Waukee School Board President Lori Lyon is defending the district’s “Mental Health Mini-Sesssion” on the importance of an LGBTQ and gender-inclusive curriculum and classroom environment.
Lyon also took exception with The Iowa Standard’s reporting of the meeting.
“When blatant lies are shared by rag media outlets with no intention of telling the truth — or setting it straight after they’ve been told — it damages credibility and trust in our community,” Lyon wrote on a Facebook post that she edited a handful of times. “This is intentional. It’s meant to divide our community and create mistrust in the public school system.”
Lyon said the session was an “optional session” for teachers only and was posted in staff bathrooms. The Iowa Standard originally quoted an individual who said the flyers were all over the walls in Waukee Elementary.
Amy Varcoe, the district spokeswoman, said the flyers are located in four staff-only bathrooms (no word if students who identify as staff are allowed to use those bathrooms just like boys who identify are girls are allowed to use girls’ bathrooms — OK, that was a bit of snark and sarcasm, but I had to…). Varcoe also said the principal had plugged the event in a staff email.
The individual who originally alerted The Iowa Standard to the flyer said it is posted in teachers’ areas, the teachers’ lounge and teachers’ restrooms.
Lyon, who reportedly told a parent in the district to sue the district over its lack of a mask mandate previously, said the session about the importance of LGBTQ and gender-inclusive curriculum and classroom environments was never open to the public.
“The session was simply intended to inform teachers on how to be more sensitive to students,” Lyon said. “Examples — at your house versus at your home — many children live in apartments, not houses — or calling children to line up by the color they’re wearing versus boy/girl.”
Lyon said teachers are “loving and supporting” children every day in public school and they demonstrate grace and acceptance in addition to how to be better humans.
“We’d all be wise to learn from that example,” she added.
Someone should tell Lyon if anyone is creating distrust of the public school system in Waukee, it is the public school system in Waukee.
If anyone is creating division in the public school system in Waukee, it is the public school system in Waukee.
Remember when a principal refused a USA day during homecoming week according to a parent?
Remember when the same principal tweeted out an article called “5 ways Trump perfectly mirrors Hitler’s rise to power?”
Remember when the Waukee superintendent defended a display in the main hallway of a school promoting LGBTQ activism?
Remember when the “Black Student Union” group was promoted at Waukee’s Northwest High School?
Remember when Waukee teachers were asking for preferred pronouns and doing some political proselytizing at the start of the school year?
Remember when a Waukee parent said she was told by the board president to sue the school over the mask issue?
Remember when the trio of sexually explicit books was found in a Waukee school library?
Remember when the district left signs up in bathrooms that instructed students not to say anything when members of the wrong sex/gender used the wrong bathroom?
Remember when the Waukee superintendent tweeted out that teachers need to make sure they’re communicating with legislators AGAINST Education Savings Accounts from personal accounts instead of school email accounts?
And there was this…
So, I don’t know… maybe it isn’t this “rag media outlet” causing the division or distrust or whatever in the Waukee School District — maybe it is the Waukee School District.
They seem to be doing a great job of it on their own.
