Why I am Not Speaking at the Board Meeting Tonight

(This was written on October 20, the day of the last school board meeting.)

I scheduled myself to speak to the local School Board tonight. It would be my second time. But, I’m not. Why?

Because it is clear to me and many others that it is a collosal waste of time. I could go tonight, watch them go through their dog and pony show, listen to the Superintendent do her cheerful update, and listen to others share information that is basically worthless in the big scheme of things. Our country is divided and being run by tyrants and we want to hear about a Board of Education retreat? No thanks.

Worthless because MOST of it has nothing to do with what is right for kids, how best to educate kids, or how to creatively and intelligently solve the real problems in education today. It’s all window dressing and boxes checked off some bureaucrat’s “to do” list. It’s buzz words to appease and pander to different groups. It’s about making sure the local system keeps raking in the millions in bribes from the state and federal governments.

None of it will address what parents want for their children either. Why? Because boards don’t care about how parents feel and what they want. They think THEY are the parents.

Until the parents do something, speak up, and become a force that the board MUST listen to, the Board and the system will continue to overreach; forcing vaccines, medical procedures, giving sick psychological counseling to kids to negate parental beliefs, and teach corrupted views of who we are and what this country is.

But, not me. Not tonight. No more speaking to the impassive, expressionless faces who are obviously upholding some strange vow of silence. They must be. Because they never act as though they notice, hear or understand. And, because of some strange oath of the Board of Education brotherhood, they never respond.

It wouldn’t be so bad if you knew what you said impacted them or made one iota of an impression. But, again, it’s almost as if you were talking to a big, stone wall and your words bounced off the surface. They will tell you they are not “allowed” to respond. ( Will they get in trouble like the senile old man in D.C.?)

Wouldn’t it be great if just one of them would break the rules, stand up and say, “Yes, I understand what you are saying! We will take your ideas into consideration!” But they won’t. Their lawyer has them under tight wraps.

So, there is no point in anyone getting up and giving their 3 minute speech, rushing to share the ideas they so carefully crafted and the real emotions they feel.

(It’s also a kind of “tit for tat.” I was bumped from speaking at the last board meeting, I couldn’t even go inside, because of the attendance limit. It seemed strange because all of the allowed speakers were in favor of the board’s mask mandates, but I am sure that was coincidence. So, they bumped me last month, I bumped them this month. )

It doesn’t mean I am done. It doesn’t mean we are done. Far from it. We can’t be. We HAVE to get parents involved. We can’t let them be intimidated, silenced and shut down. But, we can’t have the same people always speaking for them.

We just need to take another approach.

It’s obvious that our school board, and school boards in general, don’t want to hear from parents. Not only do they limit individual public comment to three minutes, which is much too short for most important issues, but they also use Covid as an excuse to limit attendance. In our case, we are limited to ten people. This means only ten people can speak. They could move to a larger venue, but they choose not to. So, we need to go around them and allow parents to be heard and to find out how to get active and change what is happening.

So, we are going to form our own group. And we will have our own meeting. In a big room with plenty of space for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. We don’t care about race, ethnicity, vaxxed, unvaxxed, Democrat, Republican, etc. We just want to hear from people who don’t want government shutting parents out of the decision making regarding their children.

We will let people talk and share their stories. But we will also plan for action. Talk is no longer enough. Action is required.

So, yeah, I missed talking to the Board tonight. A friend said they called my name and I wasn’t there. They had a ten person limit when I needed to be heard, and I had reached my limit for talking to people who can’t or won’t show they care. So, call my name. I’m not listening.

I didn’t want to waste my time.

A friend of mine shared this quote from the Bible; ” Cast ye not your pearls before swine,lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” -Matthew 7

Tired of my rights being trampled and allowing others’ rights to be trampled.