Forsyth County Georgia Board of Education - Jere Krischel - 8/16/2022

At our last meeting, we heard an impassioned plea for more indoctrination in our schools and libraries, insisting that the board was "here to serve" our students. This may sound like a perfectly reasonable statement, but we have to be very careful - our schools may be the place where our students learn, and grow, but schools, administrators, teachers and staff are in service to parents, not children.Show more

And of course, there is a reason for this - children may very well be able to express their needs, even at their youngest ages. They may cry for food, or a diaper change, or for attention. But you don't expect an infant to know the best way to get food from the store, to the fridge, to the bottle, and finally to their mouth. The "WHAT" is a question that children can help us answer. The "HOW" is a question children simply don't have the experience or wisdom to judge.

This isn't to say that there aren't immature adults, or very mature children - exceptions abound in the wide swath of humanity. But there really is no evidence that the brave, dutiful children, who have come to speak to the Board for these many months, actually have wisdom to share on the "HOW".

The three "WHAT"s identified last month were:

improve mental health
increase feelings of safety
reduce bullying on the basis of identity

The first two "WHAT"s are great - we all want students to be more resilient and mentally healthy, and we all want students to feel safe from violence, hypersexualization, and abuse. But the third "WHAT" exposes a lack of wisdom - we want to reduce *all* bullying, not just one type of bullying. The child who is being tormented, simply because a bully was in a bad mood that day, is no less worthy of help, than a child who is being tormented because they wore a MAGA hat to school.

We can improve mental health without leftist Diversity, Inclusion and Equity programs. In fact, those regions of our country that have pushed these programs the most, have the worst mental health outcomes. The rate of transgender identification, self-harm, and suicide, within leftist jurisdictions is significantly higher, than in other all other areas. While nobody doubts that leftist adults and children want better mental health, the evidence actually shows that their ideas make things worse.

This also goes for school safety and bullying - the most violent schools are in cities dominated by leftist governments. Policies put in place in the name of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity have included giving violent students more lenient punishments, depending on their skin color. This gutting of disciplinary power in some regions, has led to attacks not only on students, but teachers and staff as well. Again, nobody doubts that our leftist adults and children want safer schools, but the evidence actually shows that their ideas make things worse.

Now, I don't doubt that there are children in our schools who are suffering. Their stories of bullying, and struggles with mental illness are certainly sincere and real. But their prescription for fixing these problems is poison, not medicine.

We cannot stop being victims, by wallowing in our victimhood. We cannot unify our diverse population, by dividing people up into skin color, religion, or sexual preference. And we cannot improve our safety, by encouraging a lack of personal responsibility.

I would like to thank the Board again, for its strong focus on giving our children what they NEED rather than what they simply WANT, and for understanding that our schools serve the parents of students, first and foremost.

Thank you very much for your time, and again, I'd love to have lunch with anyone who disagrees with me.