“ My concious demands that I speak about this. As the only person sitting here at the dias who was originally elected by the people and not just appointed, I believe I speak on behalf of the people when I say that; it is our community and peoples will to do all we can to ensure the separation of church and state and to ensure that all of our kids feel safe, connected and welcome in our schools. I also believe strongly that what we are allowing life wise to do is wrong and harming our kids. The very kids I was elected to protect. Lifewise and it’s mission to bring white supremacy and Christian nationalism to our schools cannot be allowed to have access to our kids. Lifewise is explicitly supported by the Heritage foundation and its Project 2025 effort to turn our nation into a fascist theocracy. life wise and it’s far-right backers are involved in a battle for the very soul of our nation. And nationally, we are losing this fight. We’re losing against authoritarianism, against white supremacy, against Christian nationalism. But until the battle is Fully lost, and even after that- I will do all that I can to fight against it, because our kids deserve a brighter future. And as someone who attended one of the last remaining boarding schools still ran by the bureau of Indian affairs; I am all too familiar with the dark history that religious education has in this country, with its treatment of kids of color, of native kids, of LGBT kids. I am all too familiar with the attempts in the past and present by the white Christian majority to snuff out the cultures, religion and language of native kids and other kids of color. We cannot allow this religious brainwashing and bullying of non-Christian and LGBT kids to take place when we can do something to stop it. We must do everything we possibly can to protect our kids. And I wanna remind my fellow board members that standing idly by because our hands are tied when we could do something to try to stop this- that’s not leadership, it’s complicitness. Thank You”