Dear AUSD Community, 

There have been the usual public education challenges, of course – issues related to budgets, pedagogy, personnel, facilities, and strategic priorities. Those are perennial. 

 

But this year we also faced challenges to some of our deepest beliefs regarding public education: that all students, regardless of who they are, have a right to a free public education free from discrimination, harassment, violence, intimidation, and bullying. 

 

We have sent messages about these rights in regard to our immigrant families in the past, and AUSD continues to support its immigrant students, staff, and families.  

 

Today, however, I want to also affirm our commitment to our LGBTQ students, staff, and families.  

 

We are aware that multiple efforts – at both federal and state levels – have been launched to deny LGBTQ+ people their rights to receive health care, to read books in which they are represented, to be called by their preferred names. In some states, measures have been proposed and, in some cases, enacted, that can harm supportive families by triggering investigations, child-welfare involvement, and interference with highly personal medical decisions. 

 

And we are aware that this may be traumatic to our LGBTQ+ students and families – with students who are already at risk for mental health challenges. 

 

As such, I want you to know that while we alone cannot stop the kinds of laws that are being passed, we can continue to do everything in our power to protect and educate our LGBTQ+ students, to create safe, healthy spaces for them on our campuses, to celebrate their inherent worth and dignity, and to support them on their path to adulthood. 

 

And we will continue to do everything we can to advocate on their behalf. 

 

The challenges we are facing now are unusual, but I also want to add that they are a part and parcel of the very work we do as educators:  teach, engage, support, and protect all of our students without hesitation or qualification.