphan number 11. if things such as transparency honesty integrity fairness ethics and professionalism still matter in nebraska the efforts of board member deborah neary
086and the nde's failure to protect the process of the health education standards has to be a serious concern to all of you it is obvious the department of education and the board have been influenced by a calculated effort to sway your opinion from the very beginning actually before the first draft of the health education standards was even on the minds of the teachers who would begin the first drafting if you thought there was a process you now know that it was not working while you fielded the questions and comments of concerned parents and grandparents across the state we offer you the entirety of the chronology so that you can see for yourself there are dozens of other very troubling emails which with which we can provide but i think you will agree there is enough
087to show a significant breach of trust transparency and accountability occurred during the development of these standards until the credibility of the state board of education and the nde is restored and those implicated are held accountable nebraska stakeholders will not accept any further considerations for the development of the education standards health education standards thank you trish since they're reading the emails [Applause] i believe while i was going through the names i may have overlooked two individuals in in the order and that would be sherry lewis cheyenne lewis and robert staub if i did not call you please come forward i want to call in the order that your numbers and that would be uh is it cheyenne lewis yes it's a shane thank you yeah my name is shane and i am a mother of five
088in the broken bow area sorry excuse me the proposed standards the information that was presented in these standards this board didn't even come up with and i do not feel that is going to protect a child who is suffering from identity crisis a mental disorder abuse an empty space created by peer pressure through social media or a friend circle and this is why these standards and the process in which they were pushed are only going to encourage confusion amongst impressional kids who never would have questioned themselves in the first place and that is something to be mad about and those that do question themselves will be encouraged to run the risk of joining the 13.2 percent of lgbtqia that find themselves detransitioning through adulthood as of 2021. being a person who has suffered abuse and
089neglect in my childhood i know exactly what it feels like to hate my divine my developing body to believe if i'd been a boy i wouldn't be treated this way and if i'd been going through that as a kid today would be encouraged to put my identity into a series of manufactured boxes and possibly mutilate my body to achieve it and it would have been at that age my brain would not have been mature enough to know what was good for me or not and when i matured at 28 it would have caused irreversible damage no school board no school system no teacher or counselor would take responsibility for when i realized i'd been lied to and encouraged to engage in a social experiment by well-meaning people who would have been willing to roll the
090dice with my life for what they perceived to be the greater good i lived a very disadvantaged childhood but as an adult i was able to take power over my life and couldn't be swayed by immaturity or lack of confidence anymore and the idea that i had to change to be loved or feel worthy was completely gone my children have a great life and get to go to a wonderful nebraska school where they are tasked with character development and adhere to a very strict anti-bullying policy alongside their basic studies just like they do at home time their daily plan time robert saab robert staub welcome robert good morning my name is robert staub i am the father of several children in the broken bow area and i'd like to touch on something that has not
091been touched on yet today i would like to speak to you this morning about the dangerous standards that are being considered in our state and country that would influence impressionable young minds the legislation that does nothing but create a platform where it is okay to discriminate and treat individuals differently based on the color of their skin let that sink in because that sounds an awful lot like regulated racism to me throughout the country in our state and in places where it has been adopted that critical race theory and other versions by different names are being taught in taxpayer-funded schools parents are reporting that their children are being told they must apologize for the color of their skin and that people from different cultural backgrounds should be given more respect than their white classmates it is
092poisoning and hurting children who have done nothing wrong every day my children are encouraged to respect all individuals period in their school code they promote integrity compassion and respect notice that nowhere in that statement did it state that they are to respect one skin color more than others it doesn't matter the fact of the matter is children don't even see skin color separation of race is a problem created by and proliferated by adults if you teach children that there is a difference simply because one person looks different than you you are the problem people are people we should be teaching children to respect one another one of the biggest contrary positions and what students are not even allowed to hear is that more often than not racial tensions are based in cultural differences and behavioral
093assumptions i will give you one thing critical race theory is an appropriate name theory is defined as abstract theory thinking about a phenomenon the phenomenon in question as i stated before is one created by self-serving adults a theory must be proven to be given title as fact thank you gur welcome judy welcome welcome thank you um judy derr amherst i'm reading this on behalf of dr jason schuda a practicing physician from kearney his full statement has been submitted the goal seems tangibly clear to abandon the timeless current approach to a healthy educational climate where kids do not require labels and wear respect and kindness for all regardless of skin color sexual orientation religion and appearance are the primary focus and instead to formulate policy that isolates and affirms biologically confusing and inaccurate views the noble
094hope is that in doing so lgbt youth will be safer less inclined towards suicidal ideation and more psychologically secure unfortunately research argues this approach is flawed a review of gender affirmation strategy shows mixed outcome data with many study limitations an international study shows that gender hormone therapy fails to improve psychological morbidity outcomes a widely celebrated study citing mental health benefits of gender reassignment surgery was revealed to have flawed statistics and methods forcing the american psychiatric association to issue that this was a flawed study erroneous conclusions yet there is no path toward creation of an affirmative school climate that does not further propagate such psychiatric morbidity affirmation policies have led to an otherwise inexplicable rapid increase in gender dysphoria identity cases along with increased psychiatric morbidity surgical sterilization creation of permanent medical patients and lifelong strife
095and regret for many as a sign of this remarkable shift in 2012 there were zero reported cases having developed in adolescent girls in the scientific literature kids learn to need to learn to love and respect others because they are dignified humans not because they're requesting an identifying tribalistic label the current approach of schools to emphasize respect and kindness and eliminate bullying is the best evidence-based approach and need not be updated to reflect 21st century ideological fads thank you for your time thank you judy jenna durr [Applause] welcome jenna my name is jenna der from kearney and i am an educated mother and physician today i'm speaking on behalf of the protect nebraska children coalition when a small group started this coalition just a few months ago we had no idea how far we would go
096it has been exciting and humbling that more than 20 000 people have shown up for our kids in such a short time to each and every one of them who have become a valuable partner in the battle for parental rights and the protection of our children's innocence we are truly grateful our coalition has made huge strides in drawing attention to the health sex education standards the statistics from the unl data analysis is clear 90 percent of nebraskans who participated in the survey oppose the standards and want this entire process scrapped unfortunately in recent weeks the media has attacked us and painted this as an extremist organization while this dilatory tactic won't fool reasonable people it's had a ripple effect across the state with proponents of the sexualized and socialist agenda including members of this board
097claiming that our coalition stands for hate is it considered extreme or hateful to protect children from pornographic material is it extreme or hateful to favor scientifically and medically accurate information over standards which would promote genital mutilation and untested and dangerous hormone therapies on our children is it extreme or hateful to oppose the early sexualization of our children unfortunately the real extremism has been displayed throughout this process none of which is coming from our coalition rather it is on full display from select school board members nde staff and the expert advisors involved in this process many of whom are heavily influenced by represent and or are directly funded by outside pro-abortion activist groups the very activist groups such as sikas who created the national sex education standards which was literally copied and pasted into draft one
098our coalition is here to stand for the rights of parents the innocence of children and the promotion of education over social indoctrination don't let your schools sexualize your kids or teach them radical social theory it is time to double down on our efforts and remind our local school boards and the nebraska department of education that schools need to stay in their lanes and leave parenting to parents thank you thank you monty sharkey [Applause] monty sharkey i apologize if i did not read your name earlier can you guys hear me yes welcome my name is monty starkey and i live in hastings i am a school nurse i worked the battleground my stepfather was a war ward 2 vet two purple hearts bronze star one of the most important things that he said to me was
099the people who start the war are not the ones who are fighting it i'm the one who has to teach these children and i can tell you they're not ready for it uh jacqueline i didn't prepare a speech either so whatever i wrote here i couldn't say out loud because you guys wouldn't appreciated it patsy everything you said was absolutely right at the beginning of what this pandemic has done to our schools but before the pandemic it was pretty bad okay our kids are coming to school with no social skills they don't know how to they don't even know their name they don't know their parents name they're not potty trained we are spending our time potty training first second and third graders so before i run out of time i would like to invite
100every single one of you in fact i challenge every single one of you to come to my school and help us out there are we are short of teachers there are no subs we are short of nurses i have rubber gloves and masks you guys come spend eight hours in my school and actually see what is happening with these children we've had police already there social service is already there we need social workers and counselors we don't need all of this crap because these kids already have a bad life marine my school is a few blocks from your school so you time thank you and stally all of you guys please come thank you time is up thank you monty the next 16 individuals are liz davids julie sheldon jamie gould melanie coronado amaya michaela
101atkins jill hagan dr greg brown amber brown ethan hotchkiss lily castellan eli regasso jessie barondo amy lacroix naomi hataway dr michael green scott guthrie liz davids welcome liz thank you i'm liz davids from lincoln i'm speaking to all of you who are struggling with identity or sexuality and who feel alone in a world that categorizes and labels i see you i hear you you are precious you are here on purpose you are here with purpose your life matters you are unique you are wonderfully made your struggle is real and some of us in this room have had similar struggles and would love to connect with you and have a meaningful conversation about how we processed our struggle and grew through it and came out the other side healthy and confident your pain is real and
102some of us in this room have experienced abuse at the hands of those in authority those we should have been able to trust it is so wrong and we are so so sorry we would love to connect with you and encourage you with our lived experiences of healing so you can find hope for your own healing these people in authority over our educational institutions want to keep you confused with a never-ending list of categories that keeps you guessing where you fit depending on how you feel that day because confusion leads to fear and fear leads to trusting whatever those in power tell us will help the big businesses raking in billions each year pushing these stereotypes want you to perpetually question and struggle with your identity and give them thousands of dollars every year for
103the rest of your life for fake fixes when you are seeking lasting healing for your very real pain everyone here who is wearing this sticker could share with you their own story of finding healing and coming into a life that is vibrant thriving and at peace not fake fixes but real solutions not big business and big government state school boards constantly changing the rules on you but timeless truths that resonate with every single person echoing down to our core we see you we hear you you are precious you are here on purpose you are here with a purpose your life matters you are unique and you are wonderfully made we are with you and we are for you let's all find true feeling together thank you liz julie sheldon welcome julie my name is julie
104sheldon i am from lincoln and i was at the meeting the state board meeting last time and i was i came out of it after listening to the stories of the young people when they talked about suicide intentions and the feeling that if they had had comprehensive sex education that they wouldn't have had depression and had to deal with anxiety um and i just want to say that um those aren't those statements um sex education saves lives and things about um saying that if they had been taught sex education that um things would have been different are harmful and and misleading yes suicide is a it is a leading cause of death of of young people but i mean i found the statistic that 90 of those who've died by suicide in 2019 had a
105diagnosable medical med mental health condition at this at that time i myself have struggled with depression anxiety i was only 10 the first i was only 10 years old the first time that i thought about suicide i left my house after midnight and walked to a local park sat there for quite a while thinking about walking in front of a train this park was located next to railroad tracks and i knew that it was only a matter of time before a train would appear during my life my dad died from leukemia when i was seven my mom became an alcoholic i became sexualized and sexually active at a young age i got pregnant at 14 had a baby at 15 got pregnant at 16 had my second baby at 17. i have been a victim
106of neglect to date rape and physical abuse i didn't address this trauma until i was in my 30s i just want to ask that instead of spending all this time talking about sex education standards and we need the basics kids need to know about puberty all that stuff but we need to stop pretending that these are going to change depression and other things and i implore you to spend more time and more money working on the mental health aspect for kids if you don't like who you are down deep you can make all the physical changes you want but if you don't address how you feel about yourself nothing will change time thank you julie jamie gould welcome jamie good morning my name is jamie gould i'm from omaha nebraska before i begin i want
107to give a warning that i will be discussing sexual assault rape and suicide i'm devastated i am so hurt that the department and board of education would put thousands of students lives in danger to avoid upsetting misinformed adults or because the process has been hard or because you are exhausted let me elaborate on what i mean when i say lives are in danger according to the cdc one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually assaulted before they turn 18. and that is according to data from 2005. the number is now sometimes estimated to be one in three girls and one in five boys as sexual assault is still very stigmatized and not everyone feels safe disclosing their trauma or seeking care there is a massive correlation between sexual assault survivors and
108suicidal thoughts or actions as a sexual assault survivor who nearly attempted suicide i have first-hand experience you are sentencing thousands of children to this horror and pain we have been saying for years that we are tired of being told how to keep ourselves from being raped and we need to see our schools teaching boys not to rape you have that opportunity by teaching consent at age appropriate levels beginning in elementary school don't back away because bigoted and misinformed adults are harassing you and us you saw what happened last month we can't keep seeing the bullying in the classroom that we have seen and experienced at every single board meeting i do not have faith that all of you are acting in the best interest of students it seems to me that some of you are
109prioritizing your own political careers and that is devastating to me please do better thank you jamie melanie coronado amaya [Applause] welcome melanie hello good morning my name is melanie and i'm from omaha i first want to say how disappointed i am and all of the board today as a young person hearing that the health standards are being postponed reminding me that the adults around us continue to fail us once again outlining the march 5th board meeting one of the policy priorities for this board is to explore meaningful ways to engage students in the policy making process yet we continue to be excluded in decisions that impact us the most over and over again i heard that right now it is not the appropriate time to talk about these standards but if not now then when
110when is it the right time postponing any movement on the standards is a regressive and dangerous move it makes the standards feel like the last priority making me and other youth feel that like the last priority the second draft of the health standards release leaves out so many crucial aspects of sexual health information it's devastating it fails lgbt plus students women and youth of color all around nebraska who are counting on all of you and it fails every single youth testifying here today too revising the health standards and supporting inclusive honest and complete sexual health information would positively impact youth and save lives it would save the lives of thousands of teens who are survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of adults who are supposed to be keeping them safe as someone who is
111also a sexual abuse survivor it pays me to know that maybe if i was given access to accurate information at the right time my story could have been prevented and i know it could have been prevented perhaps you don't know anyone personally affected by bisexual health but there are countless students that have been affected and are being affected right now postponing the health standards not only to step back in the wrong direction but it is also a violation of someone's rights and ethics i said it before and i'll repeat it again the adults around us continue to fail us but everyone on the board has a chance to do what is just thank you melanie michaela atkins hi welcome good morning good morning my name is michaela and i'm from omaha nebraska i am overwhelmed
112with total disappointment and lack of faith today last month as young people we came into a space that was hostile and unsafe much like today to give our true testimonies and experiences we are only able to be present with you today because we have a group of adults who prioritize our safety and well-being nonetheless the fact that it was even considered to postpone all movement with the standards and then past feels like a direct slap in the face we continue to put our trust and faith into a system that continuously lets us down when will our education actually be our education at what point will our voices be enough the message continues to still be conveyed that we do not matter we look to the adults to possess courage and integrity two things that i
113have yet to see in this process we have been asking you to step into your courage and into your integrity and do what is right for all young people we have waited far too long for change and frankly we are tired of waiting when will it be the right time to give us the information that we so desperately need if young people are old enough to experience racism homophobia transphobia and bigotry then we are old enough to learn about it it took thousands of students protesting night after night for the public university's board of regents to even acknowledge the injustices that were happening on their campus we need you all to do so much more than that don't be persuaded to take action based on fear-mongering and loud bullies who are disparaging lgbtqia plus identities
114remember who you are here for us the students of nebraska i can only hope that you are on the right side of history please ensure we have access to inclusive honest and timely complete sex education thank you [Applause] jill hagen welcome jill thank you my name is jill higgin i live in omaha and i am a public school parent i've attended these meetings for months now and unless you've been in these rooms you can't know how hostile and harmful the environment is for the brave young people who have dared to stand in front of you telling you why their identities matter and asking for the health education they want and need it's easy to see why others don't feel safe enough to show up it's true the hearings have been filled with opponents to health
115education but here are some of the behaviors that i have observed from the adults at these hearings who are adamant that the standards aren't needed bullying threats doxxing yelling harassment booing forcing young people from their seats laughing at young people dismissing views that don't align with theirs using religion to make their bigotry more palatable threatening insurrections shaming proponents and when they aren't using scare tactics at meetings to shut down the conversation they are illegally placing information in mailboxes quoting hitler hiding behind a private facebook group and aligning their efforts with the nationally recognized hate group that attacks lgbtq individuals if a meeting full of adults isn't safe for young people for a couple of hours what makes you think they are safe at school or in their homes or in their communities it's clear that
116simply saying be kind or treat others how you want to be treated is not cutting it youth deserve adults in power who are strong enough to make the right decision they deserve adults that can show up as bravely as they are adults with authority to do the right thing especially in the face of extreme pressure and misinformation they need adults willing to risk their own political careers and aspirations to keep them safe sex isn't a bad thing but denying people the right to basic information about it is we can do hard things the youth have proven that please do the right thing for all students in nebraska including my own thank you thank you jill dr greg brown welcome greg thank you good morning my name is greg brown i live in kearney i have
117a doctorate in health and human performance i'm a professor of exercise physiology at the university of nebraska at kearney these are my own opinions and not a statement on behalf of unk i have provided and continue to provide expert testimony for several legal cases and before legislative committees in several states regarding the biological differences between males and females and how those differences influence athletic performance i've recently written a piece for the american physiological society about discussing sex and gender in the college physiology classroom i've also submitted a presentation to the american physiological society 2021 sex and gender conference so yeah i'm a scientist all right do you know that both drafts of the proposed health education standards have an inordinate emphasis on gender identity and transgender ideology are you aware that the world health organization
118the united states centers for disease control and prevention the national institutes of health and the mayo clinic do not list gender identity or any related disorders at all among the most important health considerations for youth and children and yet both drafts the proposed standards have this huge focus on gender identity however the proposed health education standards do not specifically include oppositional defiant disorder conduct disorder attention deficit hyperactivity disorder tourette syndrome obsessive-compulsive disorder autism spectrum disorders or post-traumatic stress disorder all of which are listed as the most important health concerns for youth and children it is therefore my opinion that the proposed health education standards are trying to advance an ideology rather than a health education curriculum i strongly suggest that the board scrap the proposed health education standards and focus their efforts on reading writing
119mathematics science and social studies thank you greg amber brown welcome amber my name is amber brown and i'm from kearney i am grateful that i live in the united states of america i'm really grateful that we're free to be here today that we can talk about these things that we have this freedom in the pledge of allegiance we said this morning we stated that we are one nation under god in the star-spangled banner it says and this be our motto in god is our trust and i'm really sorry for these youth who don't have parents that have taught them these things that they want the schools to have to do it that they haven't learned this at home that they don't feel that love at home and they don't have parents that have shared that
120with them and so now they feel like it's the school's obligation to teach them sex education public schools are not the place for that the board has gone around what the legislatures have said they don't they voted to not have this put forth and the school board has gone around that to try to put these forth and i'm disappointed in that another thing to remember is that you say the schools don't have to accept these things but they will be taught to kids that are being taught in college because these standards will be there and they'll be taught about it so these teachers have been taught this i can see there's no trust amongst you guys amongst anybody on this board there's a lot of mistrust in for good reason so i would like to
121ask each one of you to please resign ethan hotchkiss ethan welcome hello my name is ethan hotchkiss i'm from omaha nebraska this country was founded on the idea of freedom the idea that the individual can decide how they live for themselves not based off what others believe so why do we continue to deny the people what they want we want what the youth needs and has been asking for inclusive sex ed that equips them with the knowledge to live safe and happy lives sex is a part of all of our lives it is as fundamental to our existence as our desire for food it is a sim it is simply a function of our biological evolution and we benefit greatly by understanding it just like any other aspect of physical health sex can be talked
122about without the conversation sexualizing children knowledge that prevents bullying dating violence suicide sexual assault the spread of stds and unwanted pregnancies can be taught to children without sexualizing them if you are a parent sex will be a part of your child's life your child will have access to the internet your they will have time to themselves outside of your supervision at the end of the day you cannot control what your child does or consumes on the internet you can't control what connections and friends they make or what influencers they look up to and learn from if you are afraid of your child becoming more sexually active you should ask yourself if you even know how sexually active your child is or anything about your child's sex life our youth is getting more information about sex
123from the internet and pornography than family teachers or medical professionals 57 percent of nebraska high school students have sex before graduating high school there is no escaping this will we continue to deny the youth what they need and leave them in the dark or will we choose the path of freedom and agency of the individual the path on which we can continue to believe in science and inclusivity thank you thank you ethan lily castellon welcome good morning everyone my name is lily castellin and i was born and raised in omaha nebraska i'm a public health student at uno and a youth researcher with the women's fund of omaha and a proud member of the lgbt community i was also once a child a child who felt alone and afraid because i didn't know there were
124other people like me a child i can't do it i'm sorry we have your written comments eli ri so welcome thank you good morning i'm eli rigatuzo i am was born right here in omaha nebraska i'm a native nebraskan who spent the better part of my life advocating for equity and inclusion for the lgbtqia 2s plus community in nebraska i'm a queer trans masculine 2 spirit of the menominee nation if this intro confuses you it is a prime example of why including language about who i am in my community and our health standards in public schools is imperative on friday august 6 2021 as the board took public testimony in lincoln a high school student who was transgender died by suicide on the very day adults who claim they will teach their own kids stood
125in opposition of the updates and taunted and laughed at brave testifiers we lost another bright light we will continue to face the epidemic of suicide in our community if we do not update these standards to make them inclusive and affirming of the lgbtqia2s plus community these updates are not just about having the education be reflective of the unique challenges of my community but also the challenges of all of our youth as they grow up and become sexual beings it's inevitable you know my parents were good people respectable people in the community but they didn't always teach us everything that we needed to know and many parents today still do not when i came out to my parents at various points in my life they didn't always embrace me i had to become my own advocate
126despite the unique challenges i faced and so many of our lgbtqia2s plus youth are still facing the exact same bullying and abuse in our schools and at home i wish when i was in grade school i was taught the difference between sexual orientation and gender identity that my gender is not the same thing as my genitals and that being transgender has nothing to do with who i choose to be intimate with sexually and who i am is valid also consent is everything this knowledge alone would have made a world of difference for me as a young person educating our youth with truth about the community the lgbtqia 2s plus community reduce risk in the community thank you jesse rondo welcome jesse good morning i'm dr jesse dr jesse barondo i'm from fort calhoun nebraska i'm
127a christian father of three school-aged children and physician who is board-certified in adolescent medicine in fact i'm the only board-certified adolescent physician in nebraska or the dakotas i'm originally from south dakota and now practice in nebraska i also served 11 years in the army working in adolescent medicine in both texas and washington state this topic addresses concepts that align directly with my specialty and directly affects patients that i care for daily i can attest that there are no differences between teens in nebraska south dakota texas or washington they may have different hobbies or interests but all experience difficulties relating to reproductive health and bullying especially amongst the lgbtq community regardless of religious or parental beliefs i have care for teenagers who have had health challenges related to all those topics also some you simply do
128not have parents who are available or present to give this education so saying this is the parent's responsibility only leaves out a significant number of children i want to acknowledge that everyone speaking here including those that may strongly disagree with me all have the same goal in mind we all want to do what is safest and best for our children this should be seen as a cooperation between health care schools and parents rather than a fight as was considered in the original proposal having a medically accurate reproductive education in schools as well as anti-bullying towards lgbt community would have a tremendous positive impact on nebraska's youth this is strongly supported by important medical organizations including the american college of ob gyn american academy of pediatrics and society of adolescent medicine who also have the same
129goal of doing what is best for our children aside from the health benefits the state and communities would also see long-term economic and tax saving benefits from this omaha nebraska have been social and economic leaders to this region of the country for over a century i would strongly encourage the nebraska department of education in this moment to be leaders on this topic as well there may be some groups who are initially upset but the long-term results will be more than worth it thank you thank you amy lacroix [Applause] welcome amy thank you and thank you for listening my name is dr amy lacroix um i'm a mother a pediatrician a native nebraskan i was born in omaha grew up in omaha went to school in omaha and will likely die in omaha i went to
130central high school and so did my kids and my family has invested in this community and in this state i've been working as a pediatrician at unmc children's and one world for the past 27 years i've cared for thousands of nebraska's children adolescents and young adults i volunteered time with ops and with the state in women's health advocacy and i helped to care for youth in the juvenile justice system as well i'm speaking today on behalf of my expertise not on behalf of my employers i'm presenting for your consideration a statement from the nebraska chapter of the american academy of pediatrics in support of a comprehensive health education curriculum in the schools that our children and grandchildren attend our children teens and young adults are our most valuable resource they deserve our best at providing
131the information they need to take care of themselves to learn to advocate for themselves manage their health and prepare to be young adults who will continue to make nebraska a great place to live they deserve accurate information that is developmentally appropriate medically accurate and socially accepting and inclusive parents are and all and have been and always will be the most important influence in the life of every child as a pediatrician and a parent i can tell you that i know how very difficult it is to make sure that children have all the information they need to negotiate through today's world as parents we need to assure that children know they are accepted supported and expected to contribute and given opportunities to develop into their best selves despite many parents best intentions i have cared for
132hundreds of children whose lives have been derailed because of incomplete knowledge or poor resources that left them unprepared and flailing i see this daily in my practice in patients from all socioeconomic cultural and religious backgrounds and though every parent thinks they know their child best there comes a time when every child needs to be able to get information from trusted adults who are not their parents thank you teachers are the best people for this thank you naomi naomi hattaway welcome naomi thank you good morning my name is naomi hattaway i'm a mom to three children and we currently live in elkhorn nebraska politics and leadership is the act of building trust at scale each of you have been entrusted with the duty of care which means building the trust of your constituents through consistent and
133repeated acts of allyship accountability and bravery when we send our children to school we expect there will be equitable access to comprehensive and complete education a healthy community and safety the actual reality today for so many of our children in nebraska schools is a harsh and loud dissonance much like the energy here today bypassing an opportunity now for a strong and intentional rewrite of the health standards means you've also bypassed your leadership you've chosen to value the loud voices and that dissonance over the health and safety of our children back in july senator joni albrecht said quote the biggest thing i've learned in politics is when that room is full you'd better be listening end quote i reject this notion as dangerous you have a duty to quote be listening end quote period perpetu perpetuating
134that a room must be packed during public input in order for you to pay attention means you lose sight of the power and impact of the stories experiences and voices of our students the learners of nebraska that you've been entrusted with when we require rooms to be packed and voices to be loud we instill a false narrative about whose voices matter the most these rooms this one today is not accessible with regard to safety who has privileged to be here we've hushed the voices and experiences of our full constituency which includes the children of nebraska even though they can't vote for you themselves board member stevens even stated it clearly students voices weren't on the list of who's being listened to this environment here with toxic discourse booing racism etc creates harsh dissonance and it
135allows the oxygen to be sucked out of the space and leaves no room for the voices of our students as you decide when the right time is i implore you to stand into the leadership that you've been bestowed trust has been placed on you by our students thank you naomi thank you michael green dr michael green welcome michael hello board members my name is dr michael green md i'm a family medicine physician practicing in omaha nebraska i trained at the unmc family medicine residency program here in omaha and i practice in omaha in addition to serving patients in the local omaha area i am also a father to five school-aged children here in omaha i strongly encourage the board to adopt a health curriculum inclusive of sexual health topics that affect the youth and adolescents
136of omaha in particular i recommend covering two topics in an age-appropriate manner lgbtqia youth and sexually transmitted infection understanding and prevention first lgbtqia youth are at higher risk for a number of health disparities in comparison to their heterosexual counterparts including increased rates of depression and attempted suicide according to the 2018 report of the youth risk behavior surveillance system suicide attempts by at-risk youth was 5.4 percent for heterosexual adolescents while lgbtqia teens reported a rate of 23 percent which is nearly 18 higher significant drivers of suicide attempts are social isolation family rejection and bullying not having lgbtqia topics in the health education of nebraskans leads to a lack of accurate knowledge which in turn can actively promote misunderstanding and fear second we must educate our youths in an age-appropriate manner about sexually transmitted infections how to
137prevent them sadly douglas county has a higher rate of stis than the national average much of that due to infections and adolescents the rate of chlamydia and syphilis are on the rise according to the latest dhhs data that i checked yesterday with the largest rate increase in the ages of 15 to 19 years ignorance of health topics only promotes these higher rates and leaves our youth vulnerable in conclusion i ask the decision of the school board on topics of health curriculum be based on science and data with the best interest of children my own included in mind thank you thank you michael scott guthrie welcome scott thank you my name is scott guthrie husband of one wife for 38 years pastor of riverdale christian church for 32 years my credentials i have a bachelor's degree
138in bible a bachelor's degree in pastoral ministries and a master's in counseling and educational psychology and apparently i'm a bully jesus christ threw the self-righteous money changers out of the temple because they made an abomination of what was holy the christian community has the same responsibility protecting what god created in his image and set apart for a purpose there will never be an appropriate time to sacrifice the innocence of nebraska's children on the altar of proposed comprehensive sex education there will never be an appropriate time to offer the sacrifice of the innocent scripture clearly sets a standard of abstinence save intimacy for marriage as god intended it works every time the spiritual neglect of the sexual revolution has negative outcomes and correlates directly to the expulsion of god from the public square 25 times in
139the new testament the greek word pornea is used and every time it is in reference to sexual acts which are ungodly and defile the body sexual sins are against your own body and they turn what was clean into dirty ancient words tackle you farsins translated by the prophet daniel say you have been weighed and the scales are found lacking the handwriting is on the wall [Applause] thank you scott the next 16 sheena kennen mcknight scott bleicher maria gilmore monica meyer morgan ryan jesse hitchlands roberto wilhelm rob clements john lowe tia manning chelsea eggenberger josie hayko dorothy renter sheena cannon welcome sheena hi my name is sheena kanan and i'm from cozad and i'm a concerned parent of two children in the public school system i stand in opposition to the standards i wanted to provide
140an update regarding the resolutions and letters composed from schools across the state of nebraska there are now over 50 resolutions signed by administrators and local school board members i would also like to address the disregard that was used by the state board members in the discussion of these letters during the last board meeting we were told the schools who signed the resolution only represented 10 percent of nebraska students implying that only a small number were in opposition which is entirely inaccurate you can't assume that they were in support because they didn't sign a resolution the absence of resolutions by some schools does not equate acceptance or support for any draft thus far we are constantly told only a vocal minority is in opposition to the health and sex education standards which we know is incorrect
141especially when you look at the data analysis your data analysis derived from the first draft ninety percent of nebraskans are in opposition to the sex standards and transgender ideology that is a fact that number doesn't isn't biased racist or hateful that data is from across the state and across the districts ironically but accurately the data analysis multiple times refers to the group in support of the sex standards as a small subset or a small minority i am attaching some of the data in this letter it cannot be ignored you have the data you just refuse to acknowledge it educated parents grandparents professionals and citizens have shown up we've submitted surveys public comment and waited patiently while you tell us to trust the process at this point we know the process has been manipulated from the
142beginning and can not under any circumstance be trusted don't postpone the standards scrap them and scrap the board thank you [Applause] deborah mcknight welcome deborah thank you my name is deborah mcknight i am a united methodist clergy woman i have a masters in divinity from smu and a master's in education from doane i'm here to name my wholehearted support for the original standards i believe proactive age-appropriate research-based standards are essential to the health and well-being of young people in my congregation and beyond including my own daughter who goes to public school in omaha i have listened to many of these meetings i have watched people quote from items they couldn't name the source i have watched hostile behaviors i have witnessed fear-mongering outside of this room i have heard about abominations christian values and sodom
143and gomorrah as a united methodist clergy woman i want to be clear that these voices that speak for christianity do not speak for the entirety of christianity they are based in nostalgia more than in proper biblical scholarship our young people deserve proactive sex education so that they can be healthy so that they can know who they are so that they can understand consent and value their identity and their worth from the very start in my years of work i have been entrusted with the stories of hurt and harm and among them is the story again and again that when young people do not see themselves in the story they think something is wrong with them they do not think oh this culture is heteronormative and biased against me and they spend years unpacking that trauma
144i have witnessed brave young people share who they are and with courage in a hostile space it is time for adults with reason education and care to do what is great thank you thank you deborah [Applause] stacy bleicher welcome stacy thank you my name is stacey blaker i'm a pediatrician i currently live in eagle but have practiced in lincoln and am currently the medical director of the lincoln lancaster county child advocacy center i am speaking with support of many members of the nebraska alliance of cacs we definitely have concerns about not having children uniformly instructed with anatomically correct names for their body parts and we see that at our centers because there are children that cannot even verbalize things that have happened to them when they've been abused and abuse happens frequently the numbers by
145the younger speaker that talked about probably one in three girls is sexually assaulted sometime in their lifetime and one in four boys have become nationally recognized as reliable numbers and yet we have a generation of kids that when i was started in practice 37 years ago we i always talked with families about using anatomically correct terminology and i can't educate all the kids in the city about those things but we're finding even now i'll see a 12 year old that has no idea of the names of her body parts has a very difficult time explaining something that may have happened to her and until we can give children a normal idea of what their normal parts are they're not evil or sinful they just have names i do not feel that naming things sexualizes children
146but it gives them the vocabulary they need to be able to tell us what has happened that might not be appropriate and these are large numbers of kids we i hope with the postponement here that this is dealt with again very promptly it's a bigger problem now pandemic maureen i have a question thank you jacqueline hello i think i know the answer but i would ask you said that you represent a c-a-c can you tell us what that acronym is and what it does yes that's we have a network of child advocacy centers across nebraska and we tend to interact in terms of educating each other we some of the centers have just forensic introverted interviewers many have sexual assault nurses or physicians that do exams on the kids in the development of these and
147the lincoln cac began in 1997 this was to limit number of interviews that kids had being interviewed by people that are appropriately trained in age-appropriate interviews and then to have medical assessments when appropriate to help identify usually because our kids disclosures are very delayed that their body is okay and help them move on the process of healing thank you you're welcome thank you for your question thank you stacy maria gilmore welcome bria hello my name is bria gilmore and i'm a junior at uno last meeting i came to you with my story and knowledge about how sex education correlates to sexual assault prevention many others shared their own personal stories and unfortunately were met with unprovoked hostility to that may pose a question what students are we fighting for i've listened to testimonies on both
148sides and the wording in both have striking similarities we're all speaking to defend the betterment and protection of our students which brings me back to the afrimented aforementioned question what students are we fighting for the heterosexual caucasian ones or do we care about the well-being of all humanity students of different backgrounds socioeconomic status and sexual orientation that answers up to the individual i guess but for a decision as important as sex education which encompasses teaching about who we are how to navigate relationships safely how to respect and be knowledgeable about ourselves and others different than us how can we lean towards a viewpoint that excludes so many people so many students so many children when the opposition opposition says protect our children it feels like the white and straight is silent am i a student
149once a child i needed accurate information on how to prevent the worst from happening if the worst may happen i did not have that do i not count in the students you're trying to protect i think the answer is clear i appreciate everything the board is doing i know as a woman of color it's so hard to speak up for what is right thank you thank you thank you all but we need to do better thank you [Applause] monica meyer monica welcome monica thank you good almost afternoon my name is monica meyer my pronouns are she aya i'm a parent i'm a clinical social worker and the clinical director for heartland family service here in omaha i'm here today to share with you the reality that young people face in schools they are shamed for
150expressing themselves they are bullied for their identities and they experience microaggressions that pile on day after day to the detriment of their mental health this type of bullying and harassment at school leads to an increased rate of suicide attempts especially in the lgbtqia population through the work that my organization does and the work that i do i know just how much of an impact a school environment can have on a young person inclusive and comprehend comprehensive health education that honors everyone's identity and allows people to show up authentically at school make school environments safer additionally having caring adults plural who see them and accept them as they are can drastically change a young person's experience at school what decision you all make regarding access to health education and the promptness of that decision decides if
151that impact will be a positive one or if it will continue to contribute negatively to the young people's lives so now is not the time to delay young people in our communities need inclusive and comprehensive health education right now because it will save their lives thank you you monica morgan ryan welcome morgan thank you my name is morgan ryan and i am a high school student from omaha i want to start by saying that i hope that the equity committee will be included in this work in the future because i deserve to have my representative involved in this process i was troubled to hear that this isn't the right time for health education we're in a pandemic that requires um people to know that basic disease prevention so now isn't the right time for health
152education really a sexual violence epidemic is in the states colleges and it's obvious so if now isn't the right time to teach sex ed rooted in consent culture then win is there are sexually active students in every one of your districts some people would like you to bury your heads in the sand and ignore that fact but that is unacceptable my generation deserves more than that while it would obviously be ideal for every nebraska child to have a trusted adult that they could talk to at home about these topics that's just not the case for everybody when young people don't have trusted parents or teachers to turn to you leave them with no other option but to seek out more problematic sources like their friends porn and social media most of you make your decisions
153with your political future in mind that's understandable i think it's important to remember that my generation is entering the voting electorate in droves as we speak and we want representatives that are willing to fight for us even when it's hard we will not forget this issue and we will see you at the voting booth our lives are more important than your careers or their hate we are telling you what we need virtually every young person that has come to these meetings over months has been pro-sex education there's a reason for that nobody knows what is better for us than us thank you oh and uh i am very very proud to have mrs neri as my representative for the record thank you thank you morgan thank you jesse hitchlins welcome jesse good morning members of
154the school board for of nebraska my name is dr jesse hitchens and i use she her pronouns i'm a higher education administrator at the university of nebraska at omaha and university nebraska medical center the views i am sharing today are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of university nebraska at omaha or university nebraska medical center in my seventh year i am the founding director of the gender and sexuality resource center that serves victims and survivors of sexual violence through confidential victim advocacy and the center provides support for queer and trans students i am a state certified victim and survivor advocate and over a decade working with survivors of sexual assault dating domestic violence and stalking i am a foster parent of a teenager in the ops school district and i know as
155a scholar that not having comprehensive sex education has both macro consequences which terrifies me on the micro level as a parent let me put the micro societal costs into perspective if we do not include this into our standards each time someone is raped the societal cost is over a hundred and twenty two thousand dollars most persons experience their first rape by the age of 18 a youth nearly 25 million u.s adults have been raped the economic burden of not providing comprehensive sex education is 3.1 trillion dollars comprehensive sex education can prevent this of the 25 million people who have been raped folks who are at the margins such as queer and trans people are most vulnerable because we are objectified more than our average population sexual violence of queer and trans people are as high
156as one in two people when we objectify and dehumanize someone harming them is easier queer and trans youth experience higher rates of sexual violence more more than the average population when tools are not given to combat these falsehoods the cycle continues education is a tool to intervene comprehensive sex education can prevent this queer and trans youth are not currently seen in sex education standards for the state and you have the power to literally save lives thank you jesse thank you roberta wilhelm welcome roberta roberta wilhelm from omaha i've been the director of girls inc of omaha for 18 years and i've learned that the girls don't wait for us to raise funds build buildings or design curriculum they don't wait for pandemics they grow up and grow on without us if we don't keep up
157every day even during covid bodies and hormones continue to change girls have first periods relationships both healthy and unhealthy develop kids will bully and be bullied they will experience depression and anxiety and for some suicidal ideation there will be unplanned pregnancies and stds comprehensive sex ed at girls inc is not just about pregnancy prevention but choosing healthy sexuality understanding healthy relationships and cultivating personal potential it has resulted in girls choosing to become sexually active at a lower rate than do teens in our state overall and if they do choose to become sexually active their rate of using protection is higher than that of other teens in our state comprehensive sex ed helps our girls develop a sense of identity agency and belonging critical social and emotional skills i am here today to advocate for that
158same access to comprehensive sex ed for all nebraska youth creating a safe healthy environment for our youth and giving them the information they need to make healthy choices now and not when it may be too late demands that we as grown-ups don't kick this comprehensive sex ed can down the road time and body clocks are ticking our young people need us now thank you thank you roberta rob clements [Applause] welcome rob thank you president nichols commissioner bloomstead and the board members i am rob clements of elmwood i'm the state senator for district 2 in cass sarpy and oto counties 41 600 citizens i've had dozens of emails and phone calls opposing the proposed sex ed standards my constituents do not want these standards i signed the letter 30 senators sent you opposing draft number one
159my colleague senator lowe will read the letter we sent yesterday on draft number two requesting you to indefinitely postpone the proposal we believe parents and local school boards should decide what to teach their children i urge you to delete the sex education portion of the health standards i will support legislation to prevent graphic sexual content from being taught in nebraska schools i urge you to respect the wishes of the vast majority of nebraskans thank you john lowe welcome john good afternoon first of all thank you for serving being in an elected position is tough elections are tough to go through as we all find out my name is john lowe and i'm a state senator from kearney i'm representing the 27 senators that signed the letter which i'm about to read dear commissioner bloomstead and
160the members of the state board of education nebraska is now in the seventh month of debate regarding the proposed education content in the nebraska department of education health education standards parents and over 50 school districts have loudly and clearly expressed their conviction that the material related to sex sexuality and critic critical race theory not be included these voices are echoed by many nebraska legislators who over the years have constantly rejected the imposition of ideological sexuality content into the statewide education standards continued efforts to include comprehensive sex education and critical race theory material in the statewide standards further diminishes any remaining trust nebraskans have in the nebraska department of education the health standards process has occurred during a pandemic that is placing the spotlight on student health mental and physical widening the achievement gaps of nebraska's
161most at risk children accelerating the teacher shortage crisis and burdening overwhelmed families yet again the nebraska department of education continues to force the state into divisive ideological debate it is time to address the critical issues in the education which the pandemic has forced upon us we call upon the department of education john thank you thank you [Applause] tia tia manning tia welcome to you hello my name is tia manning and i'm the prison rape elimination act advocacy coordinator for nebraska coalition and i'm also a licensed mental health therapist the most and also the most honoring job that i have job in quotes a mother to two children that attend bellevue public schools thank you nebraska board of education and commissioner for the opportunity to express feedback regarding the nebraska department of education health standards i'm
162very disheartened to hear that your vote to postpone today we at the nebraska coalition to end sexual domestic violence know it is possible to prevent violence in our communities and to live in a world free of violence but we need help getting there you are the decision makers invalidating the lives and experiences of 67 000 nebraskans who identify as lgbtq plus who are our neighbors and our classmates these individuals are currently unacknowledged in the proposed health standards and delaying adoption of the standards further dismisses their health and well-being the second draft of the nebraska department of education health standards doesn't go far enough and we ask the department to revise these standards to ensure that they are comprehensive inclusive and people excuse me and provide evidence-based violence prevention for all in our community young people
163have a stable sense of their gender identity by age three they have an understanding of restrictive stereotypical gender norms by age five it is vital for sexual violence prevention curricula to include inclusive language so it is relevant to all young people regardless of their gender identity if young people do not see themselves in sexual violence prevention material we are sharing in our schools they believe it doesn't apply to them and they miss critical information i believe i'm coming to a close and my colleague chelsea who's next will be finishing our statement thank you tia chelsea eagenberger welcome chelsea thank you i'm chelsea and berger and i'm from lincoln nebraska and i'm a former student of patsy cojones um i'm here representing the nebraska coalition and sexual and domestic violence where we know it's possible to
164live in a world free of violence and we do need help getting there well the yrbs does not capture data on transgender or non-binary students which again negates that these identities the national data does tell us that students are increased risk of for sexual violence need for inclusive curriculum is clear given the research that suggests that half of transgender people and bisexual women will experience sexual violence at some point in their lifetimes and this is preventable lesbian gay and bisexual students in nebraska were more likely to be bullied online and bullied on school grounds and they were more likely to report feeling sad or hopeless and they were more likely to have seriously considered attempting suicide nebraska's lesbian gay and bisexual students were nearly four times more likely to attempt suicide compared to their heterosexual
165peers and this is literally life and death these standards impact all of us because violence impacts all of us our communities always experience the impact of violence and we must do better violence in all its forms is preventable but we must act in light of what we know evidence-informed inclusive curriculum can save lives but we need leaders like you to take the step in setting the precedent that educating our youth about these topics will support healthier individuals and communities any delay in providing vital health and safety information to nebraska students will contribute to further violence the nebraska coalition and sexual and domestic violence calls on the nebraska department of education and the board to draft and adopt evidence-based comprehensive inclusive health standards as a step forward in creating a violence-free world we look forward to
166creating that world with you thank you thank you chelsea josie paco welcome josie hello my name is josie and i'm a creighton student from omaha what young people everywhere want is scientifically accurate and age-appropriate comprehensive health education this includes the topics of gender gender identity and sexuality it is pertinent for the future of nebraska's youth that they are properly and wholly educated on such topics to ensure safety in all facets of their life according to stanger holland hall 2011 states that taught comprehensive sex and or hiv education and covered abstinence along with contraception economies tend to have the lowest teen pregnancy rates they also state that the society for adolescent medicine agrees the abstinence-only approach is characterized by with the withholding of information and is ethically flawed additionally canada josquowski 2016 published in the journal
167of sexuality research and social policy found that an overwhelming majority of the 560 u.s college students surveyed endorsed most topics to be taught at some point in the k through 12th grades 99.3 endorsed puberty as a health education topic 99.3 endorsed building equal and healthy relationships 98.9 endorsed the prevention of stda and aids and 81.2 indoor sexual orientation clearly college students wanted to be taught these things when they were in grade school which means that there are certain students currently in k-12 grades that want to be properly educated there are times when kids don't feel comfortable going to their parents about certain things i was one of the kids those kids i didn't feel comfortable going to my own mother about my period so i hit it for six months after i first got it
168comprehensive health education such as that in the first set of the proposed standards will help normalize uh more of the socially taboo topics like menstruation and sex i wish that i had better health education than watching degrassi junior high on youtube for every human growth class i had in middle school which is why i'm here advocating for current students in hopes that they actually learn things that they need to be healthy adults because everyone at some point in their lives will need the information that can be found within the standards even if they don't use it until after they're married they will still need the information i would also like to add that it is kind of embarrassing the way that the people behind me are acting and talking about those speaking i would just
169like to address that and say that i'm sorry that you cannot act like adults um thank you time thank you thank you josie gwen easter welcome gwen welcome hello i'm going easter i live in omaha i'm appointed by governor ricketts to the early childhood interagency coordinating council into the african-american commission i'm not here on behalf of that these councils or commissions i'm here to ask you all to stop the health standards it's very clear that the school system are pushing nonprofit organization wealthy non-profit organizations agenda on our children it is very clear that um parents should uh have have said they want to have the right to teach their own children about sex and there are families who kids who may not have parents at home to teach their children but it's still not your
170place to push push lgbt transgender issues upon our children i lost my train of thought but i'm getting there to push these issues upon church sexualizing our kids um we need to um first of all acknowledge god acknowledge christ jesus he died for all of our sins he will forgive all of us for our sins but we need to tell kids and adults the truth fornication adultery homosexuality is a abomination to god and before i gave my life to christ i did my own thing okay i fornicated i realized what that was i understood and i got an understanding of it and we need to we need to encourage our young people to cherish their bodies keep their bodies for one man in marriage or one woman okay because god made it for man and
171woman to get married not the other way thank you [Applause] marny hodgkin hodkin welcome hi my name is marty hodgin interns with the adolescent health project presented survey data at the last meeting the data alludes to large gender gap and racial gaps when respondents were asked to rate their confidence on their knowledge of sex ed topics aside from subjective measurement by rating one's confidence the biggest problem with the survey is sample size only 204 youth were surveyed and of those 21 were interviewed the sample size is far too small and not an accurate representation there's no clarification of how the 21 of the 204 were selected leaving room for selection bias also the ahp is an initiative of the women's fund of omaha who employs lisa schultz who happens to be on the health standards
172advisory committee along with not being credible the survey faces ethical scrutiny for conflict of interest the board could never explain to us how the writers or advisors were chosen but thanks to foia we have a better idea in a 2019 email deb neary writes to ryan iv i want to make sure that lisa schultz is selected to help write the nde health standards please let me know what i need to do to make sure she is selected how's that for having no input deb when speaking on applicant selection lisa peters writes we did not ask demographic background information on the application that research i did on my own when inviting people to apply that way they didn't feel they were chosen solely on the race culture sexuality etc and when inquiring about abby swatsworth she
173asks is she knowledgeable about health or health education as well which isn't pertinent but it would be a plus the board was profiling and soliciting applicants based off of race culture and sexuality so to the writers and advisors sadly it's not about your work experience or the content of your character you were picked because of the color of your skin and who you sleep with this is what looking through the equity lens looks like and it's ugly we have asked the board to stay in their lane when it comes to knowing what's best for our children but today i say it's time for the board to get off the road scrap the standards thank you abolish the mde thank you [Applause] dorothy renter [Applause] welcome dorothy thank you i'm dorothy renner from creighton nebraska i
174raise four kids on my own while earning a bachelor's degree in education i'm a former teacher and currently a small business owner in norfolk and creighton i homeschool one of my seven grandchildren him a commissioner on the board of creighton housing authority serve on the board for beginnings pregnancy center in o'neill i'm a treasurer for two different organizations i teach sunday school weekly and in my spare time i come to local and state school board meetings today we reconvene it's a new month and a new school year and i commend the dedicated teachers we have throughout this state teachers who love and serve their students with late nights and endless hours of preparation and so much more the responsibility of this board is to support those teachers not to make their jobs more difficult or
175complicated sadly the health standards have been divisive criticizing concerned parents is not the way forward advocating for the health of your child and other children is what parents a parent does best advocating for activists agendas and prescribed narratives is too often what politicians and the media do best please let's be clear it's extremist to mutilate miners genitals with irrevers irreversible damage it's extremist and abusive to push hormone treatments to children when their frontal lobe and reasoning skills are still developing how are they to understand that such a decision will likely sterilize them for the rest of their lives it's radical to show elementary students the equivalent of pornography on school grounds it's racist to elevate any skin tone above another or any human being above another for any reason friends present and those listening online
176please know this no matter our stance on these standards we are not enemies but we do have a common enemy which manifests as deception and corruption the kind that would use our children as political pawns to accomplish personal political objectives parents and grandparents please continue to advocate for your children thank you at this time we have completed the 16 at this time i am going to allow the board to take a 45 minute lunch break teddy blatloch melissa wirth brenda fortner jennifer hicks marilyn rickley kelly dennings jen boswell kirby wilson please come forward d elder welcome dee hi can you speak closer with me am i better there you are too close anyway my name is deolder and i'm from omaha and today i'd like to read some excerpts from an email exchange that took
177place during august of 2020 between lacey peters physical ed and health education specialist chris juncker hiv sexual health education specialist and jeremy eckler associate director director of educational policy for the nebraska catholic conference the email was from jeremy to lacey and chris and i quote previously i was a teacher and coach in nebraska in chicago at the high school and college levels i recently ended my time as pk through 8th grade principal i see that you're in the process of working on updates to your standards that will roll out in the fall of 2021 i'd like to talk about that process and see if we can be of any assistance in this or other areas the next correspondence was between lacie and chris and i quote this is from lacey cory if we want him
178there corey said if we want him there he is willing to emphasize the procedures and the process chris jeremy is coming on pretty strong chris adds a sad face emoji corey should probably join the conversation because he understands why people ask the questions they do like you've already mentioned organizations want to know what specifics about the process now i'm curious why is that important to them laci i know i really think they want to advocate for abstinence-only education as well as gender identity sexual orientation etc the public is pointed out that was end a quote the public has pointed out the lack of balanced representation on the writing and advisory teams this email thread helps us to understand why the nebraska catholic conference was never invited to initially participate in the writing or advising process
179the nda nde did not want a balanced approach yes mr eckler was being proactive in his effort to be involved to appease him they offered him the time thank you dee sure i have a question yes jacqueline the last part of your statement i was trying to listen because you were you would say no no sorry you would say when there was a quote end quote quote end quote i couldn't tell if the last part of your statement you were reading an email that was quoted or if you were making your own statement no it was an email that was quoted what what was the um the first part was from jeremy and it was his um response to chris and lacy what he said and then the next two quotes were between lacey and
180chris not with jeremy so about the last three lines that you read what where was that coming from from the emails between lacie and chris okay and what was the date of that i'm sorry the dates of that email um i can get those for you i left them in my folder i believe it's august 24th of 2020 a year ago thank you you bet wendy goldberg welcome wendy thank you i'm wendy goldberg i'm the executive director of the tri-faith initiative and i'm here to remind you that something like the tri-faith initiative where we've co-located a church of mosque in a synagogue and has never happened anyplace else in the world reminds us that celebrating difference is a value i live in omaha i use she her pronouns postponing health standards is irresponsible jewish christian
181and muslim traditions teach us that all people are sacred and valuable and we support providing young people an effective health education so they have the tools and teachings to be whole healthy and safe i'm inspired by jewish values of kavod habriot respecting individual dignity which underscores the vital need for mentally medically accurate health education as faith communities we promote justice and all people we affirm dignity of every individual and the importance of personal responsibility and essential interdependence of all people when young people are affirmed and have safe spaces homes learning environments and faith communities they have positive emotional well-being and can achieve academic success some parents are doing a fine job informing their children other parents and guardians do not schools play a constructive role in helping address this need schools should provide students with
182quality education regarding their minds bodies and families health education is most impactful when it includes information examples that are inclusive and diverse cultural and identities including gender race religion age ability and sexual orientation i support open honest and early conversations that are age appropriate the lack of transparency in this procedure is disgraceful jacqueline you're courageous your voice your vision and your leadership is hurting you wendy thank you [Applause] mackenzie adams mackenzie i think i skipped over a person michelle dewitt i apologize michelle good afternoon i'm mickey devitt she her pronouns i'm the mother of two students in the omaha public schools the first a sixth grade my oldest a sixth grader is a traditionally gendered boy he's cisgender he identifies he him my younger fourth grader has identified gender creative since they were able to
183talk and make choices for themselves they'd grow their hair out they were sparkly tights but super mario shirts they like to play battle tops but they also like to play elaborate games with their stuffies instead of trying to change them my husband and i knowing the research about what that does to emotional health and suicide risk instead embraced it educated them giving them language and gave them support we tried to do the same in their schools we created resource sheets for their for their educators but we can't do it alone their peers don't understand the language that they use they don't understand the experience and so what we've experienced um is is a gap in knowledge of the other kids and so i heard someone mention potty training as a health issue in the schools
184my child started regressing and having wedding issues at school in kindergarten and first grade because we realized that they were being told by the older boys that they couldn't be in the boys room and the teachers were asking them to choose the pink or blue hall pass so they were just wetting themselves that is a health issue that is a gender issue we can't do this by ourselves and even if i could do this education at home i'm not an expert when they're in high school when they're dealing with sexual issues when they're dealing with gender affirming health issues i want an expert helping me have those conversations and and in age appropriate ways and i need their peers to have that same language so thank you and i hope these standards move forward thank
185you thank you michelle i have a question mckenzie oh question i'm sorry may i ask the speaker question yes lisa um is her name michelle yes michelle michelle i was just i apologize my name is mickey okay mickey i just wondered if this sheet that you provided for the school was given you have copies for all of us yes it's attached to my written test okay that was the clarity i needed thank you thank you thank you mickey mackenzie welcome mackenzie hello my name is mackenzie i was a student in nebraska public schools for the entirety of my k-12 education during my time in health classes the focus was on the negative consequences of sex we spent most of our time being shown graphic images of stis and being told that having sex before marriage
186would taint us despite all of this myself and many of my peers began having sex in high school just like 57 percent of nebraska high schoolers the consequences myself and my peers faced due to this inadequate education were irreparable myself and many people i knew were cursed and having sex we did not want to several girls ended up pregnant before graduation countless people refused to get tested for stis because their genitals didn't look like the horrifying images we were shown in health class effective science-based health education actually delays teens for sexual encounters a big part of this is encouraging students to wait until they are ready to engage in these activities however learning about what healthy relationships look like and how to ask for and give consent also contribute to that delay then when and
187if they make the decision to have sex we want students to be prepared to protect themselves and their partners from unintended pregnancies and stis this same science-based education needs to be extended to our lgbtq students as well by including information about sexual orientation and gender identity we create inclusive and safe environments for all students health education is not all about sex education it also includes bullying sexual violence and suicide prevention 17.7 percent of nebraska high schoolers have seriously contemplated suicide of those 60 percent identified as lesbian gay bisexual or questioning lgbtq youth who report having at least one accepting adult were 40 less likely to report a suicide attempt creating inclusive environments in our schools could literally save the lives of our lgbtq youth it could save them from traumatic life events as well 38.2
188percent of lgbtq students experience sexual violence compared to 9.7 percent of heterosexual students it is heartbreaking to know that this decision will be delayed indefinitely when so many lives could be positively impacted by inclusive age-appropriate science-based health education thank you mckenzie thank you amanda ristin welcome amanda hello i am amanda risdein from gothenburg nebraska i was in attendance during the may june and august state board meeting strongly opposing adopting any nebraska hill standards during last month's state board of education meeting in the weeks after many of us have been shocked and truly saddened by the heretic and misrepresentations from senator hunt's truly hateful bigoted speech towards community members surprisingly assuming and attacking the faith background of those in attendance and the comments that oppose opponents had been bused in bought and paid for that bus
189had concerned citizens parents and grandparents who sacrificed paid their way who took off work that day and wanted to have to support in their hours drive to lincoln and then there was board member code johns praised how well the prepared the youth were who spoke in support of the standards she even went as far to say that they had done more research than the board members which is a shocking admission never mind the study that many of their testimonies were based around had a sample size of 204 from which they interviewed 21 people that is an incredibly small sample size for some reason these youth with their research were elevated above all others who presented factual scientific and research based information that double standard is disturbing for multiple reasons in reflecting back in august board
190meeting board members stated multiple times the children are asking for inclusive sex education and we need to listen to them as a mother i take requests all day long for my kids my seven-year-old would like to stay up late on school nights do i listen to him and let him do as he pleased or do i do the parent and say be the parent and say no children need boundaries guidance and told no because they're children with underdeveloped brains there are incredible citizens across the state preparing to be true public servants on the state board of education they will be taking your positions you will be replaced by representatives willing to stand for perennial rights and true academic excellence thank you there's a question amanda mr johns has a question for you i just wanted
191to clarify something i think that my statement amanda in behalf of my fellow board members because i can make mistakes but um i think what i said was adults adults in the room better prepared than some of the adults okay thank you diane kenan welcome diane thank you very much my name is diane canan and i am from gothenburg nebraska i am an rn and have held an active nursing license in this state for 54 years i'm a sister a wife a mother a grandmother and recently a great grandmother therefore i feel that i have a vested interest in what takes place here wow by now we have all heard the process for developing the health sex education standards were manipulated from the very beginning with key activists intentionally inserted as subject matter experts we
192know that many standards were copied directly from the national sex education standards written by activists like cecus advocates for youth and planned parenthood we know that members of this board were aware of this as well as nebraska department of education staff now that we know all of this what's going to happen next and who will be accountable the nde is organized such that the state board education members oversee the education department the commissioner subsequently oversees the commissioner's cabinets which includes the nde staff this manipulation occurred under the leadership of this state board and this commissioner i am asking for reservations and terminations that must follow parents grandparents and all stakeholders deserve better they deserve board members and a commissioner who will focus on the educational objectives outlined by the legislature let's make nebraska students the
193top in the nation when it comes to reading writing science and math while preparing our children for their future not gender confused individuals who don't have enough math skills to even count count back money or balance a checkbook they deserve a school system that promotes the value of every single person regardless of sex race or any other factor they deserve an education with concrete facts not confusion or political and social ideologies a truly safe place for all of our children parents don't stop engaging for your children and board members the nebraska schools are on fire and it happened thank you [Applause] jessica welcome jessica my name is jessica vander coy my professional experience over the last 20 years is in relationships i'm a clinician a social worker social worker and adjunct faculty member and the
194mother of five children relationships are powerful they're where we experience trauma but they are also needed for healing relationships are vital to mental and emotional well-being and well people nurture well communities the relationship bill of rights which has been provided to you and is embraced by religious mental health and advocacy organizations is a tool i use and an outcome every parent wishes for their child a child who has the social and emotional well-being and language to know i have the right to feel good about myself i have the right to change my mind i have the right to be respected if i want to end a relationship young people knowing these rights and having the skills to execute these rights is actually what reduces unplanned pregnancy sexual assault dropout rates violence and stis social and
195emotional well-being is built in social and emotional learning a progressive milestone from infancy to adulthood just like mental and physical milestones we roll over before we crawl we learn subtraction before division my emotions are validated before i can notice the emotions of others before i can just say no i need to learn that my body my existence my identity matters and i have the right to say no when you validate my existence by including me in your curriculum language i know i'm important when i'm included i feel like i belong and when i feel like i belong i can manage hard emotions i can ask for help and that is life-saving the decision to exclude language that affirms and validates lbgtqia youth leave some children in all classrooms without the social and emotional building blocks
196necessary for social and emotional well-being the vote to delay today exposes your discomfort and conflict between your own personal values and who should be seen when providing a curriculum that ensures all children have the building blocks necessary for healthy relationships mr fricke mentioned how hard this work is it is hard and you know what else is hard is that we have elected officials that are being influenced by a long-term tradition 400 year long tradition of using the bible to influence public policy and public decisions thank you thank you jessica teddy blatlock teddy welcome teddy sorry earrings today i'm talking about the forgotten and neglected populations in my public health policy course we discussed a bill circulating in the nebraska state legislature concerning hearing aid insurance coverage back in 2019 insurance companies like to consider hearing
197aids cosmetic i bring this to your attention because according to a dhhs study from 2017 only newborns were born deaf or hard of hearing in nebraska hearing aids can cost between two thousand and six thousand dollars the nebraska legislature made clear that even though only 52 were born with this condition their health and well-being is no less important than anyone else's i hope you can see my point when i draw a connection between this and the scrap gender identity and the sexual health or sexual orientation concepts in the health standards regardless of whether or not you identify within the lgbtq plus community is extremely important for people to learn about cultures and communities outside of our own in my field of study we have a concept called cultural humility in short cultural humility means learning
198about people's culture outside of our own is a lifelong process it means there will never be a point in my life where i'll stop learning about other people's cultures early honest inclusive health education should be start of kids lifelong learning process of understanding cultures outside of our own why should we withhold the information about cultures that may belong to their peers bullying can stem from lack of understanding a lack of empathy and perceiving others as different we need to educate our students that being a part of these communities does not make us any less human being gay does not make you mean you should be treated any different than an individual who is straight being two-spirit doesn't mean you should be treated any different than a cisgender person i'm sure if we adopted these standards
199that the crowd would know what two-spirit means which is an identity specific to indigenous folks how is it fair to withhold information from the youth of my community just because of the push teddy thank you so much [Applause] melissa wirth welcome melissa thank you my name is melissa wirth from omaha i'm a former teacher parent and the executive director of omaha girls rock a local organization focused on empowering youth through music education at omaha girls rock we prioritize creating safe and affirming spaces for young people so they are able to express their authentic selves collaboration through music encourages our students to grow into stronger more valuable community members who reflect our values of individuality integrity and respect the impacts of comprehensive and inclusive sex education are parallel to the work we do through music education
200many of the young people we serve identify as queer they're looking for a creative outlet and a place to find themselves in addition in our 10 years working with young people one aspect of our programming that is immensely clear is that it is the positive relationships with adults which help to develop confidence self-reliance and original thinking right now in this moment you all have the opportunity to center inclusion to help young people find where they belong and give them the information they need provided by trusted adults this information about their health and well-being could save their lives i truly believe that without this education lives will be lost my hope is that the state board of education will as the state board of education you will do everything in your power to ensure every student
201feels safe in their schools to thrive and grow i am up here today urging you to hear the voices of the students who have stood up before me and will continue to do so after me they are the courageous ones with a simple request to provide them the information they seek please hear them and do what is in their best interest don't make your decisions based on the loudest voices in the room but base it on doing the right thing for those who are impacting our students and don't delay in getting them the information they need right now please do not delay this decision to keep accurate life-saving information from our young people our children need trusted adults to show up for them and this is your opportunity thank you thank you brenda fortner hi
202brenda i'm sorry i think my name was skipped i'm 56. julie lubisi it's a card i didn't give you guys a printout oh is it just the separate card yeah it's all good oh julie i am so sorry it's okay i'm glad you said stepped up to the plate thank you thank you i appreciate it all right i'm julie lubisi thank you for this opportunity to speak before you today i am a mama of a ops 5th grader and a public health professional in human trafficking prevention i am wholeheartedly concerned that you are postponing these standards children like my daughter deserve better they deserve for us adults to have political courage they deserve age-appropriate medically accurate trauma-informed health education whether it's at home in the schools or a combination of both the unfortunate truth is
203the is that we cannot rely solely on the notion that all families will in fact provide that education plus we are operating from an assumption that all children have safe homes with parents that are willing and able to have conversations around the topics outlined in version one of the standards looking at data from the annual kids count report you will find staggering numbers of children coming in and out of the foster care system and experiencing multiple placements this data points to the traumatic disruption that can impact children and their ability to receive age-appropriate medically accurate trauma-informed health education within their homes these children do not have equal access to the very information that will keep them safe healthy and thriving again looking at data you might know that the lgbtq plus youth are 7.4 times
204more likely to experience sexual violence than their counterparts yet the new version fails to give voice to their experience why what are we afraid of is the fear of youth knowing about gender orientation and sexual orientation greater than protecting all youth by providing access to age-appropriate medically accurate trauma-informed health education please do not give up in this process all these children deserve better and thank you jacqueline for your courage today thank you julie [Applause] brenda fortner welcome brenda my name is brenda fortner i'm from north platte nebraska um i gave you guys a bunch of emails that were debra's um and and a speech that was prepared and i'm scrapping that um i've sat and i've listened um and i just want to let you guys know that yesterday an initiative was was turned in
205to replace the state board of education the citizens of nebraska our second house of legislature and as such this board will find out the true data nebraska's wishes this this initiative will replace each of you with a smaller office of education which will be held to account by the governor and our unicameral i have heard the youth that spoke today and i have seen now firsthand what crt and cse does to our youth the issue of rape and sexual and physical abuse are not for our schools to deal with but rather the citizens of nebraska and the laws that that establish the sentencings of these crimes um i'm so disappointed in you guys and you listening to your emails you're so crass and blatant about how each one of these citizens and our opinions mean
206nothing to you as you sit there and shake your head that i'm correct i've sat there and watched you on your computer as concerned people are pouring their hearts out and their concerns and you just dismiss us you all dismiss us you should be ashamed of yourself from gothenburg really you you should be the most conservative one out here and look at you oh you guys should be ashamed jennifer hicks welcome jennifer thank you my name is jennifer hicks i live in peru nebraska and i'm here um as part of michael connolly's restore the good life and um the only statement i'll make for him today is that he strongly opposes these health standards and the rest of the comments that i'll give today are my own what i would like to say is i'd
207like to give some perspective i don't really want to talk to you people i want to talk to the people behind me because what brenda just said is true we we see already what csc and crt has done we're not fighting to keep it out of our schools it is already here i was a teacher 20 more than 20 years ago i was teaching english composition classes where we didn't use he and she because we were instructed to replace it with they that was over 20 years ago these kids who are hurting and say that they need this education are the product of that and they're still damaged okay so i'm not appealing to you because like she said you're not listening so i'm going to talk to these people behind me and say we
208have to accept our blame and our part in this happening like i said 20 20 years or more ago we this happened on our watch okay we have some responsibility and we need to get up and we need to get active and we need to get loud okay because we cannot be silent and if you're not involved you need to get involved if you don't know how to get involved find me i will help you but this is unacceptable okay and we said we said the pledge you know what we didn't have is a prayer so i'm just going to give the rest of my time to god and if you believe in a higher power than yourself you take a moment and listen stop talking and just listen time thank you marilyn marilyn rickley
209my name is marilyn rickley and i'm a retired omaha public school nurse from south high right not too many people here i guess my uh the misnomer that i think some of you have is that there is education there is health education going on in every school this isn't a new concept the new concept is how much you're adding and so if you i've taught human growth and development for years i was in the senior high where we had every kind of class available we had clubs available we had everything available so i think the the idea of something brand new the only thing that's brand new is what we've added um and then i think when we say we're fighting health initiatives we're not fighting health initiatives we're adding we're fighting for what doesn't
210need to be in the health standards do i believe kids should have showers yes nutrition yes we covered domestic abuse we covered dating we covered um relationships we security bullying one of my best examples that kids of this age that believe the process of transgendering when i was at south high in 2010 a student came in freshman year very short haircut plaid shirt and he said that um his name was sam that he he was a girl and he was transitioning to a boy what could i do about it and i said you can use my bathroom there's we we took care of individual people a standard says this size fits all i don't think it fits all i think each school has professional smart people that can take care of it the end of
211the story is i let this student use my restroom the entire year we did well we did pe that way i know you can't do with large numbers but that's how we handled one on one and the next year the same student came in long flowing here hairs that i need a restroom pass because i'm pregnant hi thank you [Applause] kelly kelly dennings welcome kelly thank you hello my name is kelly dennings my pronouns are she and her i attended school in elkhorn nebraska kindergarten through 12th grade from 1981 to 1993. i recently came across an old copy of my eighth grade sex education course outline while cleaning out and it was shared with you in my comments if you want to see it according to the mimeographed sheet and yes i'm dating myself the
212five hour abstinence plus course covered anatomy pregnancy contraception and parenthood only after marriage it included nothing about sexual orientation or gender identity i don't remember receiving any other sex education from kindergarten through college and five hours of sex education throughout one's adolescence is disgraceful and did not equip me for real life i'm now a certified public health professional family planning counselor and i work at the center for biological diversity on campaigns at the intersection of environmental and public health i was shocked to learn that the proposed second round of standards excluded comprehensive sex education a move that would harm nebraska's youth i have friends and family concerned about whether their kids and the kids in their community are getting sufficient sex education i have to tell them that they are not i implore this group
213to support the health and futures of nebraskan youth by equipping them with the education information and skills they need to make informed decisions for themselves about sex and relationships everyone deserves age-appropriate medically accurate lgbtq plus inclusive and culturally responsive information and answers to the questions about sex and relationships free of shame and stigma i'm disappointed to hear that you're postponing the development of these standards delaying the work will have future public health consequences please have the courage to continue working to update these according to the kaiser family foundation comprehensive sex education has been shown to lower the risk of teen pregnancy by 50 percent thank you for your time thank you thank you kelly jen boswell welcome jen thank you good afternoon my name is jen boswell i'm from gretna some may call me extreme
214in my personal beliefs with the word extreme in mind let me tell you more of my extreme and hateful ideas i love my children i believe children should have a safe space to acquire knowledge and skills that will allow them to live a functional and productive life schools should be houses of learning not political breeding grounds i am against pornography in the living room and the classroom i will never stand aside while my my children are shorn shown pornographic imagery at a very young age which you all know full well to be included in the textbooks should this pass parents have rights but they also have responsibilities so do teachers so do children so do you a person should be judged by the content of their character not the color of their skin bullying is
215bad and we each have the responsibility to stand up for others coddling is also bad because at some point kids must learn to stand up for themselves gender is not a choice and biology is not swayed by feelings every person regardless of their classification is valuable and should have an equal opportunity to succeed i could go on but i'm not sure why i would if these views are so extreme as to the repugnant of this board as expressed by certain members after the last meeting then i think the die is already cast you see these extreme views are held by the majority not the vocal minority and the very fact this board can't seem to understand that is all the reason the voters of nebraska need to make sure we do a better job next
216time thank you jen kirby wilson kearney nebraska after hearing the snide remarks towards christians in the comments about separation of church and state from the last meeting it's important to bring some facts for years i've carried a pocket-sized constitution with a declaration of independence and the bill of rights and a hundred dollar bill i offer it to anyone who can show me the word separation of church and state in it i still have the same bill it's not in it what it does say is congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof in a private letter written by thomas jefferson to the danbury connecticut baptist church january 1 1802 used the words wall of separation of church and state but it was used to assure them that
217the state had no authority to establish religion or prohibit them from exercising theirs thomas jefferson was america's ambassador to france when the constitution was written and did not arrive back in america until after the first amendment had been framed george washington president of the convention that framed the constitution president of the united states who called for and oversaw the formation of the bill of rights had this view of government and religion in his famous farewell address he declared of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity religion and morality are indispensable supports and in that same address he said reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle governor morris the most active member of the constitutional convention said religion is the only solid
218basis of good morals therefore education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man towards god one of those precepts first corinthians 6 9-10 do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of god do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral idolaters adulterers male prostitutes homosexual offenders thieves the greedy drunkers slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of god your standards will have eternal consequences for our children [Applause] the next 16 include amy wilson kelly lepler carol watson patrick martin alyssa martin matt einis angie epper spocker sarah friov katherine brooks mary harper tim hall sue rickley mike i cannot read this mike memper lauren coop doherty tina dorr darren irman amy wilson welcome amy thank you my name is amy wilson from kearney history 101 separation of church and
219state is not in the constitution bill of rights declaration of independence it was a private letter written by a godly man thomas jefferson and sent to a baptist church to ensure them that the government would not make one religion or take away freedom from the public square if you can't if we can't trust you to get your history right how can we trust you to write health issues and standards yours is supposed to be the so-called experts but there's people out here that are more educated on what's required to be taught we know that graduating students today are failing to receive a basic education in reading writing math science social studies which every child does need you're not here to raise our child i would never trust you to raise my child i don't want
220any child to learn your politics agendas and so-called standards that are written by progressive activists children don't need your indoctrination or health and other stuff like equality equity excuse me which is another word for crt all children are bulleted sometime in their childhood even as adults every child has questions at times we're all confused at times it's not your job to confuse them even more i think it's strange that you say 10 percent of so-called different is the children that we need to include but you're not willing to include the 53 school boards and superintendents that as of january 16th have made statements they don't want your so-called standards eight percent of the world still believes in a flat earth are we going to start teaching that crazy philosophy too to include everyone the standards
221that you're giving are political agendas and indoctrination when the bible was the standard that was taught there was less violence less stds pregnancies drug use and suicides but once the bible was taken out of the public schools each one of these issues were more than double on september 17th it's a federal law that all the constitution that the constitution be taught in our public schools are you going to follow that law because it seems like you guys need some education i don't want any standards and i don't trust you to write them thank you thank you amy [Applause] kelly lepler [Applause] kelly lepler welcome kelly thank you board members staff and fellow attendees my name is kelly lepler i'm a very concerned mother of two residing in grand island nebraska i'm present here today with
222a very mindful request that all board members and staff board mem uh on the issues of cse and crt i'm using my voice to rise to a higher calling and plead to all of you bearing leadership in your respective positions about what seems to be controversial issues my children and all other persons under the age of 19 in this state are children they're not adults nor are considered adults by the laws of this land they're under the care rules laws and responsibilities of their parents or guardians even as young adults many are still under the roofs financial support insurance and care of their parents or guardians by this factual data these individuals are not fully capable of making decisions for themselves nor fully supporting themselves parents or guardians entrust their children to the care of
223the schools and at staff at the moment they enter the property of the school with the understanding and presumption that those children's best interests well-being education and learning our subject matter are within the realm of what the parent or guardian deems to be appropriate and imperative for their futures crt and cse are both attempting to undermine parents and guardians exposing the o and over exposing these youth to self-destruction irreversible mental and possibly physical damage also they are encouraging hatred division alienation judgment blame inferiority and promotes racism they're impeding on religious freedom against religious beliefs they discourage modesty purity childhood and even premiscurity perversion mischief unacceptable and insecurity all persons are entitled to liberty the pursuit of happiness and inalienable rights these children young adults hi thank you carol watson welcome carol good afternoon i am
224carol watson i'm from arnold nebraska i bring greetings and instructions from the concerned citizens of west central nebraska i am a great grandmother of school-aged children the education of future generations must focus on becoming good citizens preserving the freedoms that have been bought with the highest price of one's own life for the good of those coming behind jesus said in the bible greater love has no man than this than to lay down his life for his friends that's in john 15 jesus gave his life to give freedom from sin to anyone who would believe in him and then we have captain nathan hale age 21 he lamented that he had only one life to give for his country this brings me to my point are my grandchildren being taught the values of the founding fathers
225the declaration of independence and the constitution your curriculum of crt and sex education standards promote ideals of radicals not principles of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all who did you invite to that table to build such a curricula let's name them planned parenthood cecus radical activity activist groups who was not invited to your table nebraska family council protect nebraska children coalition catholic and lutheran parochial schools or me a baby boomer who understands what world war ii and vietnam did to strengthen the resolve of patriots to stand against any foe foreign or domestic from taking our freedoms i therefore am defending and asserting my right to reject crt and sex education standards radical change in nebraska public education from becoming a cesspool of chaotic ideals thank you time thank you carol patrick martin
226welcome patrick thank you my name is patrick martin i'm a business owner taxpayer and father from lexington and during the last several months the actions and statements and even silence from the members of this board reveal an encompass incompetency to lead our state's educational system the board has been presented with medically accurate and science-based evidence demonstrating that csc and radical social theories are in the health sex education standards and are harmful to our children but this board is commissioner and the nde have persisted and we now know that some nde employees and board members are driven by political goals rather than a pursuit of excellence in education i've reviewed multiple emails between ms neri and lisa scholes who is a listed subject matter expert and works at women's fund of omaha with strong connections to
227planned parenthood these exchanges make it clear that miss neri relies on heavily relies heavily on lisa in fact miss neri went out of her way to make sure lisa was included in the writing process she often asked lisa for advice on how to respond to constituents who are presenting her with factual information that does not fit her narrative she's more than happy to pass on the talking points provided by elisa in support of draft number one ms neri also feels being educated about standard contents related to sexualizing our kids is really important and invites fellow board members to these sessions specifically education from cecus and advocates for youth remember when we were told that those activist groups had no part in creating draft number one the same draft where controversial standards were literally copied and
228pasted from the national sex education standards who did that by the way the nde and state board members have never tried to explain away that plagiarism but educated guests can easily be re be made from a review of their email exchanges we know the entire process from the beginning has been manipulated and flawed thank you patrick thank you melissa melissa martin welcome melissa thank you my name is elissa martin and i'm an educator a business owner and a concerned parent from lexington trust has often been called the glue of our society and i'm a trusting person by nature and so when the proposed health education standards were first released and i began attending these meetings i listened i listened as individuals in support of the standards shared heartbreaking stories of how they'd been rejected bullied
229and emotionally wounded because of their sexual orientation i listened as those in opposition shared how the standards violated deeply held moral beliefs and set kids up to be victims of abuse and exploitation i listened as commissioner bloomstead assured the crowd that we all just want what's best for kids and i wanted to trust the board to believe that you're all truly looking out for the best interest of our state's most precious resource our children i've spoken at previous meetings and i've asked you to look at the evidence of our students non-proficient scores and core subjects and i've asked you to consider that teachers are already leaving the profession in droves and i've asked for you to put children in their education first and in spite of the fact that i and other concerned parents like
230me have been labeled as dangerous extremists i still want to trust that you have good intent even those of you who represent a district that has a majority of constituents who are in favor of these standards i could trust you if you were truly speaking on behalf of the people who elected you to serve because that's how our government is supposed to work of the people by the people and for the people however the email exchanges that have been previously mentioned have shattered my trust instead of employees and board members working towards excellence in education i see coveted funding being used to create infographics i see repeated insur despite your repeated assurances the activists weren't part of the writing team they were positioned on the team by you i'm appalled i can't believe that we've
231come to this place in nebraska scrap the standards we still won't trust you thank you but it would be a start thank you matt ennis welcome matt hi i'm matt ennis from crete educated nebraskans know that the nebraska department of education has not acknowledged the true source of their sex standards cecus advocates for youth and answer wrote the national sex standards then lacey peters the nebraska department of education and lisa schultz of the omaha women's fund copied them into the nebraska health standards the foia emails prove this fact so what is the ultimate source of the sex ed industrial complex the answer is sex ed is just an educational wing of the abortion industry planned parenthood started secrets to indoctrinate educators and students planned parenthood started guttmacher institute to manufacture research and studies so that
232people like deborah nearly and lisa schultz could claim their information is medically accurate evidence-based age-appropriate and science in fact deb this is exactly what you did in your opening statement just read the footnotes on most sex ed research and you'll find most are produced by advocates for youth seek us gut mocker institute answer or any of the other pro-abortion sex ed organizations sex ed is always pro-abortion and it's being funded by the wealthiest people on the planet planned parenthood is also the second largest supplier of sex change hormones hormones that are required for life they have a lot of money to make by convincing teenage girls that they're actually boys and to top it all off lisa schultz who dedicated the dictated the sex standards spent 15 years on planned parenthood a fact she can
233conveniently left off her resume to to the board the entire nebraska department of education has pimped out their health standards to lisa schultz at the omaha woman's fund a pro-abortion organization because of this educated nebraskans no longer trust the nebraska department of education it's time to abolish nebraska department of education and to abolish the state board and pass school vouchers in 2022 angie ever spockler welcome angie thank you i am educated and earned a dual degree in early childhood and elementary education my name is angie ebersbacher and i'm from beaver crossing nebraska once opposition to the proposed sex ed standards became commonplace due to their graphic content as well as critical race theory ideals proponents of the standards began spreading the idea that the opposition was biased and based on political issues and differences however
234i'm here today to share with the public that the politicization of this process and the standards themselves was initiated by board member deb muniry over two years ago in an email dated august 29 2019 board member deb neary wrote to john paul hayworth executive director of the washington dc board of education to get his advice on writing a non-discrimination statement it is with this statement or policy that all future state standards will be written including the sex ed and health standards in her email she wrote quote we worked with glsen and other agencies and made the decision to go further with than just identifying gender identity we learned that gender expression was just as important we also added citizenship status et cetera i believe i have 100 board support and nebraska is a red state
235with lots of conservatives on our board i am delighted we will be able to draft as as inclusive as i had hoped clearly dead miri has been orchestrating board policy using political agendas she makes a point to state that nebraska is a red state and she is delighted that her leftist activist agenda will now chip away at the conservative red state ideals the fact that ms neri is proud of this coup is telling because i'm educated and think logically i understand that this non-discrimination policy is now used to implement all standards created by the nde further the fact that this policy statement was created two years ago proves that commissioner bombstead knew that crt was infused into all standards from that point on his denial of knowing what crt is or what is entwined in
236nebraska's standards is a lie the nebraska department of education has become a corrupt government organization it is no longer trustworthy the standards must be scrapped and nde must be abolished thank you thank you angie sarah [Applause] welcome sarah i am sarah friov i live in crete nebraska to continue with the deb neary scenario and the nebraska department of education i call your attention to her email sent on september 3rd 2019 this celeb celebratory email was sent to andrew elleman sikas aclu uno schulze and tiffany yokel women's fund of omaha and charles copp from glsen debnary stated quote this is now the most inclusive position statement or policy for any of the states that have a state board of education i am making plans to have this document shared with other states at our october conference
237of state board members around the country and our education commissioner dr matt blomstead and his team are all making plans to roll out and share this document with local board members around nebraska and with local administrators i will be publicly thanking the women's fund and glsen again when we vote on this statement in september it is one of the best ways i know to give attention to the tremendous help that our agents that your agencies provided to me and to my fellow sbo members ps please do not share this position statement or equity lens until they are approved in september at that time i can share a better draft unquote remember a few days prior in august debnary boasted about how her activist ideals were infiltrating her red state through this non discrimination statement which
238she refers to as an equity lens take note equity lens is code for critical race theory principles we the taxpayers in this red state fund this monster the nde and we are not ignorant commissioner blum said the entire state board and some nde staff are complicit in politicizing the education of our children further the commissioner and his team have been implementing this indoctrination thank you sarah [Applause] catherine brooks welcome catherine thank you my name is catherine brooks and i am a board certified pediatrician and neonatal peri and perinatal medicine physician i practice full time in lincoln draft number two of the health education standards lacks critical element that is necessary for trust and that is transparency the stated standards are vague and open to a wide range of interpretations however the stated reference materials the
239national sex education standards are the same standards from draft one and are still not acceptable because they introduce topics that should be left to families and are still wildly inappropriate for the stated ages for example correct anatomic names are acceptable and encouraged by pediatricians at a young age but their anatomic purpose may not be research is clear that early exposure to sexual activity from peers social media or heaven forbid our own schools leads to earlier sexual activity and exploration earlier sexual activity in turn has been shown across the world to result in poor adolescent and adult and adult outcomes if we want equality not to be confused with equity for our children then show the evidence for improved sexual outcomes when these values and beliefs are taught in the family unit evidence is clear that
240where there is a strong family unit with good communication between children and parents children are less likely to engage in sexual sorry early sexual behavior instead of taking the family out of this discussion and inserting the educational institution the nebraska department of education should formulate ways to encourage parents to form strong relationships with open communication with their children these health standards are not necessary and should be revoked thank you for your time and attention and my references have been included thank you catherine mary harper welcome mary hi i'm mary harper and i'm from bennington critical race theory and all aspects and parts must be eliminated from our k to 12 schools schools are denying that they teach or use crt but they are just using other words such as diversity inclusion multiculturalism social justice and
241many more crt is incredibly destructive to our children the most important thing about you is this color of your skin all children in are categorized according to whiteness versus blackness or colored whites are privileged and oppressors blacks and people of color are victims and oppressed whites are viewed negatively and blacks and colored people are viewed positively according to crt racism occurs in all interactions even if not intended or realized as one black mom put it this whole system is unacceptable in schools children are supposed to think and interact constantly in a race driven environment they are separated into racial identity groups and even good and bad people this encourages shame guilt anger and resentment toward the other groups crt also stresses equity of outcome rather than equality of opportunity the word anti-racism doesn't mean against
242racism but promotes racism there are thousands of examples across the country of crt having negative and even disastrous effects on children in schools including bullying and attempted suicides this is not a good environment for learning crt must not be a part of our schools thank you thank you tim hall tim welcome tim good afternoon i'm tim hall from papillion and i'm speaking on my own behalf here from your website to lead and support the preparation of all nebraskans for learning earning and living that's the strategic vision for the nebraska state board of education so to put this in regular non-academic english your job is to ensure that all our children receive a quality education so that they can succeed in life i looked up the english math and science statistics for all of the grades
243combined in nebraska from 2018 to 2019. so what percent of students met grade level standards in english that's a grade of f in any school in nebraska the percent of students that met standards in math also 52 still an f only 66 percent of students met grade level standards in science so you can give yourself a hand there you know congratulations that's passing at a d plus we're here today because you the state board of education have chosen to attempt to indoctrinate our children with health standards that sound more like pedophile grooming strategy than education health standards don't even fall within your purview of responsibilities this is all about you taking on a divisive subject that you aren't even responsible for clearly you're unable to properly educate our children in math science and english so
244maybe we shouldn't worry about you indoctrinating our kids with this garbage based on your failure in the basic courses but your actions tell me you really wanted our children to learn this filth over the past two meetings parents have overwhelmingly asked you two things eliminate the standards scrap them don't just we don't want to be dealing with this in the future and second we demand that you simply do your job time thank you sue rickley [Applause] sue rickley welcome sue i'm sue rickley and i live in kearney nebraska my gran excuse me my grandfather came to nebraska as a young boy from prussia for the reason of religious freedom i would guess that was many families original intent and purpose in coming to our wonderful united states of america it was very important to those
245families to serve god according to his truth and it's important to me and my family today our god who is the same almighty god who inspired the founders of our united states is a good god he gives many chances and opportunities to right wrongs we are standing in place of one of these opportunities now the choice is good or evil father god you created this world and you created each human being to be your child and i pray that people today would see and know that truth that you want each one just as they are you want their heart you speak through your holy word about how to raise and teach your children because children are very precious to you you gave us your word not to ruin our fun or make us weird but
246to change our lives and save our lives inside and out to guide us so we can enjoy productive and fruitful lives lives i pray for each person here who hears my voice father god that they would hear or know or see or experience an answer from you from heaven in jesus name amen thank you mike welcome mike welcome tim took my talk almost word for word so i'm not we're going to be friends i like you a lot i got the joyous job of going through every testimony to be able to pick them out so people could share their own testimony with friends so i watched all of them both sides of the aisle and one thing that stood out to me was that it seemed it seems to me that those on the left
247think they really have an exclusivity on bullying they think they're the only kids that have gone to school and got picked on because i don't know maybe they feel that how they are is bad i don't know i've never cared about how somebody is i have friends on both sides of the aisle and that's fine there is a australian parliament study that they commissioned before the world turned upside down went on fire and it was to decide or to determine the effects of premature sexualization of children notice it wasn't a study to determine the benefits of right it was to determine the premature effects the negative effects of sexualization of children and it it just we've had a lot of experts to talk about that it's horrible i don't know why you're wanting to do
248this you stole half my thing uh i will tell you the uh the he him thing that is just another way to separate we are all one people we're e pluribus unum that's what made our country great from the beginning and this compartmentalization to make children other and separate is evil please don't do it [Applause] lauren coop dougherty welcome lauren thank you pull the mic there you go my name is lauren coop daughtry i'm a certified health education specialist and i work as an adolescent health educator in omaha here's the reality of what i see every day and working with young people high schoolers are having sex along with that young people are disproportionately impacted by stds young people are experiencing sexual violence young people are growing up in diverse households and many young people
249identify as lesbian gay bisexual and transgender this information is not new and it shouldn't be hidden from our schools or our students any longer for far too long we've denied young people access to life-saving health education and we've kept them from reaching their full potential because of shame and fear we've kept silent and we've failed to provide young people with the information they need to protect their whole health complete honest and accurate sex education is needed for students today to reduce negative health outcomes what would happen if we didn't delay this process any longer and provided all young people with the information they need to be healthy think about how much our entire state would benefit from complete and accurate health education that addresses unintended pregnancy high std rates campus sexual assaults and lgbtq plus
250bullying our states our students are asking for you all to see them to support them and to provide them with inclusive and effective health education for their benefit don't make them wait any longer thank you lauren tina dorr welcome tina okay so first off i want to say my husband reminded me to be as humble as i can be and realize i am no better than you guys are sitting right there my name is tina dorr i'm from the lincoln area i'm married to an amazing husband and i have two beautiful daughters i attend radiant church in lincoln one thing i love about my pastor connie is that she stands up for what she believes in no matter what i was a foster kid from age 7 to 18 years old i saw and learned
251a lot of inappropriate behaviors before foster care and during foster care i became a christian and dedicated my life to jesus at age 14. why is this okay to teach our children this in public school but it's not okay to teach our youth about jesus why do i have to send my girls to a private school and pay thousands of dollars for them to attend why can't you make it to where they have to send their children to private schools so they can learn false teachings i want to pray right now for all the youth that stood up today and spoke i pray god wraps his arms around you and that one day you hopefully soon know that the devil had a hold of you but there is better life and it is with jesus
252christ i want to pray for each of you board members i pray that you open your hearts and ears to jesus i pray that you hear us saying we are here to protect our kids our kids are on loan to us from god they are his children it is our job to protect them while we are on this earth i will do that to the ends of my days i wish we could send our kids to public schools but we cannot send them somewhere or false ideologies will be taught i pray god blesses you up there right and wrong is written on the heart of every man woman and child and i hope with prayer fear trembling you consider what some of the things that might be taught to our children will affect them thank
253you very much thank you don irman don ehrman welcome dawn good afternoon i'm dawn ehrman from gothenburg i'm sure i've already been judged as i walked up here but as a second generation adoptee with no knowledge of the previous generations i can tell you that by the age of five i was a second generation sexual emotional and physical abuse victim i was born to a drug addict and alcoholic and i am by definition a bastard i was in foster homes my birth mother was murdered by her husband and eventually i was adopted i was teased or bullied in school by classmates and a teacher for wearing glasses for reading too much and i spent a week of my fifth grade year hiding in the bathroom during breaks to avoid the boy who liked me and
254the classmates trying to make us kiss i tell you all this to demonstrate that everyone has a story and everyone is different these standards are not a one size fits all and it will be detrimental to put this on young kids when they are not ready for example the standards talk about safe touch in kindergarten and i think we all in this room have different definitions of what safe touch is or who a trusted adult is this these standards are vague at best and pornographic at worst draft 2 removed words and shifted some things around but essentially leaves the door wide open for draft 1 or worse deborah neary last month stated in regards to the superintendents that have written in quote we've given them a lot of weight that is not proportionate to the
255student body that they represent end quote but that's exactly what you want these standards to do in regards to concerns of starting conversations with kids is the new paperwork when you take your kids in for their physicals put out by the aap even these questionnaires are more age-appropriate as some things are not addressed at the younger ages since schools require k and 7th grade physicals and sports physicals yearly this is yet another avenue where these things can be addressed in the community without putting the responsibility on our school staff and teachers who have so much more to focus on we need to let the local school boards who know their communities put these policies in place that best serve their community they can work on anti-bullying and the social and emotional health without the sboe
256overstepping their positions to hand-pick advocates to write political standards to sexualize our children scrap the standards [Applause] the next group of 16 alissa demerit justin riddle nicole hutchings kelly brady william moore kristen dupree ben stengel judy wools kenneth barnes michelle scheel mark lucians dan schiermann amber parker sarah hunter sam schlegel beth hyatt alyssa demerit welcome alyssa hi my name is alyssa demere i am from gothenburg nebraska today i would like to share my personal story with you at a very young age i was forced to do something sexual that i did not want to do by a boy because i was exposed to these sexual activities at such a young age it caused me to struggle with homosexuality for many years throughout these years i felt lost depressed and like i had no idea what
257my identity was this was not a result of lack of support or resources as many from the lgbtq plus community may say but rather a result of trying to be something that i was not created to be it has taken me years to find my identity in christ and to overcome the exposure at a young age the images and content found in these health standards will cause trauma in students lives many children who either struggle with homosexuality or becoming transgender have experienced some form of trauma or misinformation children who are struggling with this should not just be encouraged to embrace it but rather we need people to in place to talk with them whether that be understanding the trauma that they have went through or the lies that they have been told these standards will
258also not change the statistics on sexual abuse as many have said before when i was exposed at a young age i did not know the correct anatomical terms the types of sexual orientations or the different ways to have sex but i did know that was happen what was happening to me was wrong this statement is a lie that the lgbtq plus community is trying to push their agenda ultimately these l standards will expose children to sexual content too early this will result in many children struggling with a sense of identity through these standards we are setting up a generation to have no sexual identity and be more vulnerable to human trafficking than ever because of my personal story i believe that these health standards should not be passed it will drastically have a negative impact
259on an entire generation in our state thank you justin riddle [Applause] justin welcome justin my name is justin riddle last time i spoke i pretty much begged anyone anywhere to have the hard discussion with critical race theory with me you know how many people stepped up to the challenge of course you do nobody you might recall i was silenced by the omaha public school board since then they've committed as a group and individually several offenses that are worth noting the last meeting they changed the order of their agenda during the meeting forcing the public to sit through two hours of non-emergency speaking in an effort to dissuade an increasingly growing public presence from wanting to come again they forced a citizen not me to disclose his address after he expressed concern for his personal safety
260they sent the police to a student's house that show up in opposition to the school board requested to search his home for guns drugs and any other nonspecific item they could find they had the police call myself and others showing great concern that a group of citizens would show up to the next school board meeting where one board member turned his back on a student whom he disagreed with this is the same board member posting nearly nude pictures of himself on social media there have been several calls from board members to employers of people who have spoken against the board finally the president of the ops board has called and filed a harassment restraining order against me for a handful of emails and some tweets none of which were threats or illegal now i've heard
261a lot of interesting things in the past few weeks notably i hear that parents who don't want radical changes in the schools are now somehow domestic terrorists it's interesting that a national website would designate organizations that gather for community potlucks and church pastors as terrorists but a group like antifa who's on video every other day attacking those families in public parks is not i'm sure the rest of this i'm not sure if the rest of the states uh intends on following the gestapo tactics that omaha is employing but i can tell you it won't work people are awake and we're not going to be asleep for a while all these people here are committed to eliminating all bad practices and actors from our state in each other's district the question is who's going to be
262here when the dust settles we're unified under fundamentals not under fun dumb mentals nicole hutchings welcome nicole hi um my name's nicole hutchings i live in bellevue um and i find it terribly sad that those in support of these standards kids and adults think that they're being bullied the truth really is is that they're not really able to know what these standards that they are asking for will do to the kids exposed to them they think they do but most of them are too young to understand what long-term consequences will be so let me under let me go ahead and prove how these consequences will be detrimental like tim said earlier it's grooming according to a peer-reviewed journal in the american psychological association judges that judge these kinds of child abuse sexual assault cases have
263several factors that they decide to use against the complainants a few of them are their specific knowledge of the event and how it occurred depending on what they know of the names knowledge of how it's been done to them and everything like that according to the standards these will be taught as young as kindergarten these terms are part of the site that psychists curriculum that are so specific that even clitoris will be taught to these children and how it feels to a five-year-old now let me tell you as a survivor of sexual abuse as a child these are grooming standards when an adult looks at you and says this is something that feels really good let me show you let me tell you about it that is grooming that is sexual grooming and another thing
264that judges look at in these trials is whether or not it can be consensual you're teaching these kids consent right you think it's to say no but now what you're doing is actually opening them up to these pedophile predators these pedophile predators will use this against them in court they will make these judges not believe them and then they will continually not come forward when these abuse happens you're going to have them get trafficked sexually abused and even were sexually assaulted like you saw in lincoln this is not because you're not teaching them sex standards this is because you are you're grooming our children and what ifs on whether or not they'll find porn online is not your problem it's ours as parents i'm not going to let the state fund time thank you for
265my children kelly brady welcome kelly my name is kelly brady from bellevue i'm an educated concerned grandparent from the beginning these state board members this commissioner and the nde staff have repeatedly reassured us the writing team the editing team consisted of educators administrators medical doctors schools psychologists health professionals researchers nurses and parents now the infamous may nde propaganda document even went further i quote the draft was not written by activists this is very interesting because of all the emails remember lisa schultz yeah she's with the wonderful women's fund of omaha not only did she apply for the writing team she was personally recommended and she recommended others as well board member neri then intervened in the process to ensure that she was chosen in addition also the others she should she suggested additionally the nde
266equity officer personally recommended abby schwartzworth from out nebraska to lacey peters the nde staff responsible for the review and the facilitation process she identifies abby as part of the lbgtq community and states she's a wonderful person and eager to help with these kind of projects she is addre agenda driven so this is how members of the advisory team were chosen did other board members hand pick we know member mary did we know that lacey peters did there were two different processes one for the public one behind the doors this is not acceptable no standards developed by this writing committee can be good for nebraska and we now know we can certainly not trust you miss neary resign you are a disgrace to nebraska thank you william moore [Applause] william moore welcome william i go by
267pat moore that i officially william anyway i live in hazard nebraska um what a thankless job it's been brutal on you folks today i know i would not want to be sitting where you are i there's so much i know that you are trying to do for children sometimes it seems misguided i want to thank you i want to thank i work with the local school board at ravenna for hazard as i've worked with them they've done a lot of work as well and recognized that it's unpaid as well you don't get paid i want to definitely thank you jacqueline morrison for your questions that have been throughout the last several meetings you've been asking some excellent questions and the processes of and the accountability um keep it going all right um i definitely want
268to thank you for comments earlier about the idea that it is local control i agree entirely 100 percent and that means it's up to us in the local communities to do what we need to do finally i'd like to say this may be postponed on the decision we're going to be watching [Applause] thank you pat kristen dupree welcome kristin yes hi thank you president nichols and members of the board my name is kristin dupree and i'm from omaha and i first want to say you guys have a really difficult job and have important and difficult you know decisions to make so i definitely appreciate that but i did come here today to let you know how this decision to postpone the health standards sort of looks to me i've been watching these meetings since april
269pretty much every month and they are emotionally exhausting they're they're long and i've seen many parents and many grandparents traveling to these meetings by the busload you know they've listened to local politicians that are on the kind of far right side of the political spectrum and these local politicians are spreading misinformation sometimes outright lies during their tours of the town halls and these groups of parents send in sort of copy and paste emails to you and you know these aren't parents that are really well informed on these topics they don't always show restraint uh and part of this is because fear and hate are really powerful motivators but do you know how to combat fear and hate education and if the last few months have shown us anything it's how important that how much this
270education is needed and kids pick up on these biases from their parents and we're really missing important opportunities here to show that our lgbtq youth are reflected in their curriculum that our youngest students know how to identify unsafe situations and also remove themselves from the unsafe situations and we want our teenagers to have sex education that prevents christmas tvs thank you ben stangle welcome ben you good afternoon my name is ben stangle and i'm a mechanical and nuclear engineer from blair as i've outlined before subversive ideology saturates the entire education system irrespective of the discipline or school subject all across the state and all across the nation parents are waking to that fact and dissatisfaction is palpable but this subversive ideology does not just influence the minds of children it influences and shapes their heart
271as a man thinketh in his heart so is he is a combination of both reason and will that define a person it's not only their impressionable minds it's the very fiber of a child's being that is being woven and it's being done so through this government education institution that has controlled the ideology all along education isn't and never will be strictly academic it's been said that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing my message is to men men turn your hearts to your children's hearts your families are and have always been under attack regardless of when these sex ed standards pass your families are in crisis good men don't do nothing yes we provide for our families but good men also protect their families good men
272oppose tyranny at every form good men take accountability for their children's education good men aren't dependent on the department of education good men always do whatever it takes good men preserve the hearts of your children get them out bring them home take back the children thank you judy wolf judy wools judy wolf kenna barnes hello and thank you for being here welcome i'm here as a former student of grand island public schools and a victim of religious trauma the first sexual experience i had was rape and i met him at church the first time i questioned my sexuality it was after they continuously talked about the temptation and sin of homosexuality at church the first time i felt deep shame and self-hatred was at church my mother was an educator for grand island public schools
273for 30 years she gave open and honest information about sex at appropriate times and being gay and tran or trans was never a deficit in our home she's a survivor of childhood sexual assault and gave us accurate information as iraq as a radical act of love and protection but couldn't carry it all and she needed support it wasn't until i became involved in friend groups from school who were entrenched in religious shame and secrecy that i started seeing sex and sexuality as anything other than just a fact of life i had access to information and support but because it was only in one small section of my life and no one else provided the support for me or my friends or my family i was deeply damaged i was the most damaged by the church
274and their lifestyle choices which included demonizing me and my friends so many of these folks are moving out of shame and fear and we know that these approaches do not work in education if i could have had one more level of support and information that wasn't from my mom teenagers historically do not like talking to their moms about sex then maybe i wouldn't have cried when i realized i was bisexual not out of shame but out of relief and understanding and sadness for my younger self maybe i would have passed back the note that said yes because i really wanted to say yes to her maybe i would have remembered my mom telling me i can always say no and that anyone could be potentially predatory even boys from church and maybe that boy wouldn't
275have raped me these hateful and dismissive responses should have no place in education thank you kenna michelle shiel welcome michelle thank you thank you um i'm michelle sheel i'm from grand island i'm a mother of three and grandmother of four i know i look so young i'm sure it's just hard to believe just a few things um because we only have a little bit of time as far as i'm concerned on the crt it seems ludicrous to to try to combat racism by being racist i've heard a lot of stuff and a lot of divisiveness today and i think i'm hoping we all have the same goal but i've heard today that the csc will help prevent rape sexual violence stds lgbtq plus bullying how is exposing my ten-year-old granddaughter to a book that introduces
276sexual intercourse as a kind of sharing and explains to her how people have sexual intercourse oral and anal sex prevent rape teach consent or prevent sexual violence how does exposing my fourth grade grandson with books which guide him how to masturbate complete with illustrations how does he unsee that how does my granddaughter unhear that this is all presented to them by people who are in authority to them they look up to teachers and educators i come from a long line of educators i just happened to be in a nurse practitioner that said i was always taught or given the tools how to think not tell me what to think you guys have the email from debra neary the women's fund of omaha was instrumental in syrian the nebraska board of education towards comprehensive sexuality or
277sexuality education you see the email it's this was written january 28 of 20. please you guys for the sake of our kids scrap the standards it doesn't mean we don't educate our kids it means there isn't a one-size-fits-all thank you michelle [Applause] mark luchans welcome mark i would uh like to thank you for this opportunity uh i'd like to say i'm a doctor a rocket scientist an architect and but you know what my greatest accomplishment is being a father and raising my kids to love the lord and to trust in him i guess i'd like to take a little different approach this morning or this afternoon and in how we make decisions we're all faced with thousands of decisions every day we try our best to make the right decision well we're all here because
278of a decision that you your board is thinking about and we know you want to make the right decision we want we we all love our kids right that's why we're here because we all love our kids so how do we make the right decision i'd like to know myself we have to go to the truth jesus said i am the way the truth and the life let's not forget that thank you dan shearman [Applause] dan sherman amber parker welcome amber well hello my my picture was posted on um miss neri's facebook post underneath the words extremist and busting in extremist people and i just want to say what slander what bullying that i've never witnessed ever before meeting this state board of education and the whole entire state and the meetings that i've been
279here in nebraska i first want to say that your gig is up and the goliaths you may reveal yourself in the ones trying to hide because davids are here in this state on page 34 of your second draft is to discuss the influence of peers media and family on feelings and emotions first grade that right there shows this is about indoctrination i want to go back to 2015 commissioner bloomstead you sent julian hill from the nebraska department of education they were already looking at data on comprehensive sex education and sir correct me if i'm wrong but it was also out of a foundation that had planned parent ties the parents rose up and had issues with it and you said we'll then go to the state legislature i am here to say children's innocence we
280have to stand and protect this group here wants to call equality it's masturbation masturbations not equality teaching children anal and oral sex is not equality that is child abuse this has nothing and what's greatly concerning is the groups that are coming forward not one of them had addressed the issues of protecting children it's all been on sex that is a wake-up call to all of us there are pedophiles in high places this was part of my testimony in the last one and miss neary part of the groups you're connected with want to make our school's abortion clinics and i got the documentation to prove it thank you it is time to scrap the standards it is time for you all to resign in the nebraska department of education lacey peters even question time people's comments
281should be thank you [Applause] sarah hunter [Applause] sarah hunter welcome sarah um good afternoon i am thankful to be a lincolnite registered nurse wife and mother first thank you for the changes of draft one of the health education standards however these changes and postponement are not enough these standards impose on my right and responsibility to mold my child's worldview for example the church rightly teaches biological changes during puberty but it is my job to teach her how to handle the quote psychological changes it is the parent's responsibility to guide our children through the confusion of puberty it is also our job to discuss the dangers of pornography the educator has no authority to tell my child which pornography is appropriate or instruct her how to handle carnal desires these standards also attack our freedom of
282religion excuse me legally religion is quote a sincere and meaningful belief that occupies in the life of his possessor a place parallel to the place held by god and quote that place held by god determines morality conviction identity purpose of the individual my god determines my conduct and purpose my god determines the boundaries of my sexuality and identity parents may choose to teach something else that determines their purpose and they have that freedom but for the vast majority of nebraska it is their creator who determines these things nebraskans do not serve the state as a god and we will not require our children to do so either we nebraskans our people of values and conviction we have appointed you to act on our behalf and our taxes pay for our children to be educated not
283parented and not churched today i call you to courageously fulfill your duty and represent nebraska however if you will not represent us but use our money taxation without representation will not be tolerated we will appoint those who have the courage to stand against the few loud voices for the sake of the many children who trusted for themselves thank you sam schlegel [Applause] sam says welcome sam like to say hello to those who spoke up about my last appearance you can rest assured violence is not in my nature i know the enemy i know that's what they want and i won't give it to them i know this is a war on information and i know this is a globalist agenda that's why it went from a to b and now it's being pushed through federally
284with a resident binding making a transgender mandate on medical professionals and is being taken to the courts that's how it seems you're trying to push your sex ed standard regardless of parents wishes and you want to label those who wish to protect protect children's innocence as extremists and that is very troubling that's why unfortunately this will not stop until we take our kids from public school and take back their education from a group willing to spend this much effort to teach kids pornography yet fails at things like math reading and history i know the play and i know the players they do not hold public office they would not lower themselves i know why their civil war on every continent i know why the globalists keep it running i know why it's mandatory medicine i
285know about the corporation of the united states of america i know the social slavery system and i know about the straw man and to those in opposition i think we should all start having an open-minded conversation because this is a globalist depopulation agenda the only thing they fear is we the people united in a front and with a little bit of time that i have left i will say that i also wish to publicly ask for your resignation you guys have failed multiple times you have been given an opportunity to do something in our society that actually means something and you have turned it into something sick and perverted you should all definitely be ashamed of yourselves beth hyatt welcome back i'm beth hyatt from mendon father god may you be exalted every place our
286feet find us our hands reach out to help and our mouths open to sing your praises i repent and ask for forgiveness for my sins the sins of my state and our nation they are many i ask for your continual presence where we meet holy spirit be thick and tangible here i ask that your love and pursuit of hearts would fall on each state and local school board each superintendent and commissioner lord for every child and student in nebraska i ask that your tender and mighty hand would stay with him i ask you the creator of all to relentlessly reveal your dreams for them that they will find their worth in you because you have fearfully and wonderfully knit them together male and female you made not who man or wickedness's twisted lies have told
287them for their own personal gain let the children expel experience real love that can change a life into your designed path and purpose real love only found in your arms of safety and comfort lord you are the one who looks into their eyes and you breathe the breath of life into them keep them from all harm heal their hurting wounds draw them close to your beating heart lord expose all man's plans you say nothing is done in secret will remain hidden expose evil where you find it let no weapon held to the children prosper whether an action word ideology or curriculum i declare truth remains let the real relationship with you flourish in nebraska let us hear your voice above the noise of this present evil father god your ways understanding and knowledge far surpass
288man's lord you are the giver of life and all we need time thank you thank you in jesus [Applause] the next 16 jim palmas sime amy williams adam gossam theresa karst carrell wayne smith scott mckean dave richardson fred robertson colleen kleckick roxanne schnell l randall stommer barbara gard donna kozick chris bailock rihanna mays and elaine mossbach jim palmachine welcome jim i'm jim palmersheim from bellevue nebraska we've entrusted you with the health and education of our children and our grandchildren and it appears that you are abusing that privilege you seem to have forgotten you serve us parents are the primary educators of their children public schools have the secondary responsibility and you should be reinforcing the parents values not undermining them with regard to sex education and critical race theory what you're proposing is not just
289wrong it's evil it opposes god on every level which just proves this is a spiritual battle know this we don't fear you you can't ignore us you can't silence us you can't mandate us and if you proceed with any of this nonsense you'll be held accountable remember the nuremberg trials [Applause] amy williams [Applause] welcome amy hello my name is amy williams i am a mother of two children in the elkhorn public school system i also attended elkhorn public schools k through 12. so a person with a vulva has three holes between their legs and a very sensitive little area at the top called a clitoris this is an excerpt from the cse material for kindergarteners little baby five-year-olds but don't worry about the questions they'll have because grade two teaches them in depth about it
290they'll learn that quote the vagina has great elasticity and can adjust to the size of a penis what second grader needs to know this cse curriculum sexualizes kids period i'll spare you the excerpts from the higher grades because they're suggestive and inappropriate why would we want to introduce highly sexual content to small children if not to sexualize them children explore the concepts we teach them therefore why would parents want their children in grade school to explore sexual concepts we as parents are the protectors of our children and are responsible for their innocence and well-being the world today tries to push kids to grow up too fast it is our job as parents to keep them kids as long as we can children are not mature enough or strong enough to handle weighty worldly topics that
291is our job as parents we will not let the educational system sexualize our children with cse we will not let schools indoctrinate our children with crt we will keep fighting even if we have to pull our kids and their funding and homeschool them until the board pulls its head out of its ass i'm looking at you deb neary with your email tantrums incessant demands and endless manipulations we see you i've heard a lot of rhetoric and talking points from the other side time thank you amy [Applause] adam gotcha welcome adam hello sorry as i'm a little bit nervous as you can tell um i am adam gotcha i am uh i am uh i sit on the metropolitan community college board of governors in district three i'm not here representing the school or its views
292but i will tell you that i am a father of one child uh who's uh nine years old and i can tell you that in reading the sex education standards my child would have more questions than answers and uh furthermore though i have a couple of little excerpts i'd like to read here about our educational system it says ironically despite the united states having the second best education system globally it consistently scores lower than many other countries and benchmarks such as math and science according to business insider report in 2018 i gave it the benefit of the doubt and went pre pandemic on this its education ranking was 38th in math scores and 24th in science the united states education rankings have been falling by international standards over the past three decades and i mean
293there's many different reasons for that first of all i'm going to compare public education to private education public education has a five percent five percent higher graduation rate and the kids are 1.5 times more likely to go to college why it's not because they don't have children who are poor they do they have school choice options it's not that they don't have children that from the lgbtq plus community they do is because they focus on discipline and they focus on math science reading writing arithmetic they focus on the things that truly matter to the educational system in this country thank you and have a great day [Applause] teresa terry thank you welcome theresa hi my name is teresa carey and i'm from wilcox south of kearney and i'm a little bit nervous too i'm the
294mother grandmother of three beautiful precious girls and the oldest which will be starting kindergarten next year and they will be in the public school system and i will not allow them to be taught the racist ideology that is the critical race theory or the perversion of the comprehensive sexuality education racism is taught and why are we teaching our children that the color of their skin matters more than who they are as a person this whole thing is decisive divisive and in opposition to the civil rights movement and dr martin luther king's i have a dream speech when he said and i quote i have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
295character he also quoted from the declaration of independence i have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal schools need to stick to teaching the basics reading writing math science social studies history as it happened we learn from our history we can't change it but we can be better than it um the be kind rules pretty much cover how we should treat others you know we teach them to respect others zero there should be zero tolerance for bullying in school or anywhere um and don't call me a racist because you don't know me i'm not racist i can't change the color of my skin i can't change my ancestry and i'm
296sorry that in some places thank you teresa thank you wayne wayne smith smith welcome wayne we need to get back to basics in public education this is evident by the test scores there seems to be an obsession today with gender identity gender expression and sexual orientation discussion of these subjects in school can put ideas in the minds of students that are not healthy i discussed the health standards with our daughter who was 50 years old she told me that when she was very young she wished she was a boy because she was so good at sports and could beat the boys she said i can't imagine what would have happened if i would have been exposed to some of the subjects discussed in school today dr paul mchugh the former psychiatrist in chief for john
297hopkins hospital said that transgenderism is a mental disorder that merits tran merits treatment dr mchugh noted studies of children who had expressed transgender feelings but for whom over time 70 to 80 percent spontaneously lost those feelings will children with transgendered with gender dysphoria be encouraged to seek counseling nothing could be more racist than critical race theory which pits one group against another based on skin color crt is repackaged marxism whose proponents want to end america as we know it some schools say they don't teach crt but it goes by other names such as cultural proficiency and equity training these two terms were given to me by a lincoln teacher other names are equity diversity and anti-racism when i went through draft two i was overwhelmed with the number of subjects covered and the duplication there
298is even an opportunity to discuss climate change please revisit these standards and strive for wisdom values and common sense time thank you wayne [Applause] scott mckean welcome scott thank you president nichols i'm scott mckean i'm from louisville district five i'm a manufacturing process leader and a part-time mathematics educator i hold a bachelor of science and an mba degree commissioner blomstead distinguished members of the board thank you for hearing me today over the course of the last couple decades in mathematics education i've been involved in numerous scholastic events and activities in both public and private settings public school and private school settings i'd like to affirm by observation that parental involvement in a child's life is knit together with academic achievement reading draft two it is apparent and clear that you and the research agree with
299this affirmation i thoroughly support education and fundamentally i support parental involvement in education there's a growing sentiment that draft two infringes on parental responsibility for something as private and closely held as sex education the board must reach out with an olive branch acknowledging parental responsibility for sex education this isn't as much about what's being taught as it is about who's teaching it no doubt you've heard educators complain about a lack of or decline in parental involvement but parents still have the right to teach their children things they that they feel strongly about things that might be objectionable to others at the same time it might be appalling to find that they had taught others as children the same things without their parental consent and an educator would be remiss to teach a child something their
300parents find objectionable while we might not be able to identify everything that parents feel strongly about or that could be found objectionable the parents here in this room have made it very clear that sex education is one of those things certain things once taught cannot be untaught what we're seeing from these parents is a desire to preserve the right to teach at their discretion those things they feel strongly about we should not begrudge the parents this desire and responsibility to be involved let's not be those described as ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth thank you [Applause] dave richardson dave welcome dave i'm dave richardson i'm from omaha nebraska madam president members of the board thank you so much for this opportunity to address this critical issue i'm a
301retired teacher who taught at the pub in the public schools of the state of nebraska for 38 years since my retirement i have served as executive secretary of the west side education association i would also add that i'm a parent and a grandparent a parent of several graduates of the public schools of the state and a grandparent of several current students in the state of nebraska believing as i do in the intelligence the integrity and the transparency of this board i also strongly urge you to adopt and revisit comprehensive set of health standards the facts have been presented to you and they are undeniable comprehensive sex education standards result in many benefits reduced stds delayed sexual activity and decreased suicides of lgbt lgbtq plus young people these and other facts have been presented to you
302and endorsed by numerous educators pediatricians and clergy they have been supported by the editorial positions of the omaha world herald the lincoln journal star the two largest newspapers in the state i also understand the board received a letter from 49 members of clergy in the state of nebraska from a variety of faith backgrounds i'm going to quote in part from that as faith leaders we want to be clear in our support for research-based health education standards we ask you not to show time thank you dave fred robertson welcome fred robertson i'm from ralston nebraska as a young adult i realized that friends i grew up in with in the nebraska community i'm from had never been able to share with me or any of their classmates who they were when i graduated high school in
3031974 being honest about being gay or lesbian was not an option my friends couldn't be themselves openly because of my ill-informed rejection of some people simply because they were lot not like me and the majority of my classmates in my career as an educator and coach i spent years reading students writing and listening to them speak and debate my students showed me that the damage being done to their health and well-being because of continuing bigotry and hatred was unacceptable when two 10th graders came to me asking if i would sponsor a gay straight alliance club in the early 2000s i knew i couldn't turn them down the gsa we started faced plenty of opposition but the students found a place where they could be free to be who they are and to get some support
304from others who cared in my lifetime i have seen steady progress towards understanding what glbtq plus students face in many school environments this progress continues though many fight it in this instance those who reject respect and understanding of others not deemed normal have won temporarily remember that thousands of nebraska students and their families who are glbtq continue to exist just as my high school friends years ago existed in an environment which rejects them when the board again drafts standards i ask you to respect and recognize all people who share our communities thank you colleen kleesik colleen pleasek roxanne schnell l randall stommer randall stommer barbara gard barbara guard okay i'm sorry i can't see you behind the podium well i've got the podium right here in front so welcome dear please don't start until i
305can actually get so you're barbara are you i my name is barb regard yes i live in north omaha first of all i want to thank you for your desire to serve the children of nebraska as members of the state board of education i am a professional educator i have ms in educational administration with a k-12 endorsement university nebraska omaha i'm also i was an elementary school teacher i've been many things you can see that in my testimony which is written before you i'm appalled by the standards you are trying to push on the people of nebraska first of all the sex education standards there's a place within middle school and high school settings for teaching basic human biology from a scientific factual perspective however the brains of elementary children do not develop to the
306point of comprehending and emotionally being able to process the material that is still being proposed in these revised health standards they are not appropriate at the elementary level ever if you look at my testimony that a friend shared for me because i couldn't make it to the meeting back in on the 7th of may you will see research there that shows that children most children somebody's referred to it the majority of people who have problems with gender identity as children outgrow it okay but your critical race theory is teaching our children and grandchildren to hate and fear each other based on the color of their skin i'm sorry i live in north omaha i was in line at walmart yesterday and guess what the lady in front of me was asian the man behind me
307was black and we treated with each other with honor and respect and the school didn't have to teach us that we learned that at home your critical race theory that they are trying to impose i'm sure thank you barbara it is communism i saw it when i thank you time [Applause] donna kozak welcome donna i'm donna kozak and i'm from here in la vista i got this five-page document of all the details of what this proposed standards is to be i read through it and it reminded me of the inappropriateness of teaching what's in there for the ages of the children and it reminded me also of two stories through my years of raising a family sally and susie went to school together and susie comes home one day and she says to her mom
308hey mom where'd i come from mom thought oh wow here's the time okay so she goes through this whole big long thing of the bees birds and the bees and the whole thing and then she says to susie do you understand susie looks very confused and she says well sally told me she came from florida i'm just wondering where i came from the other story is about corey ten boom of world war ii the dutch lady holocaust camp and all that and when she was a young girl she went to meet her father at the train station where he came home from work and she asked him a question and he set his heavy briefcase down and he asked her to pick it up and carry it and she said father i can't it's too
309heavy and he said that's exactly what the answer would be for the question that you just asked when you're older it'll be more appropriate with that i have a recommendation because a lot of times these ideas they just don't get buried forever they don't get buried period okay so the recommendation would be that whatever this class is to be a dvd is made of it and it is sent to all the parents grandparents and the public so tell everyone what time children are getting thank you thank you chris blaylock rihanna mays elaine mossbach okay next group of actually our last group jared quinn vicki johnson caroline epp cindy maxwell austin michaela prigmore mark bonkowitz mark ankenshire sharon knuth tammy dougie tony johnson jared quinn vicki johnson caroline epp welcome caroline yes i'm speaking today on
310behalf of sherry jones who is running for the state please educate please stop you can say what you want to say but shouldn't be on someone else's behalf i don't know i couldn't hear just read just read it don't say who it's from okay read all right i'd like to share with you a recent experience with a bicyclist we hosted in our home this summer he is a homosexual around 60 years old having just broken up with his partner he has hiv and takes 10 pills a day to fight this std would he have hiv if it weren't for his sexual behavior most likely not it saddens me to think a child today may as an adult live what this man is living with and we as an education system would be partly responsible i
311do not believe we should be encouraging our children to participate in behaviors which pose increased emotional and physical health risks without question the sexual behaviors of those in the lgbtq community bring about increased health risks both emotional and physical i will share a quote from one of the sources i read in regards to same-sex sexual behavior we see a substantial body of scientific literature repeatedly confirming that same-sex sexual behavior carries with the increased rates of hiv aids substance abuse alcohol abuse tobacco use depression anxiety eating disorders suicidal suicide obesity hepatitis of various forms numerous sexual transmitted infections then i want to quote canada provides a highly supportive government celebration from liberal churches in a public coercion the silenced by hate speech codes yet the poor health indicators of the lgbt community remains this demonstration thank
312you caroline cindy cindy maxwell austin cindy maxwell austin welcome cindy thank you as a concerned parent i'm sorry my name is cindy maxwell austin as a concerned parent i ask that the state board of education not postpone updating the health education standards i thank board member morrison for highlighting that these health standards address many important areas for the education of nebraska students for example this pandemic has taught us that information about how to protect our communities from infectious disease is a priority i believe the board should rely on science and continue moving forward to improve the standards please recommend accurate inclusive sexual education our lbttq plus children deserve to be seen heard and affirmed one area i wish all of the drafts had included was more thought excuse me more focus on positive consent as
313our elected state board of education we ask you to take up your responsibilities to the children of nebraska and not delay thank you thank you cindy mark bonkowitz welcome mark thank you good afternoon board thank you for your votes earlier today to table the development of the health standards this is a step in the right direction the ryzen cove infections is certainly a timely excuse for you now we parents and grandparents urge you to scrap the standards because many testifiers here delivered proof of deceit and lack of transparency since you first started the process this lack of transparency proves you don't see parents and students as your customers now you want to see the opposition go away return back to our focus as parents and taxpayers and stop testifying at state board of education meetings
314let me assure you that is not going to happen the protect nebraska children coalition and nebraskans for founders values are members of a national coalition focused on preventing comprehensive sex education from being accepted as curriculum in any more public school systems we have members located in the blue progressive states of washington oregon california new mexico and massachusetts they have had cse curriculum and crt for many years and have experienced the negative results cse was supposed to reduce stis and pregnancies but they have increased crt was included as curricula eight years ago and you witnessed the rioting looting and the destruction of property and loss of lives last summer in those large metropolitan areas especially in portland and seattle we don't need godless crt taught in nebraska i'm here to assure you that our opposition is
315not going to dial down you know you can vote the standards back anytime off the shelf any month in the future we anticipate that you would like to take advantage of december and january when families are focused on christmas and new year celebrations college football games and getting children back to school if you add a blizzard or icy roads on january 7th you'll have the perfect storm time we'll be back thank you [Applause] i overlooked one michaela prigmore i apologize michaela thank you for alerting us welcome all right thank you good afternoon um i i want to thank you guys for your time today i did have some rocks repaired prepared but i went ahead and decided to go ahead and change where i was going with that the word political has been bandied about
316a little bit today and i just wanted to clarify it is a greek word that came from polis and it is meaning business of the city so yes we are concerned with the business of the city and you may call it political but it is the business of the city so i do believe the board has overstepped their bounds a little bit in skills versus values i'd like to read a 1993 supreme court case out of new york it was alfonso versus fernandez it's a related issues um says the condom distribution plan was tantamount to con to condoning promiscuity and sexual permissiveness and that the exposure to condoms and their ready availability may encourage sexual relations among adolescents at an earlier age and or with more frequency thereby weakening their moral and religious values the
317court agrees that supplying condoms to students upon request has absolutely nothing to do with education but as a health service parents should not be compelled by state authority to send their children into an environment where they will be permitted even encouraged to obtain a contraceptive device which the parents disfavor as a matter of private belief the primary purpose of the board of education is not to serve as a health provider its reasons for being is education no judicial or legislative authority directs or permits teachers or other public school educators to dispense condoms to minor unemancipated students without the knowledge or consent of their parents nor do we believe that they have any inherent authority to do so parents enjoy a well-recognized liberty interest in rearing and educating their children to accord with their own views
318citing u.s supreme court cases from the 1920s pierce versus society of sisters in meyer versus nebraska the constitution gives parents the right to regulate their children's sexual behavior as best they can a contraceptive decision is clearly within the purview of the petitioner's constitutionally protected right to rear their children the aids problem cannot force parents to surrender thank you michaela thank you sharon knuth tammy doogie dugger tammy tony johnson that concludes our public comment pardon me did i miss someone did i put one down that i shouldn't have we will find out not a problem say your name again go ahead come up say your name oh mark i put your name down before i read it i apologize it's okay my bad welcome hi my name is mark atkinshove and i'm a citizen of lincoln
319nebraska members of the nebraska board of education i greet you thank you for giving the opportunity of nebraska citizens to speak and discuss publicly on law matters regarding the integration of a regulated standard of health and sexual education in the public schools in nebraska i am a native born citizen of the united states the son of bella russian american citizens of the united states and a resident of the state of nebraska since 2006. i attended the waverley school district 145 from third grade elementary to high school graduating in 2016. i graduated from the university of nebraska at omaha with a bachelor's degree in multidisciplinary studies in cyber security information technology and information systems quantitative analysis in may of 2021. i wish to present my reasoning as to why additional regulations regarding a basic sexual education
320into the nebraska public school curriculum is an unnecessary and adequately incorrect incomplete solution in solving the presented issue of a lack of sufficient understanding of a sexual education in k-12 students the definition of what a sexual education is whether an adequate or basic one at that is a very broad and by nature no longer unifying subject it is an inherently subjective and strongly conversation controversial topic of discussion in the united states my understanding is that a lack of a standard does not mean that there is a disparaging and inefficient problem in obtaining a sexual education for k-12 minor students my reasoning as to why additional regulations regarding a basic sex education in nebraska public schools are one a lack of regulation or law does not mean that sexual education does not exist two to force
321a school to teach about it actively means the indoctrination of the matter at hand thus actively restricting the definition of that sexual education no matter how broad when there is a lack of the definition by the governing state that definition remains free and unrestricted three the act of enforcing a practice or teaching a singular type of theology methodology or conforming idea that isn't considered an overwhelming majority practice by already by already practice of the society is an unconstitutional time act by nature thank you thank you [Applause] unless i have overlooked a card that concludes our public comment agenda item 4.2 we will now move to the written public comment period we have written public comments submitted from several members of the public the written public comments are linked in the spark data systems these written
322comments have been made available to the board members prior to today's meeting agenda item five thank you for those who attended in person and who tuned in to the broadcast as needed a work session will be held on thursday october 7th at a time and location to be determined a business meeting will be held on friday october 8th at 9 00 a.m at a location to be determined the september 3rd 2021 state board meeting is adjourned you