What about students' rights?
We hear a lot these days from the MAGA Republicans about parents’ rights. What they mean, of course, are the prerogatives of extremist parents to dictate what all students can and cannot learn and in what kind of environment their learning takes place.
But what about students’ rights?
Students have the right to learn all aspects of our nation’s history, from the noble to the shameful.
Students have the right to a library in which a single parent or a small group of parents cannot unilaterally censor books.
Students have a right to learn in a safe environment, one that welcomes diversity in all its manifestations.
Students have a right to learn and practice effective social skills that enable them to thrive in our diverse society.
Students have a right to attend schools without having to worry about being mowed down by an assault rifle.
Those of us in older generations remember what our history teachers and textbooks withheld. We never learned about the genocide of Native Americans. We never learned about Jim Crow. We never learned about the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. We were told that the Civil War was fought primarily because of states’ rights, with slavery as only a secondary concern. We were told that the Confederates’ cause was noble, too.
And when, after graduating from high school, we discovered the other truths about our nation’s history, we felt betrayed by our education.
Today, we’re learning that history can repeat itself. Right-wing extremists want to “sanitize” our students’ education. The battlefield on which they’ve chosen to fight is that of elections to school boards. That battlefield includes Klickitat County. We’re aware of multiple school board positions being targeted by MAGA Republicans, and we assume that there are other positions being targeted that we don’t know about.
The KCDP does not seek candidates pushing extreme partisan positions in either direction. Rather, we believe we need sensible individuals who are committed to serving our students and schools, not a political party. You can find a complete list of school board positions as well as other kinds of positions open for election this year at this link.
We have been working for the past month to find out which incumbents are not running for re-election, as well as which incumbents are pushing a right-wing agenda. As of this writing, we don’t have all the answers, but we have some. The KCDP can offer tangible support for sensible individuals seeking to run for school boards, city councils, fire district councils, and the other types of positions up for election this year.
Would you consider running for one of these positions? Do you know someone who would? If so, write to us.