SD76 trustees make gesture of inclusion
The SD76 board of trustees used its first meeting of the school year, and final meeting before the municipal election on Oct. 16, to send out a message of unity and inclusion. Trustees all dressed in identical gray T-shirts that read “Diversity Is Strength.”
The T-shirts were provided by longtime trustee and former board chair Terry Riley, who is seeking re-election this fall alongside the other four SD76 incumbent trustees, Rick Massini, Catherine WilsonFraser, Deborah Forbes and Carolyn Freeman. Riley originally bought the T-shirts in wake of the Charlottesville incident, but felt their message was equally representative of the aspirations of the Medicine Hat Public School Division. “I am very grateful all my fellow trustees have shown up wearing the T-shirts,” said Riley. “We are lucky to live in a country where everybody is welcome and everybody is accepted, and that’s what this school division is about ... It’s quite simple. Every kid is equal and deserves an equal opportunity, and deserves to be protected in the same way as every other student.”
Board chair Rick Massini said he and all his fellow board trustees concurred wholeheartedly with Riley, and that’s why they chose to make this collective statement on the eve of the October election.
“It means we as a public school division acknowledge and commit to serving all students, regardless of their diversity,” said Massini.