Devon Sweeney: Laconia kids deserve better than a sorry spectacle

To The Daily Sun,

I have been reading for months now about the Laconia School District. I find no admirable quotes, no thought-provoking questions, and certainly nothing substantial or worth arguing over.

When I was younger, I was made by my parents to go to church on Sundays. They taught a lot of things in that church that I didn’t feel was correct, just or truthful — but those teachings never made me less of a good person. They never made me hate. I was young and impressionable, but I knew what was right and wrong. My parents had enough sense to raise me to form my own opinions of the world, and understood that as I grew older, my opinions would become more informed and change with time.

Laconia parents, perhaps what must really be done is trusting and believing in your children. The chaos that has descended upon Laconia School Board is asinine. One person suggested that critical race theory was being pushed upon children through an afterschool program intended ONLY for teachers, and then suddenly the words were in everyone’s mouth. The first mistake was accepting information from someone who made an uninformed assumption, one that was not even in attendance at the event in question.

Every workplace has trainings in place to prevent harassment, discrimination, and workplace violence. If you have held a job at any point in your life, you’ve seen it. Every workplace needs preventative training, and every workplace needs to update their training as we learn more about how society interacts. You’ve probably watched the outdated films where men make suggestive comments at coworkers. If we don’t update these trainings and films, we imply things like "only men can sexually harass women."

The second mistake was assuming that one workshop would drastically change any political views of its attendees, and that in turn they’d be teaching these things to your children. The only standard the school hoped to have across the board was to ensure that no one feels as though they are treated unfairly because of their race. It’s important to remember that coronavirus severely swayed some evil Americans into violence against Asians. Updating discrimination training during the pandemic made sense.

I leave you all with this: what you force your children to learn, what school forces your children to learn, what religion forces your children to learn — those factors do not determine what makes a good American or a good human. What will affect your children is being surrounded by turmoil, by petty arguments, politically fueled failed school board meetings — your kids deserve better. Your time should be spent being a role model for your children. If you want to see your child learn how to be a good person, perhaps you should be setting the precedent for them. Is dragging this entire event out by three entire months really worth the embarrassing headlines? It’s time to move forward in a positive manner, and it’s time to trust in your children.

I believe in you.

Devon Sweeney

Belmont