Group forms, unhappy with conservative school efforts
SARASOTA — The mission is to protect public schools: Students, teachers and parents.
A group of residents concerned about the behavior at recent school board meetings have formed a coalition called “Take the pledge to stand up for Sarasota and Manatee County public schools.”
“We are uniting with leaders across the community and asking that they come to the meetings and voice their opinions about what is best for the students,” said Jules Scholles, founder of Support Our Schools at a Zoom workshop Tuesday.
The public was invited to the meeting to join representatives of 16 area nonprofit organizations to discuss a plan of action.
“We just formed in November, so we are just starting out,” Scholles said. “We are asking people to sign the pledge and take action. Let’s stand up for high quality, equitable education for all students.”
Carol Lerner, chair of Protect Our Public Schools, said the coalition is focused on Manatee and Sarasota counties, and leaders will be launching two similar yet separate campaigns.
“We thought it was time to do something,” Lerner said. “Our guideline is the group has to be nonpartisan. It’s time to stop with the politics at the schoolboard meetings. Groups like Moms for Liberty and Unmask Florida are creating chaos locally. They are taking parental rights and distorting them.”
Lerner said the mission is to turn the focus around and have civil conversations at the meetings.
“The mission of the school board is to constantly perfect the education system, and these groups are attacking that goal,” she said.
Angela Wynn, co-founder of SOS, spoke up for a group of concerned moms.
“We felt like we were always on defense at the meetings,” Wynn said. “Our vision was to build a coalition to outshine those who seek to damage public schools. We have created an online platform to support our public schools when they are being attacked.”
Lois Wilkins, chair of the African American Cultural Resource Center, said she wanted to speak up against banning books in schools.
“One of the missions of Moms for Liberty is to remove books from libraries — some are books authored by Martin Luther King,” Wilkins said. “We are standing very firm that the removal of these historic documents does not happen.”
Lynne Yeannakis, a member of Peace Education and Action Center, said she’d like to see more respectful conversations at the meetings.
“Our mission is to build a more just and peaceful community,” Yeannakis said. “We need to prepare our young people to be good citizens and we must teach accurate history and how to have two-way conversations.”
Endorsing organizations of the coalition include:
Support Our Schools,
Sarasota County NAACP
Manasota ASALH (Association for the Study of African American Life and History)
Brady Sarasota
ALSO Youth
Modern Marimba
Suncoast Women of Action
Newtown Nation
The Nation Group
Center for Religious Tolerance
Suncoast NEA
Social Justice Committee of the UU Church of Sarasota
Lean on Me
Peace Education and Action Center
Manatee Indivisible
“History shows that when we work together across our differences, we can accomplish great things for ourselves, our loved ones, our neighbors and especially our children,” Scholles said.
Original Article found here
By Sue Erwin, YourSun.com
January 19, 2022