This is a petition to demand an amendment to the state law and school policy regarding student privacy. 

For decades, the district has had incident after incident of racism towards its students. And, for decades, the issue has been swept under the rug under the guise of “student privacy”. What that means, is that the district is NOT ABLE to discuss the details of any incident with the public. 

Now, under most circumstances, student privacy is important. The EXCEPTION to that is when a student is DANGEROUS. If they are responsible for a racist act, a racist threat, or a threat of harm to the student body/community as a whole - their NAME and PUNISHMENT must be public so that the rest of the community can have peace of mind. 

In the last two weeks we have had two VERY LOUD incidents that pose a direct threat to student/community safety. The first was the heinous, racist petition that was started at Park Hill South, and most recently, last night, threats of a school shooting at Lakeview Middle School, targeting students and staff. Snapchat messages discussing the “plan” contained racial slurs, adding context to the intentions of the criminals who were organizing this event. 

It is NO LONGER sufficient to make blanket statements promising “that the situation has been handled....” because IF the situation was handled, it would NOT be a decade long recurring issue in the PHSD. These are surface level solutions. These “solutions” allow leaders to “kick the bucket down the road...”. THERE IS NO ACCOUNTABILITY IN THAT. 

Students are only students for 8 hours a day, once they leave school, they are members of the community. And if they pose a threat to the community, we deserve to know who they are, and what is being done. 

Utilitarianism is, by definition, action that produces the GREATEST GOOD, for the GREATEST AMOUNT OF PEOPLE. And it is the districts responsibility to act in such a way that the greatest good is achieved.

Allowing the community, specifically minority families, to feel fear and uncertainty because the district is PROTECTING dangerous people IS UNACCEPTABLE and it will no longer be tolerated.

The result of these policies is a heightened distrust between the community and the district. Parents are removing their children from the Park Hill School District because they DO NOT TRUST that their students will be safe. Transparency on these issues is IMPERATIVE.  

WE pay taxes. WE pay the law maker’s and district leader’s salaries. WE deserve to know the SPECIFICS so that WE may MOVE ACCORDINGLY and have ALL of the information that WE NEED to PROTECT OUR CHILDREN. And together, we absolutely hold the power to demand CHANGE. 

Please join me by signing this petition so that legislators and district leaders may see how important it is to AMMEND the privacy policies that are out dated and no longer represent or serve the student body at all.