BREAKING:
Tonight, the Emery Unified Board of Trustees voted to apologize to parents for the 1976 firing of Steve Dain, a transgender teacher employed by the District, for “immorality” after he had completed gender confirmation surgery. The unanimous apology comes after two years of rancor, the District sidelining a bid to acknowledge the fired teacher by naming the remodeled gym after him in 2019 and then for more than a year, refusing to draft the resolution they finally did here tonight.
Steve Dain, a popular 7-12th grade PE teacher at Emery, had won a teacher of the year award from the School Board the semester before he transitioned however, upon returning from summer break and surgery, Mr Dain was promptly sacked. The Board fired him at the behest of then Superintendent Lewis Stommel, who also directed that the teacher’s final paycheck be withheld. Mr Dain hired an attorney and was awarded $19,000 for the termination and his back pay.
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| Former Emery Teacher of the Year Dr Steven Dain 1939-2007 |
After voting to name the school's gym for a different PE teacher, School Board president Bynnda Collins railed against naming the gym for Steve Dain, chastising advocates for transgender equality, calling the gym naming plan "political". Council member Christian Patz responding, said Emery's failure amounts to anti-trans "bigotry".
Talking with a reporter shortly after he was fired by Emery, Mr Dain said his passion in life was cultivating young people and that he “missed teaching more than anything”. Lamenting about losing his chosen career, he was thinking of his students, “I miss my kids in Emeryville” he said.
He died of cancer in 2007 at the age of 68.
After the District received a lot of bad press from the Tattler and the Bay Area Reporter following the gym naming failure in 2020, Board member Susan Donaldson proposed to her colleagues that the District issue an apology but that also proved to be a non starter. The City, sensing a lack of commitment from Emery Unified, moved to rename 47th Street, the address of the high school where he taught, Steve Dain Drive. The City’s renaming efforts have brought praise from the press but also a new round of ire against Emery Unified for their recalcitrance. Tonight that finally gets put to rest.
Here is the text of the Resolution passed tonight:
The Emery Unified School District Board of Trustees would like to apologize for the employment termination of teacher Steve Dain. Mr. Dain was terminated after returning from gender confirmation surgery in 1975. As a district, we understand the personal hardships, needless expense and over arching injustice Mr. Dain incurred fighting the unjust decision preventing him from returning to Emery High. We regret the harmful actions taken by the district at that time. Mr. Dain was right to expect to return to his job. In no uncertain terms, the current school board would never support the termination of a person due to their gender and/or sexual orientation just as we would not support any negative action based on bias. To ensure that such discrimination does not take place in the future, Board Policies and Regulation now expressly reflect that no student, teacher or staff person may be subjected to discrimination, harassment or bullying based on sex, gender, or sexual orientation (among other protected categories). (See Board Policies and Regulations 0415, 1312.3, 4030, 4031, 4119.1, 4119.11, 4219.1, 4219.11, 4319.1, 4319.11, 5131.2, 5137, 5145.3, 5145.31, 5145.7, 5145.9, https://emeryusd.k12.ca.us/policies.html].
Additionally, inspired by past and ongoing events affecting our communities, students and staff, we have formed an Equity Committee of board members, staff and students to examine our history as a district, pursue inclusion and celebrate our diverse community. This committee shall henceforth be known as the Equity and Inclusion Committee. We also see this as an opportunity to include the Curriculum Committee in plans for incorporating LGBTQ and gender inclusive professional development training and resources specifically designed for educators and youth-serving professionals.
In closing, we understand that it is important to face and acknowledge past injustice to move our community forward towards a brighter and more inclusive future. Thank you for entrusting us with your children's education and safety. We do not take the task lightly and we will continue to strive towards excellence and inclusion for all.
This is a great day for all "blah blah blah blah"'s and "blah blah blah blah blah"'s everywhere!! Thank you for getting this apology for us!
ReplyDeleteThis is the original Blah Blah Blah. Brian Donahue hates transgender people. He is a white, privileged old sis man who speaks over transgender people. At the board meeting he couldn't control himself pushing his white sis privilege against a nonbinary board member. His kind are dinosaurs.
DeleteHow do you know I'm not transgender myself? If I'm not, and you can't prove I'm not, then the charge of being cisgender is thus refuted. The charges of being old and white then fall by the way side in such a scenario. Before you go running around halfcocked castigating people for being "sis", maybe you should first make sure the charge is accurate. This is a problem central to overly didactic individuals...hubris.
Deletewow, Brian just called somebody else didactic and hubris. I don't think I've ever heard you admit you were wrong. Ever. About anything.
DeleteSure, this Blah person is didactic and has hubris. But I admit I'm wrong when it's proved. That has come many times in the Tattler. Mistakes are corrected and if they're not just typos or grammatical mistakes (from my poorly paid copy editor), but substantive mistakes in reporting, those are also corrected and apologized for. I don't think you've read the Tattler very much if this is unknown to you.
DeleteThe sign still isn't changed Donahue. You said March 5 and its now March 19. But you do not care because its clear you use your white male privilege against the transgender community over and over.
ReplyDeleteThe newest prediction from City Hall is that the new Steve Dain Drive sign(s) will go up on Monday the 22nd. They blame the time delay on a mistake made by the manufacturer. As to your other charge, I'll let that go without a response.
DeleteYou guys, you aren't going to convince Brian about this topic. I know he sounds out of his league, but we're talking about decades of unchecked privilege and a huge ego here. He honestly thinks he's some crusader for justice or something. And worse of all is he's the only person at the Tattler, so he has nobody to run his ideas by that could possibly tell him how he sounds.
DeleteTrue, they won't be able to convince me that it's OK for the school district to crow about diversity and social equity while working to harm transgender people. I'm always going to work to take down that narrative of theirs. This is true of all elites, be they from the government or the business community. I will use what power I have to offer a counter narrative that's community based. Insofar as I do that, there's my privilege (and ego). RE; Tattler partners, we have several here, a copy editor, researchers and guest writers. Because the Tattler takes on the power elite and all the political exigencies that flow from that, there's a public persona: me. I'm the editor.
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