Farmington High School/Minnesota State High School League
A woke Minnesota high school is addressing comments from a school administrator, Vice Principal Laura Wagner, at Farmington High School. Wagner suggested staff to use their “straight, white privilege” to defend new gender neutral prom titles.
The school announced a decision to eliminate the titles Homecoming King and Homecoming Queen, renaming it a genderless ‘Homecoming Royalty.’
Alpha News reports, “The traditional homecoming court, which consisted of a king and queen, is being replaced by the term “royalty.” In years past the court consisted of 10 girls and 10 boys. This year’s “non-binary” court consists of 16 boys and six girls, parents said.”
On Thursday, about 100 Farmington students walked out of classes to protest the administration’s woke agenda.
About 100 students at Farmington High School walked out of class Wednesday in protest of an assistant principal who admonished her colleagues for their “straight, white privilege,” parents told Alpha News. https://t.co/5JDUTMMKG4
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) September 29, 2022
“I chatted with Tiffany Fearing about homecoming a bit and wanted to talk a bit about what our presence looks like at the parade and coronation as we switch to royalty instead of a king and queen,” Wagner began.
“Per usual we have some keyboard warriors who are making Tiffany concerned about student wellbeing. I think her concerns are valid, and I want to make sure we are showing up for her and our students,” she continued. “This would be a great time to use your straight, white privilege to reassure and support students and staff in doing what they believe is right for our school community.”
A parent who wishes to remain anonymous criticized the email, saying school administrators had a long history of pushing “an agenda” on parents and their children.
The Farmington school district acknowledged that the email was authentic in a statement to Fox News Digital, saying the school was addressing the matter.
“We are aware of an email that was sent to a small number of staff regarding the Farmington High School homecoming parade and coronation which is now circulating,” the school wrote. “We cannot comment specifically on this as it is a private personnel matter; however the district is addressing the situation. As a public school district, serving our whole community through providing safe learning environments is always our primary focus.”
In 2020, Wagner signed the Good Trouble Coalition pledge, alongside other Minnesota administrators, aimed at “dismantling racist policies and practices that exist within the state’s educational system.”
According to Kare11 News,
The “Good Trouble” coalition aims to “decenter whiteness” in school structures.
“We believe righting wrongs of generational educational injustice for children of color does not mean lowering standards for children of color. But holding to a high standard our children of color. And more importantly, holding ourselves to an even higher standard; a standard that says the educational successes and failures of children of color are the successes and failures of ourselves,” said Mauri Friestleben, principal of North Community High School in Minneapolis.
The following is an outline of goals the coalition aims to achieve, according to a press release:
- De-centering Whiteness. Understanding that traditional organized Whiteness ensures domination through forms like PTAs and Unions. We purposefully call out and lift up historically non-represented voices of color in our spaces to hold weight and power.
- Dismantling practices that reinforce White academic superiority like bias in testing and the labeling, tracking and clustering that reflect an Americanized version of a caste system in our schools.
- Reconstructing “school” upon our full in-person returns where business-as-usual, like schedules and staffing, are open to drastic changes. and engaging in that preparatory work now.
- Speaking truth to power. Where our commitment to holding ourselves and those who serve under us accountable to this work is just as importantly extended to those who serve over us.
