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High school student urges board to oppose Department of Education guidance limiting DEI and program funding
Summary
Kaida Heggie, a North Hills High School student with disabilities, urged the board to fight Department of Education guidance she said would remove DEI programs and cut Title I and IDEA funding.
Kaida Heggie, a high school student at North Hills, used the board’s public comment period on April 10 to urge district leaders to oppose recent U.S. Department of Education guidance she said targets diversity, equity and inclusion programs and would cut federal funding.
Heggie identified herself as a straight-A student with a 504 plan and a GIEP (gifted individualized education program) and said the proposed actions would harm students who rely on those protections. “They’re attacking diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools when public schools are by definition diverse, equitable, and inclusive,” Heggie said. She warned that removing DEI programs or cutting Title I and IDEA funding “will not stop discrimination, but it will hurt people like me and my peers,” and urged the board to “fight for them and for students like me who they protect.”
Her comments were part of the meeting’s public participation period; the transcript records her remarks but does not show a formal board response on the record during the meeting. No board action was taken in response to the comment during the April 10 session.
The student framed her remarks around federal policy and funding; the board’s public comment rules and the district’s recording and social media notices were read aloud before the comment period.
