Letter to Iron County School Board
June 23, 2020 Board Meeting
Board meeting with guest speaker Dr. Schavalla Rivera. The discussion begins at the 3:00 minute mark with comments by Mr. Stephen Allen and Dr. Rivera joining at the 6:00 mark. Her presentation concludes at the 1:30:30 mark. It's interesting, as Dr. Rivery announced her resignation from SUU the very next day.
Audio recording link:
https://www.utah.gov/pmn/files/614365.mp3?fbclid=IwAR0NOkMILPlEIwpqSLvVqVCTRY3pWxhxhyVF_xJkwRu17XR9KV55eRzOLd4
Meeting Agenda link:
https://irondistrict.org/media/schoolboard/agenda/2020/ICSD_Agenda_June_2020.pdf
Audio recording link:
https://www.utah.gov/pmn/files/614365.mp3?fbclid=IwAR0NOkMILPlEIwpqSLvVqVCTRY3pWxhxhyVF_xJkwRu17XR9KV55eRzOLd4
Meeting Agenda link:
https://irondistrict.org/media/schoolboard/agenda/2020/ICSD_Agenda_June_2020.pdf
The following letter was written by Andrea Nelson in response to the June 23rd meeting. Addressed and sent to the Iron County School Board:
Dear Iron County School Board Members,
When I saw the agenda for the school board meeting Tuesday I was very interested in what Dr. Blodgett had to say. Needless to say I was glad I attended for that reason but more importantly to witness the educational malfeasance perpetuated by the board on impressionable young leaders of the area schools.
To say I was dismayed is to put it mildly. First of all the agenda said that the lunch was for the students and that the inclusion discussion was for the board. The students were hijacked into listening to a one sided and inaccurate presentation. They were put in a room of adults in authority and introduced to a person of authority. The parents to my knowledge were not informed of the discussion and topic and presenter before hand. This is irresponsible.
1. The lecture on race was biologically and scientifically inaccurate. Other features besides amounts of melanin determine subsets of race - think Asian eyes. A social construct of race as presented would hardly be accepted in a scientific convention and there are arguably compelling arguments in disagreement. Will those views also be presented to the students at the next board meeting?
2. The video that was shown has been denounced by other others as the metaphor only goes so far and then breaks down under scrutiny. Was the intent to make the students feel guilty that they have had some advantages in their lives that others may have not have? The presenter was quick to say that the unevenness had nothing to do with choices those kids made so we shouldn’t judge them. That is a true statement. But there were choices made by others that placed them in an uneven starting position, but those bad or good choices were never addressed. How do we go back and fix those choices and make sure those types of bad choices are not made again? The point of that kind of race is not who got to the finish first but that all had the opportunity to finish. There are those placed in the lead who squander their advantages, there are also those in the back who rise above circumstances and finish at the top. Will that side be discussed at the next board meeting with the same students?
3. Stereotype. Some stereotypes are validated by statistics. Asian students do remarkably well in math and science. This is not because these students are inherently smarter there are a lot of other factors, which include intact families, (but not always), parents who expect their kids to study and put forth a tremendous effort to succeed. Many are immigrant families who are so grateful for the opportunity their kids have to be here and be educated. When there are only one or two children in a family (and those kids are not spoiled) a lot of effort and resources can be trained on those kids. I’ve attended about a dozen high school and college graduations in Texas and in every class the top ten are heavily represented with this demographic. However, having lived in Japan and knowing that culture, the pressure to do so well in school adds to a statistically high rate of teen suicides. Will this be discussed with the same students at the next board meeting?
4. Stereotype – Bias – Prejudice. Where do I start? This was such a convoluted mess but I’ll focus on the Confederate flag discussion. First of all the flag was in a private residence. They can have what they want in their garage. In the USA someone could have a NAZI flag if they wanted. 2nd When I asked if she had introduced herself and talked to her neighbors I got a diatribe of how it was too hostile of a situation. In the previous 15 minutes she had emphasized the importance of asking others to open dialogue for understanding but she was unwilling to do so herself. She had made a judgment on stereotypes, bias and then acted in a prejudiced manner by making a judgment and in not acting, as she preached, in fact acted in a prejudiced manner. By her own definition prejudice is an action. A flag is an inanimate object; it cannot act. But she had received the message. (I’m confused - did the flag talk to her?) What if I walked past her house and she had a statue of Malcolm X or Louis Farrakhan and I’m Jewish? For someone who is so sure of herself, and seems to want to open dialogues of understanding, I find it hard to believe she couldn’t just talk to her neighbors. In that light her authenticity is questionable at best. Will these views be addressed at the next board meeting with the same students?
5. The information on the confederate flag and its design was inaccurate. If the board president had heard this presentation before and knew what she was going to say about the Confederate flag and hadn’t done a little research to fact check, that is a sad commentary indeed on his qualifications to be on a school board. We must do better at teaching American History. I challenge all of you to consider your family tree. Are you prepared to delete everyone from your family tree who did some bad things? Are you prepared to delete everyone from your family tree who was on the confederate side? I promise you they are there. If you are willing to do that then you will be left without root or branch and you are no longer. That is what road this country is on. Extermination. Everyone from 1800-1865 who wore clothes is complicit in slavery. (Do the students know there were no harvesting machines?) My ancestors in England worked in the Cotton Mills in Lancashire England. From where did the cotton come? What about all the clothing mills in the North Eastern United States –From where did the cotton come? Do the student know that blacks sold other blacks into slavery and owned slaves themselves? Do they know how many “whites” died for freedom? How self-righteous have we become to judge history based upon today. We are pointing a finger and four fingers are pointing back at us. Will this concept be discussed at the next board meeting with the same students?
6. On the slide with the labels she was concerned about the moniker of illegal Alien. She contended that a human being couldn’t be illegal. The remedy was the label “undocumented citizen.” HOLD ON. How can she put that up with a straight face? To be a citizen there must be legal entry across a border and documents of citizenship are issued when tests are passed and oaths of allegiance are taken. Until then a person may be here illegally or have a valid authorized document allowing entry. Will the same students be allowed to have this discussion at the next board meeting?
The freshman debaters when I taught at CHS could have analyzed this lecture, done the research and won a championship round. It had more holes than the colander I use in cooking. How well are Iron County students being taught to ask the right questions and analyze? How extensive are our history and civics classes? Because the adults( I mean all of us ) in the room didn’t challenge the false and incomplete information presented we are complicity in the utter failure to educate those students. I intend to right my mistake in not standing up for truth in the moment for the students to see and inform the community of this debacle.
To sum it up this was disastrous example of education. Iron County students deserve better.
Very Sincerely,
Andrea Shirts Nelson
P.S. As I arrived late to the meeting I was unaware until the recording was posted that the introduction included reading a letter from the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. How inappropriate in this setting! Yes we should all be kind but it is not kind to preface a meeting of this nature in this way. Young students would assume that those religious leaders sanctioned what was said. I am fairly confident that those religious leaders - men of integrity would not have sanctioned the misleading statements and lies in that presentation nor approve of having their statement used in this setting thus insinuating agreement. In talking to educational professionals at DSU who had been to trainings in which the same video was used, they expressed that this was an appalling misuse of that video in that setting. Because of this gross misconduct by the School Board President, he should immediately resign his presidency of the Iron County School Board for the remainder of the calendar year.
Dear Iron County School Board Members,
When I saw the agenda for the school board meeting Tuesday I was very interested in what Dr. Blodgett had to say. Needless to say I was glad I attended for that reason but more importantly to witness the educational malfeasance perpetuated by the board on impressionable young leaders of the area schools.
To say I was dismayed is to put it mildly. First of all the agenda said that the lunch was for the students and that the inclusion discussion was for the board. The students were hijacked into listening to a one sided and inaccurate presentation. They were put in a room of adults in authority and introduced to a person of authority. The parents to my knowledge were not informed of the discussion and topic and presenter before hand. This is irresponsible.
1. The lecture on race was biologically and scientifically inaccurate. Other features besides amounts of melanin determine subsets of race - think Asian eyes. A social construct of race as presented would hardly be accepted in a scientific convention and there are arguably compelling arguments in disagreement. Will those views also be presented to the students at the next board meeting?
2. The video that was shown has been denounced by other others as the metaphor only goes so far and then breaks down under scrutiny. Was the intent to make the students feel guilty that they have had some advantages in their lives that others may have not have? The presenter was quick to say that the unevenness had nothing to do with choices those kids made so we shouldn’t judge them. That is a true statement. But there were choices made by others that placed them in an uneven starting position, but those bad or good choices were never addressed. How do we go back and fix those choices and make sure those types of bad choices are not made again? The point of that kind of race is not who got to the finish first but that all had the opportunity to finish. There are those placed in the lead who squander their advantages, there are also those in the back who rise above circumstances and finish at the top. Will that side be discussed at the next board meeting with the same students?
3. Stereotype. Some stereotypes are validated by statistics. Asian students do remarkably well in math and science. This is not because these students are inherently smarter there are a lot of other factors, which include intact families, (but not always), parents who expect their kids to study and put forth a tremendous effort to succeed. Many are immigrant families who are so grateful for the opportunity their kids have to be here and be educated. When there are only one or two children in a family (and those kids are not spoiled) a lot of effort and resources can be trained on those kids. I’ve attended about a dozen high school and college graduations in Texas and in every class the top ten are heavily represented with this demographic. However, having lived in Japan and knowing that culture, the pressure to do so well in school adds to a statistically high rate of teen suicides. Will this be discussed with the same students at the next board meeting?
4. Stereotype – Bias – Prejudice. Where do I start? This was such a convoluted mess but I’ll focus on the Confederate flag discussion. First of all the flag was in a private residence. They can have what they want in their garage. In the USA someone could have a NAZI flag if they wanted. 2nd When I asked if she had introduced herself and talked to her neighbors I got a diatribe of how it was too hostile of a situation. In the previous 15 minutes she had emphasized the importance of asking others to open dialogue for understanding but she was unwilling to do so herself. She had made a judgment on stereotypes, bias and then acted in a prejudiced manner by making a judgment and in not acting, as she preached, in fact acted in a prejudiced manner. By her own definition prejudice is an action. A flag is an inanimate object; it cannot act. But she had received the message. (I’m confused - did the flag talk to her?) What if I walked past her house and she had a statue of Malcolm X or Louis Farrakhan and I’m Jewish? For someone who is so sure of herself, and seems to want to open dialogues of understanding, I find it hard to believe she couldn’t just talk to her neighbors. In that light her authenticity is questionable at best. Will these views be addressed at the next board meeting with the same students?
5. The information on the confederate flag and its design was inaccurate. If the board president had heard this presentation before and knew what she was going to say about the Confederate flag and hadn’t done a little research to fact check, that is a sad commentary indeed on his qualifications to be on a school board. We must do better at teaching American History. I challenge all of you to consider your family tree. Are you prepared to delete everyone from your family tree who did some bad things? Are you prepared to delete everyone from your family tree who was on the confederate side? I promise you they are there. If you are willing to do that then you will be left without root or branch and you are no longer. That is what road this country is on. Extermination. Everyone from 1800-1865 who wore clothes is complicit in slavery. (Do the students know there were no harvesting machines?) My ancestors in England worked in the Cotton Mills in Lancashire England. From where did the cotton come? What about all the clothing mills in the North Eastern United States –From where did the cotton come? Do the student know that blacks sold other blacks into slavery and owned slaves themselves? Do they know how many “whites” died for freedom? How self-righteous have we become to judge history based upon today. We are pointing a finger and four fingers are pointing back at us. Will this concept be discussed at the next board meeting with the same students?
6. On the slide with the labels she was concerned about the moniker of illegal Alien. She contended that a human being couldn’t be illegal. The remedy was the label “undocumented citizen.” HOLD ON. How can she put that up with a straight face? To be a citizen there must be legal entry across a border and documents of citizenship are issued when tests are passed and oaths of allegiance are taken. Until then a person may be here illegally or have a valid authorized document allowing entry. Will the same students be allowed to have this discussion at the next board meeting?
The freshman debaters when I taught at CHS could have analyzed this lecture, done the research and won a championship round. It had more holes than the colander I use in cooking. How well are Iron County students being taught to ask the right questions and analyze? How extensive are our history and civics classes? Because the adults( I mean all of us ) in the room didn’t challenge the false and incomplete information presented we are complicity in the utter failure to educate those students. I intend to right my mistake in not standing up for truth in the moment for the students to see and inform the community of this debacle.
To sum it up this was disastrous example of education. Iron County students deserve better.
Very Sincerely,
Andrea Shirts Nelson
P.S. As I arrived late to the meeting I was unaware until the recording was posted that the introduction included reading a letter from the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. How inappropriate in this setting! Yes we should all be kind but it is not kind to preface a meeting of this nature in this way. Young students would assume that those religious leaders sanctioned what was said. I am fairly confident that those religious leaders - men of integrity would not have sanctioned the misleading statements and lies in that presentation nor approve of having their statement used in this setting thus insinuating agreement. In talking to educational professionals at DSU who had been to trainings in which the same video was used, they expressed that this was an appalling misuse of that video in that setting. Because of this gross misconduct by the School Board President, he should immediately resign his presidency of the Iron County School Board for the remainder of the calendar year.