My School Board Meeting Drag Queen Comment
Were we not supposed to go hog wild about drag queens at the Columbia Public Schools meeting?
I am a CPS parent and decided to comment on the drag queen issue at the school board meeting. The text of my comment is below.
A couple of observations:
1. I found the political part unavoidable, so I just didn’t try to avoid it.
The Attorney General, Governor, Senate President Pro Tempore Rowden and many others engaged in an attack of CPS that was covered by Newsweek, Fox News and other national sources. It has been weird to watch all this attention on my kid’s schools.
They are taking what should be a local issue and making it part of a manufactured national campaign to rile everyone up against schools.
How does a response ignore that? For instance:
Should a parent simply be unable to talk about the AG calling their school superintendent and mayor possible criminals? (A couple of people got online and criticized me for speaking up, but we ended up getting along ok).
How do I address the AG’s argument that drag is obscene without pointing out that pictures and discussion of drag are everywhere due to the Republicans’ national media campaign?
How do you address their claim of indoctrination without pointing out they are the ones always talking about drag queens and transgender issues?
It is just all too wrapped up in politics.
2. I expected more outrage at the meeting
I saw plenty of news about fiery school board meetings during COVID. The AG told parents to let CPS know how outraged they are. The Governor and Rowden fanned the flames.
This was the first meeting. I expected some heat on both sides. People told me it might not matter if I got to comment, since there probably would be plenty others.
I thought it was interesting that CPS did not put the issue on the agenda. They may have wanted to avoid the outrage. Who knows? Maybe the message implicitly was:”We have plenty of issues to address, instead of this.” And they definitely do!
I decided to try to speak anyway. I thought,”Well, what else am I going to do with this goshdarn drag queen speech?” Plus, the attack on our schools could affect funding or curriculum choices. So I registered as a general commenter.
In the end, I’m surprised. When I filed my ballot initiative for abortion rights in August, I figured I would be first, because no case had yet confirmed being able to file that early. I was fine with that. I wanted to draw attention to the issue so that Eric Schmitt and others might have to answer an abortion question. I wanted more people to realize that the ballot initiative would be the way to fix things.
This time, I thought there would be more people speaking up. Instead, things seemed to fizzle at the meeting. That surprises me and other people, too. It is hard to know what to make of it.
3. So Did this Do Anything?
The Columbia Missourian covered the meeting and chose to not report anyone’s drag queen comments. They only covered speakers on agenda issues.
As KOMU reported, one school board member excused herself from the meeting due to health reasons resulting from these issues. She said there is an effort to “erase” transgender and minority stories. She said too many people in the broader community are being silent, thus leaving the people under attack to fight for themselves.
Now, even after the first meeting, not a single parent comment has actually ever made it to the news, apparently.
The politicians have added up the comments against CPS- saying lots of parents are outraged. CPS said it’s really not many parents- and lots of parents actually support them. That’s it- just add up the complaints.
So where does that leave the narrative?
It looks like the state officials mostly got a free attack against public schools. Their voices are definitely the loudest and best-funded.
The school district has called for reason and understanding. It is too generous to even say they are “on the defense.” They really are just trying to weather the storm. The school district is a punching bag, because they cannot be very political in response to a political attack. They need whatever help they can get.
I did get positive feedback from a few people before I left. So, I guess a few more people felt like they had support.
However, nearly everyone on the other side will probably never hear a Columbia parent comment on this local school issue. They will only hear people in power attacking and misrepresenting our community, while the school district asks everyone to not be angry.
The text of my comment follows. You quickly realize 3 minutes is not a lot of time. It took plenty of editing to get down to 3. School Board President Seamon rightfully labeled my comment as “close” to derogatory- haha.
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Public schools are every community’s accountable schools.
Dr. Yearwood said he’s listening and reviewing policies. But Newsweek reported he told parents to move on because he can’t be held accountable.
The only private school to respond said “it wouldn’t have even occurred to us to research” the diversity event. The AG said ignore all the private schools.
Perfect research and disclosures are unrealistic. Drafting better procedures is a dry, tough task. Yet our community wants to know how schools can better learn important details of events. Please tell them.
I also support informed parental consent. Even a G rated performance for middle schoolers is very different than a HS book mentioning drag queens.
Lots of people think drag queens are strippers. Really, you don’t even have to dance. Of course, no school performance should be obscene. A parent should also be able to research, or just opt out of, an event, since lines can be blurred.
Middle schoolers have the internet and aren’t naïve. High school freshmen could debate this, just like I debated “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Yet, the AG threatened baseless criminal charges. His conservative radio interviewer made it clear the performance was not sexual. Bailey insisted drag is inherently obscene and he thinks the intent is always sexual. Then he posted pictures on Twitter, like a prosecutor shouting,”Look at all this illegal porn we found.” If anyone should be a test-defendant for these bad arguments, it should be Bailey.
The Governor and Senator Rowden helped rile everyone up, and didn’t condemn Bailey’s arguments.
The same people who said there’s kitty litter boxes in schools, now claim there’s indoctrination.
95% of what I read about drag queens, is due to conservatives. No one likes hearing about it all the time, especially in this context. I’d rather read about almost anything else.
My Mizzou Sociology degree taught me less about drag queens than two weeks of Fox News. There’s an outrage article on every drag queen. They detail history, postmodern theory, queer studies- the whole thing. Republicans are now our nation’s obsessed drag queen experts.
Through HS, you might just need one lesson: These individuals exist, and are worthy of basic respect and dignity. That’s probably what the city was going for.
I see Republican Judges approve transgender name changes. There’s respect. No drama. No Columbia law forcing everyone to give the transgender person a big old kiss.
Rural Missouri, these divisive politicians want you to think we’re out to destroy your way of life. Then they attack us on a local issue.
Yet, no Republican treats me like a monster in person. We’re being misrepresented to each other. They’re trying to tear us apart from each other, so they can increase their own power.
Rural communities are part of our community. But, it’s frustrating that you’ll go to our football games and helicopter to our hospitals, while your leaders call us all pedophiles and threaten us with jail.
I went to Blue Springs public schools, funded by more property taxes. Missouri is now 49th in state funding, so rural schools get thousands less per student. These politicians don’t care about you.
Even if my children’s tax dollars are sent to billionaires, I’ll never subject them to whatever education these divisive, deceptive people want them to have.