Venus Ferguson, The words of the young adults at Stroudsburg High. Are the Words of your students not enough for the six board members of Stroudsburg High?
Written by Venus Ferguson
Upon hearing that the DEI committee was discontinued I was shocked and angry about the hypocrisy in our school district.
I have been in the Stroudsburg school district for my entire life and have always felt safe until I came out as bisexual in 7th grade. Now I identify as a bisexual non-binary and have received an unacceptable amount of hate that the school has done nothing about.
Last year I asked the majority of my teachers to call me by my name, Venus.
Although most of them were accepting I had a teacher who refused to use my name because it wasn’t my legal name. Yet, she called every other student by their preferred nicknames. She refused to call me by name until she got consent from my father, doing so could have put me in an intensely dangerous situation. If I was not out to my parents and they weren’t accepting towards me I could’ve been hurt, kicked out, or even disowned.
When I reported this teacher she faced no repercussions except for being talked to. So because of this for the rest of the year, she still refused to call me by my name.
This is just one example of the homophobia, transphobia, and bigotry I have faced by the adults who are supposed to make us safe here.
This happened while the DEI committee was in place, now imagine what will happen without it and how many students will be hurt. “Hate has no Home Here” is a lie. and the high-up staff six board members refused to do anything about it and in fact voted to have the DEI dismantled.
