Editorial: The lessons we teach our children
What lessons are we teaching our children when we tell them their hard work doesn’t matter?
What wisdom we do we impart on future generations when we show them their voices don’t matter?
And what does it say about a community that refuses to accept a more inclusive here and now over a past that encouraged discrimination and bullying?
The Wednesday night decision of Board of Trustees of the West Sonoma County Union High School District to return the name of West County High School to Analy High School has brought these questions to the forefront many of its constituents’ minds, including the students who attend West County High School.
West County High School hasn’t even been a school for half a year. It was established after the high school district consolidated El Molino and Analy High Schools onto the former Analy High School campus in Sebastopol. In effort to unite the two schools, the school district temporarily re-named the school West County High School with plans for additional rebranding in the future.
There was always a plan for more. There was never a plan to go back.
“Nowhere did they say they’d revert back to Analy,” said Debbie Ramirez, former Sebastopol Union trustee. “They brought two rival communities together. This year, the teachers, staff and students worked hard to create a unified identity that they could all be proud of.”
That unified identity could be seen on the football field this fall as well as in the streets during the Apple Blossom Parade, when the united marching band performed in tie-dyed shirts.
Trustee Angie Lewis was proud of how far the school had come. I went on a walk with her Thursday afternoon (we happen to live four houses away from one another) and she voiced how, ultimately, she wanted to do what was right for the kids.
Because after all, this is about the students, every single one of them who walked out of class Thursday afternoon, united against the school board’s decision to revert the school’s name back to Analy. This generation of students strutting the halls of West County High School are giants. Throughout their tenure as students they’ve been through more than most generations reading this editorial (and I write that as a Millennial who was 13 when Columbine happened).
Think about it: As a collective whole, these kids, from Jenner to Fort Ross and Forestville to Sebastopol, have experienced and united over harrowing and heartbreaking issues: Fires. Floods. Evacuations. Pandemics. Consolidations. They are the definition of resilient. And they are the definition of united.
When parents threatened lawsuits against the school board, their football team stayed united. When Analy alumni threatened to withhold funding, the West County High marching band kept on marching. Their Future Farmers of America team continued to thrive. The teachers continued to teach. The staff continued to unite. All in the face of extreme community adversity.
To me, it seems as though the kids have been acting as grown ups while the grown ups in our community have been acting like children (But take my opinion with a grain of salt; I only have an incredibly verbal 4-year-old who still rocks an incredibly solid tantrum mode).
My question to our community and to our school board trustees: Why aren’t we giving these students a chance to continue to stay united? Why is historical tribalism more important than a here and now that’s beginning to work for the students who are actually students in the here and now?
The guiding principles of the West Sonoma County High School District include ‘making decisions that are best for students,’ ‘promoting inclusiveness in decision-making’ and ‘appreciating diversity.’
Where in Wednesday’s night decision was inclusivity, an appreciation for diversity and the forethought that reverting the school’s name back to Analy was best for all students involved? Or any of the students, for that fact?
It’s a hypocrisy I don’t understand and a lesson that will stick with this generation for years to come.
