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Student and parents urge board to spell out "diversity, equity and inclusion"; student presents school recycling work
Summary
A seventh‑grade student described a new Green Team club and recycling projects; several parents urged the board to stop using the acronym DEI and to refer to the framework by its full name and to be explicit about which elements they oppose.
A seventh‑grade student and several parents used the Hudsonville Board of Education public‑comment period to press the board on environmental initiatives and the school district’s approach to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Tierney Brechting, a seventh grader at Baldwin Street Middle School, told the board she started a Green Team club to “protect the Earth and preserve its resources.” She described recent accomplishments including installation of a paper gator at Baldwin Street Middle School, recycling bins for cans and plastic bottles and a campaign to collect and recycle political signs for reuse. “We have connected and listened to the recycling director for Genesys and Hudsonville Schools,” she said, and asked the board to “consider the environmental impact of those choices.”
Emily Brechting, who identified herself as a parent with three students at the high school and one at the middle school, asked board members to use the full phrase “diversity, equity and inclusion” rather than the acronym “DEI” when discussing those topics in public meetings. “When you stop making it an acronym and are just using the letters D‑E‑I, it transforms the framework into a thought‑turning cliché,” she said. Brechting asked board members to be explicit if they object to any one part of the framework — diversity, equity or inclusion — so the community understands who would be affected.
Another parent who spoke during public comment echoed that request and urged the board to be specific when discussing diversity, equity and inclusion. She read definitions and noted district data she said show tangible counts of students who could be affected by changes: multilingual learners (she cited 169 students), students qualifying for free meals (1,067 students) and students with disabilities (849 students). She asked the board to be transparent about who would be helped or harmed by eliminating elements of DEI work.
The public‑comment speakers requested clear language and asked the board to ground any future debate in specific impacts to students and programs.
Ending Administrators and board members did not take immediate action on the requests during the meeting; the speakers asked that the board use the full terms in future discussions and to consider environmental impacts during decision‑making.
