Supported Inclusion

 Title:  RI Laws and Policies; and PPSD Policy;  Queering Our Schools

Argument: The authors argument in Queering Our Schools is that adults need to create dialogue in the community and have more conversations on topics regarding LGBTQIA+ for students in the schools.

Talking Points :

(1) The text begins with a story of Sasha, who is assaulted and the student who set the clothing on fire was sent with two hate crimes as an adult. The family stressed that the student needed to be tried as a child and needs to be educated. This was very honorable for them to do. Sasha's family recognize that teenagers don't think through actions and took the opportunity to build a bridge. Hate is learned and things that aren't understood are immediately rejected so the fact that they helped reduce a sentence is admirable. I checked an update from 2015 and it mentioned the arsonist wrote two letters to the family taking full responsibility. I tried to find out where he was now and if he did change but was unlucky.

(2) On the top of 24 it says, "I realize this [agender] is a concept that even adults have difficulty wrapping their head around....so I can't pretend that's an issue that all young children will grasp. But what they certainly can and should understand is that different people like different things. Different people dress or behave or look differently. And that's a GOOD thing." I liked the end of this quote because it circled back to another blog I wrote about colorblindness and color insight. I wrote about how ten of the same people in a room would have limited ideas while a mixed group of 10 people with all different backgrounds would have never ending ideas. We as a society need different people to thrive. Speaking on the beginning of the quote I find the outcry of children not understanding a concept like this to be funny. I grew up without a father and no one was crying out to the school that their child found out I was being raised by a mom and grandma. I had to make our Father's Day arts and crafts out to my mom and was asked by another student why it was to "Mom" and not "Dad" why did 6 year old me have to explain not everyone comes from the same background and not that students family? Children ask a million questions I don't know why we aren't answering every single one of them truthfully and attempting to "protect" them when they're not in harms way to be educated.

(3) Toward the end of page 24 it states, "...No number of classroom discussions about gender and stereotypes and homophobia will create a nurturing environment if teachers and parents are afraid to come out." Followed, is a story of an editor in her coming out story to her school where she needed to call her Union in order to support her. This text came out in 2014 but feel like it is a very harsh request because since then, the Trump administration is has been attempting to tear down years of hard work in both terms serving. I just came across a tik tok the other day where a teacher replays a conversation where she doesn't know how to tell her students her fiancee is female. The comment section is flooded with people saying what she should say because children should know and replies saying she could lose her job for it, etc.. Especially with the current administration you'd be flagged in "progressive" areas never mind teaching anywhere "conservative" and being out without facing harassment where you're not receiving any support anywhere and become blacklisted. 

 Connections :

I use Facebook from time to time and unfortunately keep getting this one user who is a teacher at a Providence school's posts on my feed, so much that I needed to block her because of her hateful content. However, I did have to unblock her for this assignment because she is a reason as to my third talking point is so difficult to even attempt right now. In the photo she attention seeks for clicks and makes money off of insufferable people putting in their two cents when teachers and adults are trying to work around the hate for their students despite it being mentioned in their PPSD policies. The second photo won't attach so this is the link but she continues to tear down the attempts of inclusion regarding RI school districts trying to educate students...appropriately. 

On a positive note, we have a student who is nonbinary and goes by a really cool name they chose. They chose to be on a ballot for a Valentine's Day dance at their school this year and even though it was listed as a male and female winner, the scholar chose the male ballot to win with their friend and won. Those in charge immediately altered the "masculine" title to something more neutral. 

One last connection was that it took me a while to find this post I vaguely remembered seeing. This supports the third talking point since this teacher was supported by her higher ups and saw immediately positive results with students feeling comfortable. I saw that post and had a pride flag in my suite during the summer as a Tutor Counselor to show students who may identify, that I was a safe space for them. Although I had students at first who were confused, because they all knew my partner and that I was straight, I explained that having it visible could make students more comfortable. I currently have the same flag in my office. I was lucky enough to grow up in a very unconventional family where I was exposed to non straight people at an early age. Even though I didn't "process" it as a child...I didn't care. There was more important things like learning my times tables and logging onto the computer to play club penguin. Even now, the students in the program, they don't care how you identify they just want to have fun in the program and attempt to copy an answer every now and then.

 Reflections : In the Upward Bound Program I don't believe we have a section dedicated to LGBTQAI+ but I believe it's expected in our handbooks to teachers and students they receive under bullying and harassment, which you are immediately dismissed from the program. Regarding names, we have plenty of students who prefer going by different names in general we are just required to give memos teachers and staff before the student(s) arrive so they are aware of the changes and if it includes pronouns.

We work with many different students from different backgrounds, mainly Latin and African. This includes MANY conservative valued families that are close minded on topics such as this. My coworker was interviewing a mother whose son wanted to be in the program. She mentioned something asking about how the dorming situation will work because her son and his friend had applied to join and she doesn't want them in the same dorm because one of the friends is gay and doesn't want her son to be around them. My coworker explained that while you may have your views, our program does not and will not accommodate a request like that and went on to explain we are built on a community of opportunity and inclusion. 

In the past we had a student whose freshmen year was spent in a female dorm assigned as a female. During their second summer they preferred a different name, pronouns, and was still in a female dorm and we offered for them to shower in the Resident Manager's side suite but still preferred the female shower. His last summer he was comfortable and ready to live the summer in a male dorm. We made sure to assign them to a Tutor Counselor who knew what was going on, had selected students in the suite who knew them and wouldn't have an issue, and there were no complaints the entire summer from any students, families, or staff. Well, except for the fact that "boys are disgusting" as he got to experience how teenage boys kept their dorm bathroom "clean". 

 Edit : I just remembered that in our UB Summer handbooks, as a student in 2015-2017, there was a rule that opposite "gender" students could not enter a students private room at ALL or else you would receive a demerit and same "gender" students could be in student rooms and have the door closed. Now, in our handbooks it states, any student can enter another's room but the door must be WIDE open at all times. So, although we are not explicitly mentioning the usage of LGBTQAI+ terminology we have made many subtle changes throughout the handbook to include everyone without making scholars feel targeted. 

We also had a student two summers ago who was part Japanese and coming from a conservative home. They requested in the program that everyone could call them a different name and have they/them pronouns. However, when their parents came to Awards Night and other events, even pamphlets/certificates/slideshows they wanted to ensure that their deadname was on these things so their mother wouldn't say anything. After the student graduated high school they came out to their parents and currently live with their new name and pronouns.