School District's Pride Murals Under Attack by Far Right
This story was supposed to be about a notable California school system near San Francisco that opens students' minds by embracing LGBTQ-related themes district-wide.
But in a time when the LGBTQ+ community is often under political attack, before this story was published, it developed an ugly component, and of course, it involved Libs of TikTok.Castro Valley Unified School District Superintendent Parvin Ahmadi credits the school board for embracing the LGBTQ+ community and explains that the impetus for painting progress Pride flag murals on all 15 schools was a student request."Our board has always been very supportive, making sure that our LGBTQ+ students and families are welcomed and valued," Ahmadi says.Two students working with Castro Valley Pride approached school officials last year to request permission to paint a rainbow pathway from the Center for the Arts to Castro Valley High School, she says."There's a lot more than just the flags that are painted.
There's a lot of work around that," Ahmadi says.A group of parents and students work with the a coordinator in the school system to identify areas that educators and community members could uplift.
The group asks, "How do we make this more than just painting a flag and having people appreciate it?" she explains. "How do we do some real good work that is antibias and aligned with our obligation to combat the kind of racism, sexism, and other forms of bias and hate we encounter in our country?"Castro Valley Pride began raising funds, and the schools were given the choice of where each wanted to paint their flag.
