By Michael Bielawski

The organization Speak Vermont presented a petition to the Essex Westford School District Board on Wednesday evening asserting parental rights in education policy, where about two dozen residents were in the audience in support.

“Tonight I bring you a petition crafted by Speak Vermont signed by 500 Essex residents,” said Lynn Smith, who is with the Speak Vermont organization. “We want to see the district involve parents more directly with the decisions made by this board. My goal in getting this petition was to measure the degree of support for a more balanced approach in educating our children.”

She further mentioned the petition got a strong 70% support per home visited.  Around a dozen speakers supported the petition, and there were about two dozen altogether in the audience.

The Essex Westford School District Board has been in the news in previous years over its controversial equity policy. The policy includes potentially forcing students/staff to adhere to transgender ideologies despite some not sharing those beliefs. At least one speaker at Wednesday’s meeting mentioned the Compelled Speech Doctrine of the 1st Amendment is likely being violated.

Compelled Speech?

Ron Lawrence of Essex Junction addressed this matter. Lawrence first highlighted this section of the school’s equity policy.

“This nation would not have evolved as it has without the genocide of the indigenous people, nor would the economic infrastructure exist as it does without the enslavement of native African people and their descendants. In an effort to recognize and undo the harm of centuries of systemic inequities and oppression, we begin with this lens and framework,” he read.

He then commented on how this contrasts with the school’s nondiscrimination policies. He said, “The practices associated with it, compelled speech, affinity groups, separate training for staff based on race, parts of history taken out of context and designed to shame, the political statements as evidenced by the Black Lives Matter and pro-Palestinian flags, are inconsistent with the policies of nondiscrimination.”

An overturning of gender science?

Melinda Antonucci, who is in national news this week concerning alleged discrimination while applying to be a foster parent, shared a concerning story regarding her 2-year-old and a Vermont daycare.

“At age 2 at a local Essex daycare, I was asked what my son’s preferred pronouns are,” she said. She further shared how a district-wide 5th-grade health course has replaced the words male and female with ‘person who produces eggs’ and ‘person who produces sperm’”.

A culture of distrust?

Marie Tiemann of Essex was among those to address the board.  She said, “We want to make sure that parents continuously have the fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children. … Parents have the right to be included in the choice of curricula in their children’s education.”

She added that maintaining separate files on students provides distrust in families. She said, “It is not only the fundamental right of parents to know where their children are, what they are learning, reading, who their friends are, and how they are getting along in life while under the control of the school system.”

She added, “Distrust occurs when children are compelled to believe the political views and values that do not align with family values.”

The whole school board meeting can be viewed via MediaFactory, the public comment period is at the start of the meeting for about 20 minutes. More speakers expressed concerns generally regarding the notion that the school is pushing political beliefs using public tax dollars.

During a few moments, tensions rose when the board secretary accused the crowd of too much chatter amongst themselves during the regular meeting. At one point an upset resident abruptly leaves the meeting.

A board response?

The board was not allowed to formally respond to the comments from the public at the meeting, but VDC did reach out to the board for a response and will update this story if one is provided.

The author is a writer for the Vermont Daily Chronicle

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