The Depths of Sexism and Misogyny in America

      On Saturday, January 23, 2017, the largest protest in history took place. Conservative estimates say that over 3 million people attended the historic Women's March in more than 500 cities across the globe to oppose proposed policies by our nation's next administration. Since then, I have seen many Republicans (and some Democrats) denounce and dismiss the march as a bunch of individuals who are just sore losers after November. I would like to argue that this is fundamentally not the case and that all women despite their political affiliation have a reason to march. Sexism and misogyny runs deep in this country and in some cases, it can be argued is just as far reaching as the issues we have surrounding race.

      First, I would like to explain the difference between the two words as they are often misused. Sexism is the discrimination or prejudice of someone on the basis of their sex while misogyny is ingrained contempt and prejudice against women. In essence, someone can be sexist without being misogynistic, but a misogynist is always a sexist.

      The 2008 Presidential election was the first one that I paid attention to. I was 17 and a senior in high school and just shy of being able to vote myself. In the primary, the Democratic party had two highly qualified candidates who ran: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Both were lawyers junior US Senators from progressive states whose nomination would be unprecedented in politics. Clinton won the popular vote then as well, but lost both the pledged delegates and got slaughtered in the super delegate vote. On paper, even then, Clinton had more experience (this coming from a huge Obama fan). She had spent 2.5 times as long as a Senator, spent 2 terms in the White House serving as the nation's first lady, and had more experience in law than Barack Obama. The problem is even most democrats don't attribute Obama's win in 2008 to sexism. Sexism in many cases is subtle in America, but it affects women in every facet of their lives.

      Misogyny and sexism is something that often goes unnoticed in our society, because it runs deep. It's universal across gender, religious, and racial lines as well. Misogyny happens in all sectors of society: conservative, white, black, Hispanic, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and even liberal people perpetuate it.

      Sometimes misogyny is glaring as evidenced by these pictures that my future sister in law shared after the march. Both of these were shared by conservative lawmakers, by the way:

         


      Then, there are times that it is more subtle. If we want to pull back into the realm of politics, in our most recent national election, we saw it deeply seeded in America. I spoke to friends about why they disliked Clinton and the first answer was never anything about her views or policies. It seemed that every answer pertained to either her demeanor, her husband's transgressions, or would call her dishonest without any additional reasoning. This on its own would be examples of subtle misogyny, but when compared to her opponent she was clearly held to a much higher standard. The man she ran against was estimated by political estimates to having said something "mostly false" or worse nearly 70% of the time on his campaign compared to her only 25% of the time. Additionally, her opponent was also accused of sexual assault and bragged of perpetrating it as well as reached a settlement in a fraud case while on the campaign and was still viewed with more favorable ratings.

      In our country, many are willfully ignorant to misogyny and sexism every day. As children, women are taught to not dress to scandalously so that they don't attract perverse attention from males. If they are sexually assaulted, the first question out of most mouths is, "What were they wearing?" It is evident in the fact that the futures of rapists are considered as having a higher precedence over the futures of rape victims. It is evident in the average $0.78 that women make to a man's $1.00 for doing the exact same work. It occurs when doctor's will not tie a woman's tubes when she decides that she does not want children without having a psych evaluation performed, but will complete a vasectomy without the same vetting. Misogyny in this country are catcalls that women have to endure from men on an ongoing basis (my first experience with this happened before I even hit puberty).

     I implore you to go to a store and attempt to find a modest amount of gender neutral clothing, sexism starts in the womb. We start teaching our youth that there are such things as "boy" toys and "girl" toys as toddlers. Sexism is occurring every time your razors are an additional 25% more money just because they're pink. Sexism is that moment that someone asks a woman if they are sick just because they didn't have time to apply makeup that morning. Prior to the implementation of the ACA, sexism was when women could be charged more for health insurance exclusively due to their gender. Sexism happens every time that a woman points out inequality they are met with people calling her whiny or ungrateful.

      It's easy to see why racism and religious discrimination enrages people. People understand why the Black Lives Matter movement is important. They can see that building a wall along our border is reminiscent of one that was torn down in 1989. They understand that registering a whole religion based on the actions of a few is a terrifying proposition and is contrary to our first amendment. Sexism has become so ingrained that it is normal to some people and its only the blatant instances of misogyny that go noticed.

      Every instance articulated above is a reason for every woman to march. It is not just polarizing issues that torment this country, but also the everyday ones that we have become so complacent to that they go unnoticed. The protests and political involvement must go on for our future generations, because the root of feminism is that women hold an equal place in society to men. We as women need to push for women with our own views to represent us in equal number to the number of men in our legislatures (hint: we need 30% more of them). We also need to support our male allies, because it is the unfortunate truth that until our representation is equal, in many cases, only other men will be able to convince their peers that there is an issue.

      In summary, if you have 2 X chromosomes, there is absolutely no reason to not support this movement. You deserve to have access to the same opportunities as every other human being on this planet.

To My Future Child

To My Future Child -

You have not even been conceived yet, but I fear for you in the world in which you will be raised. You will likely be born in a nation where half of the population will fight for your right to live in my womb, but does not anger at the thought of you being shot for stepping on someone's lawn while holding Skittles. Well, they would likely anger if it were you. See, in the world that you will be born into you will be born with a privilege provided to you just because of the amount of pigment in your skin. In our nation, your friends of color are twenty eight times more likely to be incarcerated than you are. People may question that statistic, but when seven times as many black people are in jail as white people and there are 4 times as many white people in this country as their are black people it is the truth. This isn't because they are inherently bad people. Your friends who were born with a darker skin color than you are more likely to receive longer, harsher sentences than you would if you committed the same crime. In the country that you will be raised, black people are statistically twice as likely to be shot by police even if they are unarmed. You will be born into a second wave of the civil rights movement because Martin Luther King Jr's dream has not been fulfilled.

I have mentioned guns. You will be coming into a world where in a 10 year span (from 2005-2015), only 71 Americans were killed by terrorists on U.S. soil, but 301,797 were killed by gun violence. It will likely still be easier for you to access and buy a gun than access mental health services. To a large portion of your country's population, the solution to this pandemic is not stricter gun regulations or background checks. They want to release more guns onto the streets. There are mass shootings daily, but they account for less than 2% of annual gun deaths. Gun owners are actually more likely to be killed with their own gun than to defend themselves with it. After 20 first and second graders were murdered at their school in Connecticut, it has become a tangible fear that I have for you. Sadly, you will have to learn how to hide and defend yourself from gun violence in kindergarten.

You will be raised to have strong opinions and that failure to speak out when you see someone marginalized is tantamount to being the perpetrator. You will be entering a world where your President might be a man who degrades women, minorities, and the disabled. Unlike his supporters, I hope that you don't stand silent when people do this because doing the right thing and standing up to bullies is a principle that needs to be woven back into the fabric of this nation. Please remember that to stand silent is to condone bigotry and that only lowers others opinion of you.

Speaking of women being degraded, if you happen to be a baby girl, you will statistically be paid $0.70 to a man's dollar for doing equal work. You will come into a world where if someone sexually violates you, the consideration of your rapist's well-being and future may outweigh your well-being and future. If someone violates you, society's first reaction will generally be one an inquiry of what you are wearing or about how much alcohol you drank last night rather than outrage. You will be born into a culture that doesn't teach men not to rape, but tells women that they must learn how not to be. If you were to be impregnated by this potential rapist, a large percentage of the people around you believe that you should be forced to bring the baby to full term. They would rather you walk around for 9 months with a tangible reminder of the horror that was inflicted upon you.

Many of those same people who would vilify you for making the choice not to bring a child to term due to not being financially, mentally, or situationally ready are also proponents of eliminating the welfare system that makes sure that children have access to healthcare, housing, and food. They say that there is never a good time to have a child, but don't have the awareness to see that there may be a bad time. Those who vilify abortions simultaneously promote (perhaps unknowingly) forcing women to bring their offspring into poverty or abusive situations where the resources to care for the child are absent.

Sadly, you will know people who fly an American flag in front of their home and tout Patriotism at every turn, but who did not find it important enough to vote individuals into public office who protect the men and women who risked their lives on 9/11 at Ground Zero protecting this country by voting for the First Responders Bill. You will know people who don't cry in outrage when they see homeless veteran's on the street not being taken care of by the nation that they so boldly defended.

It saddens and terrifies me that you will be coming into a world that is still this ugly. Luckily, not everything is bad and progress has been made. In the last year and a half, you will now be able to love and marry whomever you wish. Unfortunately, if you are a member of the LGBTQ+ community, you will still have more obstacles than your straight, cisgender friends. There is still so much bigotry in this world. This year, 49 people were gunned down in a nightclub for just being who they were. There are still people in this country actively working to repeal rights from this community. I truly hope that no matter how you identify that you understand the importance of everyone having the right to love who they want and realize that it is a fundamental human right.

I hope that you know that compassion, empathy, and a willingness to work hard are traits that outweigh any others on your path to success. I hope that you know that you have the right to make your own choices in this life. I hope that you make the important ones that you approach the situation from all viewpoints to ascertain the choice that not only benefits you, but the world around you the most. I hope for this because that is what will make you a contributing member of society.

Your religion and beliefs will not be dictated for you, but you will be expected to be able to defend them. Your father and I will not be disappointed if you choose to be a Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or Atheist. I hope that you come to your own conclusions and find your place in the world. I hope that you know that even though you will be surrounded by this madness, that you will be loved and cherished by a family who wants nothing more than to see you succeed in spite of the world that surrounds you.

Love,
Your Future Mom

One-Step World Peace

            I would like to tell you about how we could achieve world peace in one-step. I understand that you may think that I am clinically ill for proposing that I have a solution for world peace that is only one tiny step. I mean it has been an elusive concept for millennia.  How can it be as easy as one step? It is a simple yet mind-bendingly difficult concept. It boils down to how you think of yourself and how you react of others. By applying this concept to our daily lives, our dyadic communication, our organizations, our nations, and all the way up to our world, we take steps towards making this world a better place. I’m going to focus on the first three places I mentioned: self, individual communication, and within an organization. If we can apply this to just those three we could virtually eliminate the need for risk management and undoubtedly increase our retention within Alpha Phi Omega. Now, I’ve been hyping this up without telling you my secret. The secret to a better environment is simply empathetic listening. Now, bear with me for just a few minutes and I will explain. Most of us know how to listen, but with that we have a learned set of biases that influence what we hear and interpret. We have a unique set of filters that create our personal reality: culture, language, values, beliefs, attitudes, expectations, intentions. Because no one has the same perceptual set, no one has the same reality. I’m not saying that everyone should be psychiatrically admitted. In order to succeed at interpersonal communication you have to be aware of not only your own filters, but the filters of those around you. By applying empathy and understanding to why someone thinks the way they do, you can better succeed in finding a solution that pleases both parties.

In order to be successful, the most important aspect is having a true sense of self and acknowledging your personal biases. For this I’m going to recount some of my own perceptual filters and how they affect my reality. It is an example of why I will see the world differently than every other person in this room. I grew up in a home with divorced parents, one of whom revealed he was in fact gay when I was 9 years old. I grew up in the Catholic Church and then denounced it when my priest told me at age 11 that I was a bastard child who would never find Heaven. I’ve been in situations of sexual and physical violence and experienced episodes of major depression. But even with those factors, I have a wonderful set of friends and family who encourage me in everything that I do. Can you see how my perceptual filters would cause me to see the world differently than other people? I encourage you to think about what some of your perceptual filters are because understanding what affects your interpretation skills will help you look past your personal biases, see situations from multiple perspectives, and embrace post formal thinking. Next time you find yourself getting angry or vehemently in support or against something, I urge you to reflect on what experiences and conditions have led you to that response and consider what perceptual filters people who might disagree with you might have. Considering the perceptual filters of others is what will truly lead to a sense of harmony in your life, so let’s move on to dyadic communication.

                The first step to applying this concept is through dyadic communication, or communication between two parties. Remember, everyone has their own reality and it will inevitably be different than yours. When someone expresses a sentiment that you disagree with, remember there is a reason that they think that way. Their reason is dictated in the same fashion yours was: through their individual experiences. For example, if you recall from my above example, I had a gay father and I have denounced my religion. As a result, I am very passionate about gay rights: a hugely controversial subject in society right now. I also know people who are vehemently opposed to the idea of two men or two women being married. I will never agree with them because I interpret not only their Bible, but my moral compass in a different fashion than they do, but I do have the ability to consider why they might think the way they do. What could influence them to believe that gay marriage should not happen?

·         How they personally interpret the Bible

·         Fear of Rejection by important parts of their life

·         External influences:

o   Church

o   Family Beliefs

o   Beliefs of Friends

We must remember that people are a product of their surroundings. Their biases are learned and they were not born with them. We must understand that getting angry at someone for their beliefs is not productive. Instead try to utilize empathy and see the situation from their perspective. In some cases, you might see the situation in an entirely new light and learn something from the experience. Approach every interaction you have with an open mind and the results could surprise you. Our goal should be a healthy understanding of one another in order to cultivate respect. When this mutual respect and understanding can be achieved on both sides, both parties can universally walk away better than when they first encountered.

Now, we can move on to the organization. Your committee, chapter, section, region, and the national organization as a whole are all dyadic communication on a larger scale. There will always be disagreement as to what is best for the organization going forward. Make it a goal to check your filters when approaching a problem and consider the filters of others. Acknowledge why you think the way you do before engaging in an argument. Be empathetic and listen to why others feel the way they do. This will lead to a decline in tension. This decline in tension will often lead to you being a happier individual as well as the individuals surrounding you to be happier. Approaching things in this way creates the highest probability that a solution that is acceptable to everyone is met. When the organization as a whole is happier, the issue of retention lessens and the need for risk management virtually ceases to exist because the group is functioning harmoniously.

Speech Prezi

There is No Excuse for Stupidity

      The culture that is New York City and the rest of the East Coast is unlike anywhere else in the country. Growing up in its shadow has certainly contributed to who I have become as a person. As a child, I thought that attending various dinner parties and spending the afternoon at the yacht club swimming and sailing on Long Island Sound was something everyone had the opportunity to do. If you didn't know the difference between port and starboard by the time you were five, you were considered a dunce. In a way, the existence from an outward prospective can seem extravagant, but in Larchmont, it's what everyone seemed to do.

      This culture trickles down from an attitude that I think more of society should take in life. When you visit New York and the people I have grown up around, you will not find an ignorant person. People who live here can be seen as a little conceited, pompous, and haughty at times, but you would be hard pressed to find someone truly oblivious to the world around them. 

     There is no shortage of intelligent banter that occurs in this what some might consider a socialite type of atmosphere. Everyone I know reads current events, is capable of holding intelligent conversation, and is interested in pursuing learning, no matter what their age. There is a certain level of social engagement that is expected of you here. It is amazing to just sit and listen, because everyone has an opinion that they are willing to back up with a reason for them. I find it refreshing that I heard a 16 year old chime up in the middle of a conversation about 4th century Christianity and Judaism and have an interesting comment to add to the conversation.

      I honestly wish that more people would prescribe to this style of living. If everyone was as socially engaged as this small circle of people that I have grown up around, the world would be a much more progressive place. People should feel that it is their responsibility to stay informed. It is alarming that a lot of children in Westchester County, New York are more informed about politics than most of American adults, but it's downright alarming that they are probably more insightful than many members of Congress.

      Everyone should take a leaf out of these peoples' books and pick up a book and tune into a news station once in a while. The prerequisites to become a citizen of this country should be ingrained in the minds of those born here. If you haven't bothered to read the Constitution and learn the more important points of at least the country's history and preferably the world, make it your mission to do so. If you have no idea the difference between a Shi'ite and a Sunni or what is going on in Syria, read up. 

      It has always surprised me that ignorance is not listed as one of the deadly sins. If you were to look at most atrocities happening on this planet, it always boils down to ignorance. The first step to making this world a better place for the next generation is to be informed about what makes this world a shitty one. Ignorance is not bliss. Picking and choosing passages of different texts, sacred or legal, and taking them out of context or ignoring the others is morally corrupt. Your beliefs and morals should not blindly replicate those of your parents. The only way for progress to occur is to expand your knowledge base and create your own. 

      I'm not saying to abandon what your family and friends have molded you to be, but you should expose yourself to as much of the world as possible. Drink it all in because the educated are who make it far in the world. If you look at history, the go-getters are the ones to enact the change. The phrase, 'I don't care,' was not in their vocabulary. Think of your biggest role model or someone you most admire in the history books, did they blindly follow the crowd or did they try to look at the world a bit differently? It really comes down to the fact that you have to be the change you want to be in the world and in order to do so effectively, you have to be educated.

I am pro-life, anti-gay marriage, and pro-guns.

      I am pro-life, but only when it concerns myself. When it concerns another human being, I will relinquish that viewpoint in concern to myself and support whatever choice they may choose when it concerns their own body. I say this with the stipulation that the abortion is performed within the legal amount of time after conception or if the pregnancy becomes life threatening to the mother after the legal window closes. I have this political stance because I believe a child should come into this world and be cared for by people who truly want them. If a mother wants to get an abortion, she does not want the child. No child should ever be born into an environment in which it is not wanted. People retaliate to this saying that the parent should choose adoption. There are so many children in the foster system already. In the US, there are approximately 100,000 children of all ages waiting to be adopted. I feel it is only fair to give them a home to call their own.

      I am anti-gay marriage, but only when it concerns myself. I do not have any future plans to marry a woman, mostly because I like boys (a lot). Anyone else who wishes to marry someone who has the same naughty bits as them though, go for it. Love is love, everyone deserves the right to be happy. People say it is against the teachings of the Bible. Number one: No, butt sex is against the teachings of the Bible. Number two: So is divorce, eating shellfish, playing football, tattoos and working on Sunday, but most of America does those things any way. Besides, marriage is a contract with the government, why does religion have anything to do with it? For those people who harp on the fact that marriage is an institution meant for procreation, then, why are post-menopausal women and infertile people allowed to wed? Return to the previous paragraph, there are so many children in need of homes: adoption is a wonderful option (FOR ANYONE who can provide a stable loving home, including the gays). Also, I'm pretty sure that babies magically happen out of wedlock, for supporting evidence: turn on MTV.

       I am pro-guns, but only in the case that the people operating them have thorough training and background checks. It should not be easier to purchase and own a gun than to get mental healthcare assistance. I also believe that there is no need for a civilian to have an assault rifle or for them to have high capacity magazines, let's leave those to our military. There is also a time and a place for using and carrying guns. Places where guns are outright fun and great to have: while hunting and in public places such as schools. All these activists wanting to arm school teachers, do you really want teachers to have immediate access to a gun while dealing with your terrible children? You might want to rethink that.

       I like to think that if another person's choices are in no way harming others, then they should be free to continue making those choices. The world is a better place for everyone when people are not trying to oppress others because they do not wish to live the exact same way that they do. This is the United States that we are living in, we were founded on freedom and equality, let's practice it.

What is Normal?

      There are a lot of people who like to remind me on a regular basis that I am not normal. Actually most of the time, they just like to laugh at my completely different set of morals and quirky behaviors. There is one fact that I do know: there is no such thing as normal, just varying degrees of weird. I know my life experiences aren’t anywhere near normal and I’m perfectly at peace with that. I like to think my childhood has given me an undeniably unique perspective on life. I grew up in world of contradictions. I lived in two very different worlds. It all depended upon which parent I was with. I had a mother who raised us in the conventional manner. She kept us in multiple extracurricular activities and brought up children with stellar grades and who were expected to have matching manners. She brought in the degree of stability that every child needs. She excelled as a single parent and performed better than many children brought up in a unified household. There is no question that she is the person in my life that I most look up to and I will count it as my greatest accomplishment in life if I can be half the mother she has been.

     Even under the care of such a wonderful human being, most of my quirks and truly influential moments come from the less stable part of my life. My father was a wonderful man who loved his children to a fault, but stability was not his forte. The safe reason for that was he could barely take care of himself let alone three children on his own. My mother did a lot for him while they were married. Looking back, I see now that those ten years were like caring for four children rather than three.

      My father was all book smarts and had absolutely zero common sense. He didn’t know how to clean a house or how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Marching to the beat of his own drummer was an understatement. He didn’t seem to realize that you must set limits when it comes to your children and that there is a level of appropriateness in what your children should and should not know at a young age.

For example, here are some examples that others might call missteps in parenting:

• Allowing your 10 year old to watch Silence of the Lambs
• Leaving your sex toys and porn within view of your 12 year old
• Allowing your 14 year old to steal the neighbor's dog
• Buying your 16 year old handles of 100 proof vodka
• Offering your 17 year old marijuana

      The saddest part of this coin is he probably did all of this as a way to spite my mother, because each action was fronted with the promise that we wouldn’t tell her. Even with these mistakes, some of the things he introduced me to, I feel that everyone should be aware of. When my father came out of the closet, I learned about an entirely different culture. Interacting with the gay community has given me the chance to develop a much more open mind than I would have had by never leaving my sheltered bubble in Springboro, Ohio. My father decided to maintain a residence in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Dayton for when he was in Ohio. It was not uncommon to hear gunshots or to meet people who did not have as lucky a home life as I was blessed with. My father was heavily involved in animal rescue and I got to experience the rehabilitation of severely abused animals as well.  I was thrown into a radically liberal atmosphere from a somewhat conservative one after my parents divorced. At 17, I became involved enough in politics that I decided to work the election. This is a direct result of my experiences with my father and the community with whom he surrounded himself.

      All this said, my father was a very good man despite all of his faults and there are a great number of people who will attest to that. When the people he was closest to look at me, they see him. I, personally, like to think some of my best attributes came from him. I got my love of service, animals, and people from my father. I have developed his overwhelming confidence and knack for anything academic and I, like him, would go to the ends of the Earth for someone I love.

      Overall, my childhood was hallmarked by interaction with opposite spheres of society and these experiences ultimately complimented each other enough to get me a uniquely well-rounded childhood. I lived so many fronts. I got to grow up in a yacht club, an affluent suburb, and a ghetto. I got to grow up in a traditional structured household and an alternative one. I got to grow up in a conservative town and a liberal city. I have lived with the underrepresented and politically undermined and the people who have societal influence. I got to experience it all because my father didn’t always play by the rules and had no problem forging his own path. Some people may say that I had a screwed up childhood; I like to think it was exquisitely eccentric.

Panther Pride

      Springboro, OH: The town I grew up in has been in the news a lot lately in regards to the practices and policies being implemented by its Board of Education. National media outlets have highlighted it decision to bring the possibility of teaching creationism to the table. They continue to have the proposal on the table even after intervention of the ACLU for the infringement upon First Amendment rights. A school board member has stated that he wishes to allow teachers and staff to carry weapons on school grounds. The school board is also anti-levy and has been systematically attempting to take away the teachers union's collective bargaining power and faculty and staff benefits.

      As an alumni of the school, all of this deeply saddens me because the staff within Springboro Schools is a group of outstanding educators who put the children they teach first. These Board members are doing what seems to be everything in their power to make the district a place in which it is unattractive to work. During the recession, the teachers took temporary pay reductions and cuts in benefits, but the continued withholding of these benefits is ultimately what will become a detriment to the students because these quality educators will leave the district in search of better jobs.

      I believe in being an educated member of society, an attribute that I developed during my time as a student in this district. So after all the outcries I have been hearing from my hometown, I decided to take a look at the proposals that the Board of Education and Springboro Education Association are proposing as edits to the current contract. What I found supports the argument that these educators are not asking for anything lavish. In fact, the majority of their demands are for the benefit of their students. Furthermore, from my interpretation of the Board proposals, I found many instances in which the Board is protecting itself and eliminating benefits to not only the educators, but also their students.

Springboro Education Association Proposals

Board of Education Proposals

Here are the highlights from the demands that the SEA is making to the Board of Education:

• they are asking for things that benefit the children they are teaching
• reduced class size
• uniformly disbursed skill level of students
• uniformly disbursed IEPs
• the salary they are asking is actually less than the average cost of living for the area and not excessive
• Cost of Living: Dayton Area
• they are asking for fair evaluations and have an outline for them that is structured to promote student achievement 
• the entirety of their proposals appears to be not only for their protection but also for the protection of their students by attempting to provide them with a quality education
• only excessive request I found was the proposal for one delayed day a week

In contrast, here is what I attained from the Board proposals:

• the board proposals seem to be aimed at protecting their position within the system
• they added a portion in which the union cannot advocate for or against a candidate through the schools to their union members
• they want to eliminate the evaluation system
• want to retain the ability to bring in an employee from outside the school district over employing someone already qualified within it who knows the students
• taking away protections such as family and medical leave
• cutting back on class planning time in the day
• taking away class size caps
• making caps on health insurance coverage that do not take inflation and rising healthcare costs into account
• eliminated all professional development and tuition reimbursement
• there is a new article eliminating collective bargaining for the length of the contract whilst other portions give the board to change parts of the agreement based upon available funds

      When you analyze the sides in this collective bargaining battle, you begin to truly see where each side stands. The educators of this school are notorious for standing up for their students and going above and beyond to see them succeed. The school board is filled with people who have higher aspirations in life that have nothing to do with this school districts.They preach financial responsibility as one of them files for bankruptcy. They do not care about the students in this district; they care about a bottom line and it is transparent in their proposals.

      I personally still have a very large vested interest in the policies and quality of this school district. Not only am I an alumni, but I also still have a sibling at this high school. I want for him the same experience that I got while at Springboro High School. I want him to have the same teachers who greatly influenced who I am today and helped me reach excellent heights in my academic achievement. These people whose benefits the Board is trying to restrict are some of the most influential people in these children's lives. They are also people who care about the kids they are teaching and go to great lengths to see them succeed. The community should be standing behind them and not allowing the Board to ruin this school district by driving them away. This is why I will be changing my voting precinct back to Springboro for the next School Board election. I believe that this community should be putting their children first, because this is a city which people come back to generation after generation to put down roots. These kids are the future of society and they need the quality educators to make sure they are prepared to thrive within it.

Petition Against Springboro School Board