Students Speak is a student-led, high school group, at Jenison Public Schools, that is demanding the school board incorporate more Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) initiatives into the district. Students from this group have been speaking about DEIB at school board meetings. For example, during the May 8, 2023, school board meeting, an 11th grade student provided the following public comment.
“We as students will not stop until we see change happen, and we’re back in larger numbers. We’re here not only to speak for ourselves, but for our fellow peers who may not have a voice or may be intimidated, or just don’t think they belong here. Jenison Public Schools is currently failing its students. It is currently failing to prepare us for success in the real world, because the real world does not look like what Jenison does, and there is statistics that can back that up. Our area will only become more diverse, and our responsibility is not to discourage diversity, but to accept it, embrace it, and understand it. If we fail to do this now, we are not only failing students, we are failing the community as a whole.
Now that we know a little bit more about what diversity is, let’s talk about what equity and inclusion is, and how it applies to school districts. Equity by definition, is the quality of being fair and impartial. Inclusion is the action or state of including or being included with a group or structure such as a school district. If you attack any of these things, otherwise known as DEI, you’re exemplifying and amplifying the need for this conversation and the need for change to create action now.
What this may look like in a school district setting is a topic for conversation, but a conversation that needs to be had now. A few areas can be seen from other schools who have taken the initiative of action, and I will give you some examples. Hudsonville has Soaring Eagles to link to the values of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. Throughout the school year, they develop long-term vision and trainings to increase awareness, skills, and action to embrace differences that we all possess. Zeeland Christian Schools is a global leader in inclusive education. Kent County Intermediate Superintendent Association has racial equity statement from 23 different superintendents ranging from Grand Rapids Christian Schools to Grandville. Grandville has a strategic plan with a vision of recognizing and valuing diversity in all people, and equity of giving every student the support they need, and when they need it. Holland Public Schools has equity and inclusion efforts and programs to dismantle institutional and systemic barriers by creating policy and practices to create equitable efforts of all student, staff, and administration. Speaking of Holland Public Schools, they also have a position for a Director of Equity, and Inclusion. And West Ottawa considers equity and diversity of people, places and books and include pedagogy and practices in order to meet the needs of diverse learners. []
If you don’t start to make change now, you will continue to see an uproar like you have never seen before.”
Even though this is a student-led group, they are being influenced by adult activists. One way the students are working to garner support is by circulating an on-line petition. After a recent meeting, this group provided the school board with a document explaining their demands.
These student activists believe that if a student in the school displays behavior that disrupts the sense of belonging, that student should be suspended.
The students are demanding the district create a DEI Director position.
In addition, the students are demanding changes to the curriculum, and demanding all district employee job descriptions be changed to include a commitment to diversity and inclusion.
These students have been successfully indoctrinated into the growing religion of Wokeism. Although they believe they have learned valuable critical thinking skills, they are actually displaying the results of an educational system that has embraced the numerous grievance disciplines inspired by critical theory. They are employing a bottom-up technique for insisting immediate, transformational action that demands punitive punishment against anyone that doesn’t comply with their group-think mentality. Local movements like this one, combined with top-down action from organizations like the National Education Association (NEA) and their ridiculous summer reading program, for example, hope to force societal change in a direction that aligns with their views of radical Social Justice. Please be skeptical of youth activist movements like this one.