LGBTQ kids faced hate incidents at Paso Robles High. Now the district is taking action
Less than three weeks after hundreds of community members gathered to hear students speak about the bullying and hate they’d endured for being LGBTQ youth at Paso Robles High School, the school district announced a set of powerful goals it hopes to implement by the end of this academic year.
On Wednesday, Deputy Superintendent Jen Gaviola sent an email to all Paso Robles High School students, employees and parents outlining the district’s new goals to improve the culture of the school and help LGBTQ students feel more welcome.
“We applaud our Paso Robles High School students who participated in the recent ‘Coming Out Against Hate’ community forum and recognize their leadership and courage in speaking out for a more inclusive school environment,” Gaviola wrote in her note to the Paso High community. “We understand that LGBTQ+ students face enormous social and emotional pressures and are more likely to experience anxiety, stress, depression and suicidal thoughts.”
The eight goals focus on a variety of concerns, ranging from creating safe changing spaces for transgender students to providing bystander training to eliminate bullying on campus.
“We care about each and every one of our students,” Gaviola said in the email, “and we will not compromise on the health, welfare and safety of any student. In this current environment, we will especially dedicate our efforts to ensuring the health, welfare and safety of our LGBTQ+ students.”
District formed task force after student forum
The “Coming Out Against Hate” forum on Oct. 20 was held in response to a student who stole a teacher’s Pride flag from their classroom in mid-September and later posted a video to TikTok of them defecating on it. The school district responded by limiting the size of the flags allowed to be displayed in classrooms, sparking outrage among the community and making international headlines.
During the October forum at the high school’s performing arts center, students laid out in detail how difficult it was to be happy at Paso Robles High due to the homophobia they’d faced there.
The event was intended to send a clear message to district administration: Students needed change.
“We gathered here this evening to push back, demand better, make ourselves known and demand a safe place in our own school,” student John Seden-Hansen said at the forum. “We’ve come together because it’s time for the voices of LGBTQ students to be acknowledged, heard, understood and celebrated.”
Shortly after the forum, the district formed a task force consisting of high school students, the school’s principal, teachers and district administrators. They met weekly during the students’ study hall period to discuss how the district could make tangible changes to cultivate a culture at the school that is free from homophobia.
And the discussions were productive.
It was “kind of incredible,” said Ava Hughes, a Paso High senior who was on the task force.
“After everything that’s happened, I can tell that certain members of the district are willing to put in the extra work to create change, which I never expected,” she said. “I just never thought that my opinion would be so valued and important, and they would give me the time to speak.”
Hughes and others on the task force said the goals set forth by the district are a step in the right direction.
Eight goals aim to improve conditions for LGBTQ students
In her note to the Paso Robles High School community, Gaviola laid out the eight goals the district plans to achieve by the end of this school year:
Creation of a PRHS Task Force including student representatives, teachers, regional stakeholders and administrators to provide feedback on district progress and goals. (Title IX)
Access to safe changing areas and restrooms for transgender students with greater communication and education to students and the community. (AB 1266)
Training for school staff on the knowledge, attitudes and skills to make schools safe and supportive for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning students. (BP 5145.9)
Bystander training to eliminate bullying on campus. (AB 2291)
Education of students, staff and the community on the rights of LGBTQ+ students on Paso Robles school sites. (BP 5145.9)
Commitment to a consistent disciplinary system regarding hateful actions and increased communication among students and the community. (BP 5145.3 and BP 5131.2)
Curricular audit of the teaching of marginalized groups in the history/social studies curriculum (Senate Bill 48/ FAIR ACT: Fair, Accurate, Inclusive, and Respectful Education Act, California Healthy Youth Act, and SB 71), and if found inadequate it will be addressed immediately.
A fully developed, and communicated, tiered system of support for social-emotional needs for LGBTQ+ students. (BP 5145.9)
Including the applicable board policies or laws following each goal was key, students and employees said.
“We didn’t want the community to have the wrong impression that these were just things that we are making up, and that aren’t supported by actual law and board policy that’s been approved,” said Haley Talbert, an English teacher and adviser to the Equity Club at Paso High. “These things are not only what’s right to do for our students’ community, but also what is legally required.”
Although members of the task force said all of the goals are important, the one that has had the most immediate impact is the access to safe changing areas and restrooms for transgender students.
Before, transgender students said they were afraid to use the gendered bathrooms and wouldn’t feel safe changing in front of others during PE class or sport practices.
Now, the students are aware of the all-gender bathroom available on campus and have space in the locker rooms to change.
The other goals are more long-term works in progress, students said.
“I think that it is definitely a step in the right direction, and it’s one that’s healthy,” said Danny Perez, a student at Paso High. “I think it’ll be really exciting when we start seeing action implemented. I’m really excited for what the future holds.”
Perez and Hughes said the next big task will be keeping the district accountable to the goals it has set. The students plan to meet regularly with administrators to ensure logical plans are laid out and changes implemented, they said.
Employees on the task force acknowledged that the students had taken time out of their study hall periods to work on the goals. Geoffrey Land, a social studies teacher at Paso High, noted that the students were the driving force in the district taking action and laying out the eight goals.
“It’s quite amazing, really, to see students engaged at this level and having a one-on-one conversation with the head of the district, and being able to educate each other,” Land said. “It’s quite remarkable that students, teachers and administrators are really getting together in a meaningful way and trying to move forward together — recognizing that there’s a broader community and there’s legal and social context here, too. ... A lot of trust is being built.”
This story was originally published November 11, 2021 at 11:57 AM.
