• Wethersfield School District In CT Might As Well Be Called "Wokefield" In Light Of Equity Focus, Alignment With Social Justice Coalition

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    Public school parents in Wethersfield, CT, are frustrated at how woke the district is becoming, and how it seems intent on becoming even more woke.

    These intentions are detailed in Wethersfield's 2023 - 2029 Strategic Plan, which outlines three key priorities for improving student outcomes and ensuring the school's environment is "inclusive":

    • Achievement is about "inclusive instruction" and "authentic learning";
    • Empathy is about promoting social emotional learning (SEL) and implementing "restorative justice practices" which allegedly repair harm and reduce the need for disciplinary action; and
    • Equity is about creating equity teams at each school in the district to ensure "equal outcomes" but not equal opportunities.

    The 2023-2024 Improvement Plan further described specific actions the district planned on taking.

    One planned step, which sounded like an "equity audit", included focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion ("DEI") by examining school culture, engagement, and structures through a racial equity lens.

    Other steps involved expanding the partnership with the Wethersfield Social Justice Coalition, utilizing "restorative circles", and growing the "collective social consciousness" of the District Equity Team so the team is prepared to lead "courageous conversations" that address inequities in current policies and practices. (More on what "courageous conversations" are below.)

    The district seems especially concerned with implementing practices that promote a 'safe' school climate, and ensuring the community is inclusive for LGBTQ+ students.

    "We post the Pride flag in our schools all year to demonstrate our pride and in support of our friends, families and community," read an announcement from Wethersfield's Assistant Superintendent Sally Dastoli in June 2023.

    For pride month last year, the Wethersfield School District, in conjunction with the town-wide Social Justice Coalition, whose website seems to be hosted through the district's site, invited families to join a presentation entitled, Beyond the Binary to hear about one man's gender journey and how working with transgender children and non-binary children personally helped him.

    While the district does not coordinate LGBTQ+ oriented curriculum for each grade, Dastoli did share "information with teachers so that they may hold informed conversations with students."

    In elementary schools, this information included lessons on the meaning of pride flag colors, and reinforced why Wethersfield flies the pride flag all year in every building. Teachers were encouraged to discuss alternative family structures, and to teach about and use preferred pronouns, even though most elementary school children are thoroughly confused by such nonsense. Especially calling a single person "they/them".

    In her letter to parents, Dastoli said the school recommended books like I Am Jazz, a book that celebrates a transgender child, to elementary school children. Middle school recommendations included controversial titles that also normalized transgenderism, like Melissa (previously published as George) and Being Jazz: My Life As A (Transgender) Teen, and titles that contained explicit content and excessive profanity, like Ramona Blue.

    The high school list included titles with frequent profanity and controversial commentary, like Juliet Takes A Breath; a book where an adolescent encourages his friend to ejaculate into a bottle and drink the contents, Flamer; and a book that seems to have it all - nudity, sexual assault, drug use, profanity, controversial commentary, and more, Gabi A Girl in Pieces.

    One title which appeared on both the middle and high school lists, Beyond Magenta, depicts a 6-year-old child performing oral sex on adult men.

    From six up, I used to kiss other guys in my neighborhood, make out with them, and perform oral sex on them. I liked it. I used to love oral. And I touched their you-know-whats. We were really young, but that’s what we did.

    - Beyond Magenta

    The district even pushed the ultra-woke "Inclusive Language Guidelines" from the American Psychological Association that were created "to dismantle the destructive hierarchies that have marginalized people" and to help people from committing "implicit bias" and "microaggression" related errors. The sections on the many types of "racism" and "gender inclusive language" are particularly long and mind-numbing.

    Both Wethersfield Superintendent Michael Emmett and Assistant Superintendent Dastoli serve on the Social Justice Coalition's Board, along with police sergeants, the founder of the Peace Center of Connecticut and others.

    The Coalition plans on meeting 10 times from 2023-2024 to engage in dialogue and do the work of equity.

    The way the group conducts their meetings is interesting.

    They follow the Pacific Education Group's (PEG) Courageous Conversation Protocol, which involves four agreements, six conditions and "the compass" of believing, thinking, feeling and acting.

    By the way, one of the conditions for a "courageous conversation" to take place requires examining "the presence and rule of 'whiteness'."

    The group admits the conversations are "uncomfortable" and they never seem to reach "closure" and were, in part, a response to George Floyd's death. Which was most likely from a drug overdose, but that doesn't seem to matter to the Social Justice Coalition.

    Screenshot, Wethersfield Social Justice Council on YouTube

    It's no wonder parents in Wethersfield are frustrated, and concerned that their district has gone fully woke, thanks to the Wethersfield Social Justice Coalition, which is seemingly endorsed wholeheartedly by the school district, given the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent both serve on the Board.

    One concerned parent expressed frustration with the district's focus on, "sexual orientation and gender ideology, using restorative practices in lieu of tangible consequences for bad behavior, the push towards equity rather than equality and introducing segregation into our community and schools by promoting the BIPOC group."

    "Many kids are not being challenged or are having their grades impaired due to class group work based on an equity model.  Why can't our district just focus their time, energy and teacher talent in educating our kids on the basics of math, science, grammar, history, geography. etc. and stop being distracted from these progressive policies?"

    That's a good question, isn't it? 

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    Matt

    I serve on the Wethersfield Board of Education. We have received zero emails from concerned parents similar to the one that was mentioned at the end of this piece. This piece also suggests that George Floyd died from a drug-overdose, and not from the crime that was perpetrated against him, for which a citizen was found guilty after a jury of his peers was presented with evidence and facts. This piece also incorrectly suggests that kids in WPS are being indoctrinated.

    Bob S.

    if you think george floyd died from police brutality, you are indoctrinated yourself!!

    if your students see trans progress pride flags in elementary, they are being indoctrinated, period.

    and parents know full well that BOE members don't address complaints about the liberal agenda, which is why they come to the press!

    Ken Byrne

    TGhere are videos of George Floyd being murdered b police. Chauuvin was sentenced to 22 years for 2nd degree murder.
    The fantasies you appear to bleieve in are pure lies told bybigots.

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