For Immediate Release
April 27, 2023

On May 3, 2023, the SPEAK VT committee will host its second of three community forums. This forum will be held at Holy Family Parish Hall on Lincoln Street at 6 p.m.

SPEAK is an acronym for “Students, Parents, and Educators for Achievement through Knowledge.” This committee is a group of Essex residents that have grown increasingly concerned with the direction of our EWSD schools.

In particular, the group is alarmed at the implementation of the “Equity” policy and its implications. The result has been an extraordinary focus on politics, race, gender and sexuality for children as young as kindergarten. Social Emotional Learning is being rolled out across the district to coerce children into conformance with the equity policy. Meanwhile, academic performance seems to have fallen off the priority list, and per pupil cost seems to be skyrocketing, yet under-reported. Under all, the rights of parents in the raising and educating their own children is being undermined by our schools.

The three forums hosted by SPEAK VT are focused on the following:

• What is happening in our schools? (March 22, 2023)
• Why is it happening? (May 3, 2023)
• What can we do about it? (May 24, 2023)

These forums are intended to raise awareness to the citizens of Essex, but these issues are hardly unique to Essex. There seems to be an explosion of concerned parents across the country; and “equity” is at the core of those concerns. This suggests that these changes are being driven centrally and disseminated across the country. Christine Stone, a former Essex resident, has done a very deep dive into the origins of these policies and the methods employed to implement them. We need to know what we are dealing with before we can plan to shield our children from it.

This forum is planned for 90 minutes and is open to all. There will be ample opportunity for community comments. More information may be found on the web site.