By AlaskaWatchman.com

The Fairbanks School Board’s Diversity Committee is recommending that all school district employees be subject to mandatory training in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

A report to this effect will be delivered by the Diversity Committee to school board members at their Oct. 20 meeting.

“We recognize that mandatory DEI training may be seen as difficult or cumbersome,” the report states, before claiming that universal training must be enforced in order to ensure that discrimination is stamped out.

Nationally, training in DEI goes far beyond affirming that all people are created equal and deserving of equal respect and dignity. It often includes teaching staff and students to suspend all preconceived morals, beliefs and ideas regarding sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. The goal is to enable and accept all lifestyle choices. This typically includes requiring staff to affirm people in whatever sexual identity they demand. Failure to do so for personal or religious reasons can result in punishment.

The Fairbanks report lacks specifics, but calls for rooting out “micro-aggressions, and implicit biases in educational and professional spaces.” This will require “consistent, extensive, trauma-informed, and holistic educational approaches,” it says.

In order to ensure that future employees toe the district’s line with regard to diversity and micro-aggressions, the committee recommends continual evaluation of the district’s training, hiring procedures, curriculums, resources, regulations, and policies with “a better understanding of the implicit biases and inequities that still exist in our structures.”

The mandatory trainings are called “the first of many steps,” which will also include having teachers, students and others examine their “implicit bias.”

“This committee acknowledges this work is not easy and also that it is necessary if the district is to achieve its mission statement.”

Click here for information on how to provide public testimony at the Oct. 20 meeting. It starts at 6 p.m.

Click here to support the Alaska Watchman.

Fairbanks considers ‘mandatory diversity’ training for all school employees

Joel Davidson
Joel is Editor-in-Chief of the Alaska Watchman. Joel is an award winning journalist and has been reporting for over 24 years, He is a proud father of 8 children, and lives in Palmer, Alaska.


4 Comments

  • Daniel ODonnell says:

    Take GOD out of school and this is part of what you get.

  • Elizabeth Villalobos says:

    What does Diversity Have to do with reading writing arithmetic. Why aren’t parents speaking up?

  • Arthur S says:

    In business it is illegal to ask about race, color, creed, etc. government requires a report but we are not allowed to provide the information. If a white male identifies as a black female, I am required to report that to the government. If we are to be blind how is it that our government employees are to be taught to see?

  • Ethan says:

    This is great, it will help those kids that are bullied, also to the author of this article I noticed you put in alot of your own views into this. 1. its not a choice for those kids, two religious views are a choice and should be no where in school unless they are going to a Christian or other religious school. Next time try to keep your opinions out of your articles, poor taste on your part.