City Honors Fired Transgender Teacher After Emery School District Balks
Introducing Steve Dain Drive
School Board Digs In Its Heels Against Honoring Its Fired Teacher
The City of Emeryville has announced it will officially change the name of 47th Street to Steve Dain Drive on March 5th when employees from the public works department add the new signs to the existing street sign posts. Both the old street name and the new name will be posted for a period of 18 months the City reports but they will start calling the street by its new name in March. Only the portion of 47th Street West of San Pablo Avenue will get the name change.
In an announcement made last May, the City took on the task of honoring the late Steve Dain, a teacher at Emery Unified School District who was fired by the district in 1976 after he surgically transitioned from a woman to a man. City Council members expressed anguish that Emery School Board members had stopped a grassroots drive last year to honor the teacher the district had fired for “immorality” and it was suggested the City could act on its own by renaming the street, correcting the historic wrong.
The district’s high school is located on the future Steve Dain Drive, the same school where Mr Dain taught 45 years ago. The AC Transit bus yard is the only other entity that will have a Steve Dain Drive address.
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| School Board President Brynnda Collins Refuses to comment regarding the district's role in the firing of its transgender teacher for "immorality". |
The City Council took over the job of acknowledging Mr Dain after the School Board reversed themselves upon having made an initial move towards naming their newly remodeled gym for the fired teacher. Since then the Board has reneged on a plan to pass an official resolution apologizing for firing the teacher who had once been awarded the title of teacher of the year at Emery. Notably, the Board’s refusal to acknowledge the wrong done against Mr Dain by the district comes at the same time they have been honing their public message of "inclusionary equity".
The City has not announced plans for any official March celebration associated with the name change but there is talk of a street closing block party perhaps in the fall of 2021, depending on the status of the COVID pandemic by then.
Both AC Transit and Emery Unified School District have been notified of the impending renaming of the street City officials said.
School Board president Brynnda Collins and Superintendent of the Schools Quiauna Scott were both contacted to comment on the refusal of the district to account for the firing of Steve Dain and its failure to apologize but both leaders refused to respond.