San Francisco School Board Spends Hours Debating Whether Gay Father Of Mixed-Race Daughter Is Diverse Enough For All-Female Volunteer Group

 


The San Francisco Board of Education spent two hours of their Tuesday night meeting debating whether Seth Brenzel, the white, gay father of a mixed-race daughter, was diverse enough for an open position on a parent advisory board currently occupied by only women.

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight reported the situation late Tuesday night (local time), writing on Twitter: “The SF school board tonight spent two hours talking about whether to allow a gay dad of mixed-race SFUSD kids to volunteer for one of several empty seats on a parent advisory group. Their problem was that he’s white and doesn’t bring diversity to the group.”


Brenzel was trying to get appointed to the volunteer Parent Advisory Council, which National Review reported currently has 10 regular members with five open seats as well as two open alternate seats. The 10 people currently on the council are all women: Two are African American, one is Asian American, three who were described at the meeting as “Latinx,” one Pacific Islander, and three white parents.“Commissioner Matt Alexander, a new board member and former district principal, noted the ‘underrepresentation of Arab, Vietnamese, Native American folks’ and ‘Chinese parents and Chinese-speaking parents.’ Alexander, who identified himself as ‘the lone white board member here,’ said it ‘seems like the white members are overrepresented on the P.A.C.’ About 15 percent of students in the district are white, according to the district,” National Review reported.

“I’m probably going to get complaints now I’m telling white parents not to be involved or something. I want to be clear, that’s not what I’m saying,” Alexander said, adding, “White parents also in the city tend to have a lot of privilege and power and access the board of ed in various ways.”

Much of the two-hour debate was filled with public comments, with many saying the council didn’t need another white person, even if he is gay, as other “voices need to be heard first before white queer voices.” Some even likened his appointment to “white supremacy.”

Many also defended Brenzel’s potential appointment, saying he would be the only male and the only member of the LGBTQ community on the council. One commenter reminded the school board that “there is diversity beyond the color of our skin.”

Brenzel, who runs a successful summer music school, was ultimately rejected for a position on the council, even though, as some commenters noted, there were still six open positions that could be filled with the desired ethnicities.

This is the latest example of wokeness from this particular school board, which has in just the past month endured heavy criticism for deciding to rename numerous public schools based on a historically inaccurate Google Doc, claiming acronyms are a “symptom of white supremacy culture” while replacing one acronym with another, and getting sued by the city itself for failing to develop a plan to return kids to school.

Seven hours into the meeting Tuesday night and the school board still hadn’t even mentioned any plans to reopen schools, Knight reported.


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