Yesterday, my opponent sent out an email that should be addressed.
As a former teacher, I’m disappointed that a School Board member would put such little effort into her work, and so I decided to correct and grade it.
Poor grammar and sentence structure as well as spelling mistakes aren’t the only reason that I give this email a failing grade. It’s surprising that a School Board member who is currently 3 weeks late in filing her June 30th finance report is sending a fundraising email. It’s very disappointing that she doesn’t model the kind of behavior we expect from our students.
The real problems with this email begin once you do even minimal fact checking, something we expect of our FCPS students.
Our School Board Member’s outrage appears to stem from two major points:
1) The idea that we would provide feminine hygiene products to elementary school children. In fact, she highlights that point 3 separate times. On average, girls start their period at 12 years old, so, yes, Mrs. Schultz, that means 4th, 5th, and 6th graders in elementary schools have periods!
2) The idea that a school would provide “free” supplies in the bathroom instead of the health clinic. In fact, she argues that “simply” walking to the health clinic works to build, “self-sufficient, resilient young women in society”. As any teacher can tell you, the process of a student going to the health clinic is anything but simple or discreet and certainly doesn’t help build self-esteem.
Other jurisdictions, even in Virginia, have been able to address this issue with more compassion and insight than our school board member cares to give.
Mrs. Schultz continues to state that she doesn’t know what equity means, and emails like she sent yesterday confirm that.
Please consider donating to help us make sure that all students get the resources they need to thrive in FCPS: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ljc-2019q3
We win this together,
Laura Jane
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