Punxsy school board shoots down Safe Space stickers
PUNXSUTAWNEY — Members of the Punxsutawney Area School Board voted 6-3 Tuesday to stop teachers from displaying Safe Space stickers given to them by the high school Gender and Sexuality Alliance club.
David Wachob, Lisa Mennetti, Katie Laska, Matt Kengersky, Chad Pearce and Deneen Evans voted in favor of the ban, while Robert Cardamone, Cindy Depp-Hutchinson and Janey London voted against it.
“There’s some (teachers) that want the safe stickers and there’s some that don’t, so you’re subjecting our teachers to segregation and saying that this teacher that doesn’t have a safe sticker is one that the kids shouldn’t go to,” Laska said as board members debated the motion.
The issue first arose at Thursday’s committee meeting, after the board received a letter from Rose Handyside, on behalf of the Punxsutawney Republican Club, raising concerns about the GSA club’s initiative. The club made Safe Space stickers available to teachers who wanted them and distributed brochures explaining the purpose.
Handyside, addressing the board during the public comments section, repeated an invitation to board members to attend a Punxsutawney Republican Club meeting on Thursday to further discuss the topic. She said two members had committed to doing so.
The Safe Space program was not on the agenda for Tuesday, but near the end of the meeting, Mennetti made a motion that it be added, which was seconded by Laska. All board members with the exception of London voted in favor.
Mennetti said, “I stand firm that all classrooms and teachers should be deemed safe. If there’s any student that truly feels unsafe, I believe that’s a district problem.”
However, she objected to a portion of the brochure regarding gender identity, calling it “false.”
“There are two genders,” she said. “As a public school, we’re doing a disservice to the taxpayers but more importantly to our students if we allow this kind of information to be told. I just think that’s going to be a disaster for the mental health of future generations.”
She also said any conversation about personal matters a student has with an employee of the district should be shared with the parents.
Heather Good, the faculty adviser to the GSA club, spoke more about its history and the Safe Space initiative. She said the club was formed in 2015 by students who saw a need for it. She took over as faculty adviser in 2019.
She said the idea for giving stickers to teachers on a voluntary basis emerged as club members discussed their goals in their first meetings of the
school year. It was around November that they decided to pursue the matter. They sought and received administrative approval, and club members then designed the stickers and gave the brochures to teachers.
“At that point and at no point since then were there any objections to the stickers brought to me directly or to any member of the GSA,” Good said.
She also cited some findings from the Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, including that 45 percent of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year, but that those who reported their school as LGBTQ-affirming and especially those who reported their community as such had lower rates.
“I am very invested in helping all of our students, including our LGBTQ students, feel safe, secure and supported in our school,” Good said. “This is not about politics, not about religion, not about secret indoctrination. This is about meeting students where they are and offering them a place free of judgment and full of respect.”
During board discussion, Kengersky said it was important for schools to have a neutral environment, and expressed concern that the program would divide students. He said he didn’t think teachers should have any stickers or posters promoting clubs or other groups.
Laska said teachers are there to educate, and the school has hired social workers to deal with deeper issues. She also said students should know that they can go to all of their teachers, not just the ones with stickers.
Cardamone did not think that was always the case. “I think that’s an ideal,” he said. “I think this school is a representation of our community, and I don’t think our community is necessarily a totally safe space.”
He expressed an openness to voting to ban the sticker program if someone proposed an alternative, fearing that teachers would not necessarily have the expertise to help students with these issues.
“I think we ought to be very open and very visibly identify that we are a safe place when you walk right in the building, and on there it ought to say that if you do feel unsafe, see one of the following,” he said.
London was supportive of the program. “I feel like a lot of people are out of touch with how schools are … I don’t think it divides anyone,” she said. “I think it gives students a place to go.”
Depp-Hutchinson noted that the club brought the idea to the administration, “and they recommended it as a good thing.” She said she supported administrators and trusted their judgment.
There was a large crowd in attendance for the meeting, but only a handful of speakers, most of whom were supportive of the Safe Space stickers.
They included teacher Alicia Weaver, who said she had posted one of the stickers on her door.
“I listen, I validate and I support all students who come to me with various issues,” she said, giving examples that ranged from academic struggles to teen pregnancy and homelessness.
She also expressed her belief that the stickers, while tailored to LGBTQ students, are helpful to the entire student body, as they indicate a teacher is approachable and willing to assist.
A former student, Louise Bennett, was also supportive. She objected to a statement at the previous meeting that students’ pronouns should not be affirmed. She too cited statistics from the Trevor Project study, specifically the one conducted in 2020, which showed that transgender and non-binary youth who reported having their pronouns respected by all or most of the people in their lives attempted suicide at half the rate of those who did not.
“I don’t want to see the kids in our school district die,” Bennett said. “I really don’t.”