A special thanks to the teenage organizers who came to our March 19 Quorum Court meeting to speak publicly about this issue! Thank you for speaking up and using the power of your voices.
From the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:
FAYETTEVILLE -- County officials on Thursday voted down a resolution calling on local schools to "teach responsible citizenship" to students in the wake of a number of protests and walk-outs in February.
The proposal was drafted by Justice of the Peace David Wilson. The Quorum Court split narrowly on the resolution, with five justices of the peace voting in favor of it and six voting against it. [it needed eight votes to pass]
Justice Shawndra Washington said the resolution was overly vague and the arguments advanced in support of it failed to give the students the respect due to them. She said students who have a thoughtful opinion have every right to express it, including through peaceful protests. She cited the examples of students and others who participated in lunch counter sit-ins who had hot coffee poured over their heads, and those who participated in the March on Selma who faced police dogs and fire hoses.
"They were kids," she said. "Let's not discount the impact of what they do."
I was interviewed by 40/29 after the meeting. As you can see in the video, my colleague, JP Robert Dennis, decided to "protest" my interview.
Dennis abstained from the vote. He later wrote to local Lutheran Pastor Clint Schnekloth, "I think our time was a total waste of time last night. It is not our work to be managing the school system. We have so many more things to be doing. That is why I abstained."
Here are my remarks on the issue during the debate:
My concern is that a lot of the public does not understand that we are entirely separate local governments.
Let me give you an example of exactly what I mean.
In Fayetteville, there has been a lot of controversy over the site of the new Ramay Junior High School because the school district wants to build it on a forested hillside.
But when those big monumental decisions come in front of the school board, the folks who are actually in charge, hardly anybody has shown up. Instead, for whatever reason, people have bombarded the Fayetteville City Council. I know that because my husband serves on the city council, and they had a small role in the whole thing.
AND… during the time the Fayetteville school district has been planning all of this, and all this controversy has been going on, five of the seven school board members were reelected unopposed.
So there is already clearly a real lack of public understanding here. Many people do not realize that school boards exist, that they are elected by the public, and that they are the ones with the authority to make decisions about schools and students, along with the state legislature. Not city councils. Not the Quorum Court.
We should not add to that confusion. I do not want us to create the impression that we have some power or jurisdiction over schools, because we do not.
I do not believe we have any business telling school staff and administrators what they should or should not do. That is the job of the school board. That is why I believe this resolution is an overreach.
For that reason, among others, I will be voting no.
With all the positive things that we could be working on as a county, your time, my time, our time, was wasted by JP Dennis… we could be working on housing, issues with social justice, food insecurity, county roads, or just simply county planning..
Keep up the good work Evelyn.
Jimm
I am astonished by the lack of engagement by the public with the FPS Board. We need better civics education in our country. I have met people who not only do not know but are surprised to learn that we have a State Legislature that meets in Little Rock. Not a Washington County issue but it is something we could bring up with the FPS Board.