Dear Friends,
It's been a while since I've posted.
I never sought (or gained :-) a huge following when I was actively posting, and I'm not really looking for one now. Posting at my blog site was always and remains my way of not being silent about things that matter. There's never a guarantee of how many people will hear us if we speak or how many people will like what we have to say. But it’s certain that no one will hear and no one will benefit if we say nothing. And it’s certain that sometimes silence is complicity. For me this is one of those times for me.
This one's more than commentary I have to get off my chest; it's a call to action. If you are inclined, please share it as widely as you can.
The statement below is also posted on this change.org page. The ask there is simply for folks to stand up and be counted by adding their name as a show of support for the call to action.
I know that even that ask will lead some to experience unwelcome and complicated mixes of feelings of fight, flight, freezing, fawning, and all the feelings we feel when we're facing anything that feels like conflict. I guess we all do the best we can. I know we get where we get when we get there. If you haven't seen enough of the upstream raging river of violence that's currently crashing against the downstream banks of K-12 education, then --- I guess I don't know how to end this sentence.
If you can hear, see, feel the roiling toxic river rumbling towards our youngest learners, please consider acting. Acting might feel and, let's be honest, might even be unsafe one way or another. But, for sure, not acting at this point means colluding with the demise of safe schools for those who must inherit what we have done, will do, or won't do.
I don't have a "comments" section on my blog. I observe that they inevitably become spaces in which some people choose to misbehave. If you'd like to communicate with me directly about this post and this moment, please feel free to contact me -- but only if you have something in service of this action to discuss or offer.
The statement follows. Thanks for taking a look.
I hope you and your loved ones are healthy and hopeful in this winter we find ourselves in.
Peace and all it requires,
Carlos
_____________________________________________________________________________
A Call to Action to All K-12 School Leaders, Their Lawyers, and Every Advocate for Human Dignity: Do Not Comply with Orders that Erase, Mistreat, or Endanger Children
Dear Heads of School, Legal Counsel, and Advocates for Human Dignity,
We write to you at an urgent juncture in American education and public policy. Recent actions, such as the January 29, 2025, Executive Order mandating the removal of references to gender, equity, and inclusion in public health and education materials, represent a dangerous and profoundly unethical precedent with clear downstream consequences for K-12 education. These directives compel us to ask: What are we willing to stand for, and what are we willing to resist? We must not adopt an attitude of, “We don’t have time to worry about implications because of the speed of the deadline [to comply].” As stated by a CDC staffer ordered to commit acts of erasure.
This is not a partisan issue. It is not a question of party politics but of fundamental human decency and personal and professional integrity. These policies, when forced upon schools that educate and care for our youngest learners, will force educators into actions that contradict the core values of care, safety, and fairness that are foundational to the teaching profession and required to make learning possible. They require us to mistreat students by:
1. Erasing their identities – Denying the existence of certain students, such as those who are transgender, nonbinary, or otherwise marginalized, is not a neutral act or simple act of bureaucratic compliance. It is erasure, plain and simple. It tells those students that they are invisible, unworthy of recognition, and undeserving of inclusion – and it conveys that message to their peers.
2. Failing to protect them – Without acknowledgment of identity-based disparities, we cannot adequately protect students from harm, discrimination, or exclusion. This contravenes our legal and moral obligations to ensure a safe and equitable learning environment.
3. Ignoring legal and ethical obligations – Non-discrimination laws like Title VI, Title IX, and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment explicitly protect against identity-based mistreatment. These recent policies demand compliance with measures that violate these legal standards, threatening the integrity of our schools and the welfare of our students.
Jim Crow Redux
The past is not dead, it’s not even past. – William Faulkner
We see where this is going because we have been here before. The use of law to erase and oppress identity groups is not new. We have seen this playbook before in the Jim Crow era, when laws justified the systemic oppression of black-racialized Americans through “separate but equal” policies and other forms of institutionalized discrimination. These laws were cloaked in the language of fairness and public welfare, but their true purpose was to marginalize and exclude.
Indigenous people were forcibly displaced from their lands and subjected to assimilation policies that erased their languages, cultures, and identities. Women, before suffrage, were denied political representation and reduced to subordinate roles through systemic legal exclusion. Chinese immigrants were targeted with exclusionary laws, and financially impoverished people were often disenfranchised through poll taxes and other measures. Each of these examples demonstrates how the law has been wielded not to protect but to oppress under the guise of public interest.
Today, the erasure of data, resources, and protections for LGBTQ+ youth and others mirrors these historical injustices. As with Jim Crow, the rationale for these policies is thinly veiled bigotry, the belief that some people are more equal than others and should be treated accordingly.
We know the consequences of such policies. They lead to mental health crises, increased vulnerability to hostility, long-term social inequities, and loss of life. As noted in the very data these orders seek to suppress, nearly three-quarters of transgender youth report poor mental health, and one in five has attempted suicide. Erasure and exclusion are not abstract harms—they are matters of life and death.
The Call to Action
To every head of school, legal advisor, and advocate reading this letter: The time to act is now. The cataracts of bigotry are already crashing down on you, your teachers, and your students, and they will inevitably flood your school corridors and classrooms with a terrible confluence of fear, flight, freezing, fawning and all the feelings people experience when faced with a threat. We implore you to stem this tide and maintain the safe and stable operation of your school community by taking the following actions now:
1. Collaborate with legal experts – Prepare your schools to resist orders that contradict anti-discrimination laws and harm students. Prepare to engage in litigation if necessary to challenge policies that contradict educational integrity and undercut student safety.
2. DEI Integrity: Uphold your mission statements – Most school missions include commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion, and student well-being. Keep these commitments visible and vivid. Let them guide your actions, even and especially when under pressure to genuflect. If you think calling "DEI" something else or keeping your DEI work on the DL will spare you from the fray, you are grossly misunderstanding what's going on here. Dodging, ducking, and camouflage are not going to work. It's time to stand your ground.
3. Educate your communities – Share with staff, parents, and students the implications of these policies. Help them understand that these directives are not about protecting children but about erasing them.
4. Protect your students – Ensure that all students, regardless of identity, feel seen, valued, and safe in your schools. Just as you stand ready and practiced to protect your students from threats of fire and violent intruders, stand as a bulwark now against the forces of exclusion and discrimination. This is not a drill.
Statement like this often end with an admonition about how history will judge us by how we respond to this moment. Let’s be clear and avoid abstractions, the real live children who look to us to provide basic safety will and should judge us harshly for serving them up to those who would have them disappeared. When laws and policies are wielded to erase and oppress, we must have the courage to resist. We cannot allow a new Jim Crow to take root under the guise of patriotism or educational reform.
To support this call to action please add your name at
To every child in America: We see you, we value you, and we will fight for you.
To every school leader, we support you in doing the right thing, and we need you to do it right now.
This letter was written by Carlos Hoyt. Information about Carlos can be found at carloshoyt.com.
Comments