Children are actively hurt when adults use them as pawns in political games. Our public schools are not the place to wage political battles and it is reprehensible that children are forced to pay the consequences.

Anyone who serves on a school board should be focused on problem solving and finding ways to increase academic excellence. Troublemakers who seek to promote partisan politics do not serve their districts and the children in them.

It is not appropriate for one narrow-minded group of adults to dictate moral behavior and limit what can be taught. Students deserve the opportunity to make their own informed decisions and moral judgements after being presented the totality of age-appropriate information available.

In a world where bullying is far too common, the last thing students need to see normalized are the tactics of fear and bullying that are presenting themselves at school board meetings and in larger conversations about education. Threats of violence and intimidation are not how we should get things done, and our kids are watching this example.

America’s history of systemic racism, the Civil Rights movement, and racial economic inequity is simply a fact. To advance as a culture and have equal opportunity for all Americans requires honest study of the past and understanding its context. We can teach our children honestly without creating harm.

School transparency should mean public communications about school achievement, goals, budget priorities, and statistics, not spying on teachers or forcing them to post every single lesson plan online.