The Story
We’ve got some school board tea for you.
What happened??
At the school board meeting last Monday, Mr. Fournier proposed new recommendations for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee. And then opened up the floor for public comment…
What did he recommend?
Mr. Fournier proposed that the board vote on the new definitions of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion that the committee decided on. He suggested that they drop the rest of the initiatives for the committee and instead solely focus on striving to meet the definitions of these words. One of the key aspects of this committee is to meet the new state laws about “divisive concepts” such as inherent racism or sexism.
And the public reaction?
Messy, as you can imagine. People were all over the place – one man questioned the committee’s right to be defining words (he’s apparently coming for their seats…), while another woman demanded that the high school’s core curriculums be examined. However, most of the parents were focused on confusion.
Confusion, you say?
Yep. People were confused as to why Mr. Fournier wanted to drop the initiatives of the committee. Surprisingly enough, most parents felt as though the district isn’t doing enough to promote these key objectives of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Wait, what?
A few parents shared stories about their childrens’ own personal experiences in dealing with racism and other forms of discrimination in the district and the district’s response. Spoiler alert: the district did little to nothing to improve the situations and there were hardly ever consequences for the perpetrators. Seems kind of counterintuitive…
Any other issues?
Of course. Several parents were also concerned about the literature being presented in the schools to their kids. While the district has implemented a policy of sharing titles of read-aloud books for grades K-6, parents are still concerned with certain books in the curriculum and how the district is handling teaching them.
What about some solutions?
Some of the speakers suggested that the district’s staff should undergo training about how to be more inclusive in their language. Others suggested that teachers should be careful about what they expose students to; still others suggested that representation is key and by not representing certain groups, it automatically promotes the idea that represented groups are superior. Needless to say, everyone had their two cents to chip in.
So what did the board decide?
The board voted to follow Mr. Fournier’s recommendation and approved these new definitions. And our favorite school board member, John Schneller, per usual, missed the point of the whole conversation and was most concerned with how the DEI committee would be presented on the district website. We’re unsurprised to see that he is still doing his best to take the most futile perspective in any important discussion.
The Runaway
One thing all the speakers could agree on is that there is still work to be done when it comes to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in our community, and that approving these definitions and calling it a day is not going to cut it. So this certainly won’t be the last time we cover DEI.
What to Say…
When you’re feeling risky…
Remember the schedule adjustment last Monday that we mentioned at the end of last week’s edition? It was to give us time to take the Youth Risk Behavior Survey… or at least it was supposed to. According to Mr. Jozokos, the website that the NH Department of Health and Human Services was hosting it on, had a capacity cap of 600 people. In case you haven’t tried to walk through bulldog corner during Advisory A, the school has a lot more people than that. This became apparent when almost everyone was unable to log onto the website, with some advisories having a 0% success rate. Needless to say, the school administration was annoyed at the NH DHHS, to the point where Mr. Jozokos sent an email to the whole school expressing his frustration with the website, as well as apologizing for wasting our time. The best part? We will likely have to take the paper version of the survey in a few weeks to compensate for their mistake. Whether or not this is good or bad is up to you, but at least you will get the chance to improve your advisory Jenga skills.
When masks actually work…
Since the new mask mandate last week, the cases at BHS have drastically decreased. The list that Mr. Jozokos used to send out every day with over 10 classes on each ‘watch’ list is now down to less than 5 classes every other day. Obviously, the mask mandate has been paying off. Very few students have been sent home for wearing masks the wrong way – though many have been told that a mask must cover the nose, not just the mouth. The question is, will the school reverse the mask mandate after 14 days? If they don’t, with the weather getting colder, most students will not be able/willing to take mask breaks outside, especially for long periods of time. If the school does drop the mask mandate, the cases will probably shoot back up and we could again be considered an outbreak. Jozo says that the mandate will be dropped on Wednesday if our numbers stay low, but this doesn’t mean we won’t potentially have to go back to a mask requirement. We’ll see.
When this is not what you voted for…
If you’ve been on Instagram at all recently, or seen the news at all, you’ve probably heard about the abortion bans set in place in both Texas and Ohio. Although we at Runaway Bulldog like to keep it lighthearted and fun to read, we also recognize that there are serious issues going on in our community that need to be addressed – just as much as making fun of the boys soccer team. Back in June, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu signed an abortion ban into law as part of the 2022-2023 New Hampshire Budget Bill. Before this bill was signed, New Hampshire had no serious restrictions on abortion. Any restrictions that existed prior to the Roe v. Wade decision were not enforced after the Supreme Court’s ruling, and were repealed by Jeanne Shaeen in 1997. The bill signed by Sununu would ban abortion after 24 weeks. Other states with these restrictions include Nevada, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Florida (you know you’re doing something wrong if you have something in common with Florida) but each of those states has certain exemptions that Sununu’s bill doesn’t contain. There is no exemption for rape or incest. This doesn’t need any further explanation. Doctors who perform “unlawful” abortions can end up in jail for seven years. In short, if this bill is enforced, we are going to have a lot more unsafe abortions on our hands. So much for “Live Free, or Die”.
When we’ve beat that dead horse…
Get out your funeral clothes because it’s a very sad day for Runaway Bulldog. We must finally lay to rest a joke we’ve been milking since the beginning of the year… that’s right. Boys soccer has finally won a game. Not only a singular game, but TWO! And now they’ve scored EIGHT goals this season. Things are looking up… so if you want to go cheer them on, there’s a home game on Friday 10/8 at 6:00. In other news, varsity football’s next home game is October 22nd, and it’s homecoming! Field hockey has been dominating with an 11-1 record and girls varsity soccer and volleyball are both still undefeated. Looks like the powerhouse sports this season are on the girls side.
Things to Know
For the nosy parents…
Parent-Student-Teacher conferences are next week on October 13th and 14th.
Don’t come to school!
We have a four day weekend this weekend so don’t come to school next Monday and Tuesday. Sleep in, procrastinate your homework, play outside, be kids!