“Every pair of shoes that goes through those thresholds every day deserves protection.”
— South Western School District Board Director Amanda Weaver
A sad and unnecessary, but perhaps redeemable situation is playing out in real time at my alma mater, South Western School District in Hanover, Pennsylvania.
Paint me surprised to recently find the logo of my beloved alma mater in The Philadelphia Gay News.
Oh, how things have changed and gone sideways as of late.
Growing up in the 1980s, I marveled at how non-political our school board was.
Candidates routinely cross-filed, running on both the Republican and Democratic tickets. Partisan politics meant little, if anything.
There were much more important things to be concerned with, and directors deeply cared about creating a culture of student safety and health, vigorous opportunities, academic excellence and all-around growth and achievement. As did the teachers, administrators and staff.
Some of the teachers, including some I never actually had in class, changed my life forever.
They cared. They engaged. Their positive energy and talents encouraged, guided and empowered teens.
I thank my lucky stars for them. To this day, I love them.
I was fortunate, for the most part.
The district motto was, “A Good Place To Be.” And, for the most part, it was.
So much so that, as student council president, at the annual banquet before parents and administrators, I implored the school to change its motto to “A Great Place To Be.”
Of course, in the school’s culture, there were lapses, slights and bullying, as there were in society and in many schools at that time, and I’d imagine still are.
Also, although mostly positive and encouraging, and energized by mostly talented and committed administrators, educators and coaches, the school district of my youth, in retrospect, was generally homophobic and misogynistic.
But the bad back then wasn’t the same as the brazen, out-in-the-open, intentional bigotry exhibited by the majority of the current board now.
That’s a shame and disgrace because the district has come such a long way over its 60-plus years. It had a feeling of sustained momentum and, it seemed to me, a general spirit of “We’re all in this together.”
My mother Barbara graduated in the first class in 1961. Then, Mustangs, our mascot name, were called farmers, hayseeds and hicks.
We embraced being outsiders.
There was a sense of “us against the world.” Even a sense of family.
Add in our location, the extreme southwestern corner of the county just over the Mason-Dixon Line, there was and may still be an “edge of the world” spirit of grit, pluck, scrappiness and resilience.
A palpable sense of forwardness, that the district was continually getting better and better in its culture, academics, sports and extracurricular opportunities, permeated the place.
The majority of the current school board has arrested that forwardness, and brought the district a reactionary step backwards.
Each generation of directors, administrators, educators, advisors, coaches, parents and students has had to climb its own learning curve, or slide backwards.
The choice is always in the air.
Each generation has the opportunity to see a more aware, more educated, more experienced society outside, and then ask ourselves: “What community do we nurture here?” “What values do we instill, in accordance with our laws and all available knowledge?”
Also, each responsible generation of leadership must, if it has a strong conscience and nurturing spirit, asks itself, “What can we do to stop any child or youth on our watch to self-hate or commit suicide?
The overarching, guiding question, long-time South Western School Board President J. Robert “Bob” Wingert, who was a great friend, would say to me, is, “What is in the best interest of the students?”
I’d add the phrase “all the students.”
I pray and hope for the current school board directors, that they take pause to deeply reflect on these questions, and that they may take in decades of scientific, psychological and legal knowledge and precedent.
Let’s encourage them to take in the good advice of their superintendent and York County-based legal counsel.
Let’s pray and hope the directors, if just for a minute, close their eyes to stretch their imaginations to be in the skin of a queer, questioning, trans or any kind of youth.
Then imagine such a youth’s fears, emotions, concerns, challenges and potential. Imagine such youth as your brother, sister, child, neighbor, cousin, niece, nephew or grandchild.
See them as they are, growing kids trying to find their way, wanting what we all want — safety, a little respect, a little decency and kindness, and maybe even a feeling of belonging.
Board Director Amanda Weaver, who is in the minority, says it well: “We sit here to make policy to better the lives of all students, and all students is all students,” Weaver said. “Every pair of shoes that goes through those thresholds every day deserves protection.” Brava!
With goodwill and grace for all, let’s hope and pray her fellow directors figuratively walk a mile in every pair of shoes walking through those thresholds.
Let’s hope and pray they see that a more accommodating, identity-affirming, inclusive school encourages learning, respect, achievement, belonging and teamwork to flourish.
That way, all Mustangs can gallop into the future with gusto.
Only then will Southwestern School District once again be “A Good Place To Be” aspiring for greatness.
A 1990 National Honors Society graduate of South Western High School, where he was President of Student Council and KEY (Kiwanis Educated Youth) Club, Matthew Jackson (He/him/they), is the co-creator of THE VALLEY: People Power and Caring Communities in Pennsylvania, Chief Editor of the award-winning Heart of Hanover Trails, and Editor of the York County Pride Trail.