Vermont Legislature SmartTranscripts:

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: Okay. Welcome to House Education, Wednesday, March 11. The committee has the great opportunity this afternoon to hear from youth from Outright Vermont on their Youth Leadership Day, which has always been a real pleasure for this committee. And we look forward to having all of you here. We're gonna get kind of a brief overview to start off with. Welcome, if you'd introduce yourself and love to hear what you have to say.

[Ginger Irish (Senior Director of Development and Partnerships, Outright Vermont)]: Thank you so much. My name is Ginger Irish. I use shethey pronouns. I'm the senior director of development and partnerships at Outright Vermont. I

[Susie (Student)]: want

[Ginger Irish (Senior Director of Development and Partnerships, Outright Vermont)]: to let you know that Outright is Vermont's only statewide organization building hope, equity, and power with youth across the entire state of Vermont. Leadership Day is an opportunity for youth to come and have their voices heard very directly with people who make change, the grass tops, power builders in our state. And we're very grateful to be here. And I am feeling very hopeful that you're willing to listen to their stories and just hear about their direct experience in this room that is often very, very full of adults. And so I would love to just introduce them and have them take this space if that works for you, Chair. That's great. Okay. Thank you so much.

[Unidentified committee member/attendee (base for diarization ID)]: Maybe while you're doing that, I think it would

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: be good if we introduce ourselves. Beth, if you'd start, just kind of name and where you're from.

[Ginger Irish (Senior Director of Development and Partnerships, Outright Vermont)]: So Representative Beth Quimby from Linden, Vermont.

[Teo (GSA Network Coordinator, Outright Vermont)]: Representative Emily Long in Windham County from Newfang, Vermont.

[Kate McCann (Member)]: Representative Kate McCann from RightHair, Mall Player.

[Joshua Dobrovich (Member)]: Representative Joshua Dobrovich from Williamstown.

[Chris Taylor (Vice Chair)]: Chris Taylor from Milton, Georgia. I'm Peter Conlon, I'm from Cornwall and four other small towns outside of Middlebury.

[Katie Sherry (Teacher, Otter Valley UHS; former Spaulding HS)]: We're from Brandon, so we're, you know, I'm all terrified. Yeah.

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: And in part, I represent Leicester and Goshen, which are both part of Otter Valley.

[Susie (Student)]: Yes, Otter Valley can see you as part it.

[Unidentified committee member/attendee (base for diarization ID)]: Great.

[Erin Brady (Ranking Member)]: Representative Erin Brady from Williston, also a teacher at Caledonia High School.

[Jana Brown (Clerk)]: Representative Jen Brown from Michigan.

[Robert Hunter (Member)]: Robert Hunter from Manchester.

[Leanne Harple (Member)]: Representative Leanne Harple from Albany, Glover, Greensboro and Crasbury.

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: I'm Representative Leland Morgan. I represent all of Grand Isle County and a portion of the town of Melton. Who's feeling brave enough to sit up and tell

[Unidentified committee member/attendee (base for diarization ID)]: us about yourself? You do two at a time if you feel more comfortable. Yeah,

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: want somebody up there next to you, we'd bite the right dog out.

[Susie (Student)]: I'm from Colchester, hi.

[Teo (GSA Network Coordinator, Outright Vermont)]: Hi, awesome.

[Ace Lang-Bauer (Student, Colchester High School)]: My name is Alice Lang Bauer, and I'm gonna talk about HHB, specifically Bill H-one 130. Throughout middle school, I was severely bullied and harassed, And I think it was really hard because the administration had very little requirement to do anything. There were a lot of suggestions, but not a lot of requirement. And so I would come in, I would come in almost daily, by eight through eight I was coming in daily, to report things. And they would kind of roll

[Susie (Student)]: their eyes at me and then

[Ace Lang-Bauer (Student, Colchester High School)]: say, God, why is she back here? And it was really hard. It was really hard for me, and I think one of the biggest issues was they didn't really take it seriously.

[Susie (Student)]: There was,

[Ace Lang-Bauer (Student, Colchester High School)]: for example, you probably know this, the law states that they don't have to do a formal investigation if it's bullying, but they do if it's harassment. So they would claim this doesn't count as harassment, so that they wouldn't have to do a formal investigation, even if I was being called slurs. There was a lot of issues with people making sexual comments or touching people inappropriately. And they would say, Oh, it's just bullying. And I would hear that all the time. And it was a really harmful environment. And I had to stop. I have it in my five zero four now. There's a student that I will not take classes with because he continued to harm me, and I continued to report him, and nothing happened. And so now, every time I see him, I feel fear. And I was afraid to go to school then. I'm not as afraid to go to school now. That at high school, there's a lot more support. But nobody should have to feel scared to go to school. There shouldn't be fear around that. And adults should have a requirement to do something. Bill H-one 130 is bill about HHB and policy requirements that I think, if passed, would specifically help people in situations like mine, where people think they can get through loopholes to not address the situation. This bill has not been touched for a while. It moved along a little bit, and at this point, there's not been a lot of action I've seen. And I really think that we need to be supporting these bills coming through related to HIV, because I think that the high school, Colchester High School, they individually are doing a lot of work towards HHB, and that's amazing. But then the middle school wasn't doing stuff like that. And other schools that I've seen or been to are also not doing that. And so if only one school is taking the responsibility, that's not enough. We need to force them to look at their actions and take responsibility. And I think the only way I see to do that is for legislators to start pushing. And so I would really appreciate your help on that. Thank you.

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: Thank you very much. Maybe before you move, could you talk a little bit about outright Vermont and sort of the role it plays either at Colchester High School in your life otherwise?

[Ace Lang-Bauer (Student, Colchester High School)]: I'm I'm here with Edgeco. Went to camp outright last year. I've worked with outright on and off a little bit. But I think outright, the biggest thing is it's sort of a community for like minded people. And so I can go to outright meetings or go to camp outright and I can find other youth who've experienced the same thing I did. And so I can go and I can say, Oh, my school did this with the bullying policy. And I will hear people who say, Oh yeah, I experienced the same thing. And it's really amazing to hear that you're not alone. And I think kind of one of the reasons I'm here right now is I felt so alone in sixth and seventh grade, and then I found Outright and Edgeco, and I found other youth who stood with me and said, No, this is a real thing that's happening. It's perfectly reasonable for you to be fighting for this cause. Because other kids that I talked to, like at my school, who maybe weren't part of educational outright, I would talk to them and they'd say, Oh yeah, it's definitely a problem, but I don't want to talk about it to adults. That's too scary. I can't do that. And I just felt so alone. And I think outright, that's one of the biggest, one of the best things about outright is you're never alone.

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: Thanks very much.

[Susie (Student)]: Thank you.

[Teo (GSA Network Coordinator, Outright Vermont)]: Hi, everyone. Just a quick introduction. My name is Teo. I work for Outright as the GSA network coordinator. And I also want to clarify, Ace mentioned a few times, EDGECO. That's Education Justice Coalition, which is our partner organization. Yeah, we have a number of youth here today from their organization as well.

[Unidentified committee member/attendee (base for diarization ID)]: Is

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: camp Outright, is that where, is that down in Benson? Is that where Benson all taking place now?

[Teo (GSA Network Coordinator, Outright Vermont)]: It's very, yeah. Yep, that's our

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: property down there. Not yet.

[Unidentified committee member/attendee (base for diarization ID)]: We haven't opened it yet.

[Teo (GSA Network Coordinator, Outright Vermont)]: We're on a camp, but we're still renovating it. It's very

[Ginger Irish (Senior Director of Development and Partnerships, Outright Vermont)]: intimidating. So Camp Outright is a program Outright has run for about fifteen years. We rent SpaceX Common Ground Center, which is in Starksboro, Vermont. Two years ago, Outright Vermont purchased with a really lovely grant from the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board a former Scout property. That is in Bennington and Orwell Vermont. So we are currently doing renovations so that we can hold programs, including camp programs in the future.

[Unidentified/multiple speakers (base for diarization ID)]: What year will that be online? Do you know?

[Ginger Irish (Senior Director of Development and Partnerships, Outright Vermont)]: We do not know. That's a wonderful question. Thank you for that.

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: We'd love to hear from any other of the youth who are here who'd be willing to come up and kind of talk about things, even if it's just about

[Ginger Irish (Senior Director of Development and Partnerships, Outright Vermont)]: Or even talk about what you've done today.

[Andre Redmond (Student, Essex Junction)]: My name is Andre Redmond, and I am a student in Essex Junction. I'm here speaking today because our schools neglect to sufficiently protect students of marginalized communities. In our schools, students, specifically BIPOC students and students a part of the LGBTQIA plus community, are not safe in our schools. Their identities are constantly being threatened, whether it be by microaggressions or assault, I would say. I feel I there there's this notion that Vermont is an, like, incredibly moral state that consistently makes decisions in the interests of individual rights, and I believe that some aspects of this are true. However, I've experienced this notion as impeding our willingness to improve our existing systems. And I believe that is something as a community, as a society, we need to

[Unidentified committee member/attendee (base for diarization ID)]: improve. Thank Thank you.

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: That's a great point about how sometimes that can impede if you have these beliefs that Vermont is very welcoming, which it is comparatively, but it's a great point about that can actually be an impeding thought process and growing even more. Chittenden.

[Unidentified/multiple speakers (base for diarization ID)]: Arizona, so I definitely see that very strongly.

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: In my own self interest, be happy to hear from anybody from Otter Valley if you'd like to.

[Unidentified/multiple speakers (base for diarization ID)]: Hello. I'm just going to be talking about

[Susie (Student)]: asexuality in health class. So as you all know, it is recommended, highly recommended, they teach about LGBTQ plus in a health class, but it is not actually required. I'm recently going to talk about asexuality because that is the one everybody's talked about. As most people, many people at least, don't actually know or believe that asexuality exists, or they do not actually understand what it is. To be clear, asexuality is a lack of sexual attraction to other people. It's not the same as the disorder hypoactive sexual desire disorder though. So Iris just wanted to talk about that. So it is all confused as accidents when talks about an upper class. People will be like, Oh, you're up If someone mentions their strict rules, they'll be like, Oh, you're abstaining from sex, which is not the same thing. Are also things, people say things like, Everyone starts having these feelings. Sexual attraction is normal and healthy. When you're older, you'll want sex. There's no love without sex. No matter your orientation, sex is part of life, which is actually not always true for some individuals. And I think that should be recognized in health class since it is actually very important to health to know all these strengths. It would be great for asexual people, especially since it would help reduce bullying for people who don't understand it. It would also greatly improve their mental health. They understood why they're feeling different things from other people and why puberty wasn't the same for them, why they didn't want all the things their peers wanted. It would also help improve the fact that a lot of medical waste happens because of not knowing about asexuality because people will buy those low libido treatments, but when they don't actually need them.

[Unidentified/multiple speakers (base for diarization ID)]: Yeah, that's just all I wanted to say. You. Thanks, Susie.

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: Very happy to hear from anybody else, would love to.

[Katie Sherry (Teacher, Otter Valley UHS; former Spaulding HS)]: If there's time, Adeline wasn't on a docket, but Adeline does have a letter if you'd like to share that too.

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: That'd great, have plenty of time, absolutely, yeah, happy to have

[Addison (Student)]: Well, I'm Addison. I use theythem pronouns. I'd like to talk about harassment bullying, mainly harassment and specifically sexual harassment. When I was in sixth grade, I was sexually harassed for about two months by one of my best friends. That eventually led to me getting sexually assaulted. My friend reported this to our guidance counselor because she witnessed it and that led to an official investigation. And I remember during the investigation, most of the questions were normal. They would just ask like, Where did it happen? Who saw it? But some of the questions really hurt me. Like, Why did you stay friends with her? Why would you take her on the elevator? And they just didn't understand that it was because this girl had manipulated me into staying friends with her. She had given me death threats. And I tried to tell them, but nobody listened. And eventually, the investigation ended with them saying that none of the harassment ever happened. The same girl had bullied me since about fifth break, even though we were friends, but she had been hitting me and physically attacking me on the bus pretty much every single day. I tried to report this as well, but nothing came of that either. This led to me getting bullied in middle school because her entire friend group was led to believe that I lied about her sexually assaulting me. So they would spread rumors about me saying that I self harmed or that I threatened to kill myself. And they would tell me that I should kill myself. And I reported that. Nothing came of that either. So basically what I'm trying to say about that is I don't think that anyone should ever have to go through that. I think that sexual harassment should be taken more seriously. Victims deserve to feel safe in school. And that's all about that. I would also like to talk about ableism. I am disabled. I have a lot of different conditions that I won't get into. I am an ambulatory wheelchair user. I don't have to use my wheelchair every day, but sometimes I do. I also need a cane sometimes, but sometimes I'm okay without any mobility aids. The other kids in my school don't really understand that. I've gotten yelled at in the halls, and I don't really feel safe at school anymore because I just get yelled at all the time. It's either about using a wheelchair when I do use it or I get yelled at for not using it when I'm not using it. So it feels like I can never do anything right. And the only time that that's ever been taken seriously is when it was online. I think that that should also be taken more seriously because people with disabilities do not feel safe in school and everyone deserves to feel safe in school. So that's all I wanted to say.

[Unidentified/multiple speakers (base for diarization ID)]: Thank you.

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: Thank you very much. We appreciate Certainly open to have anybody else speak. Great.

[Unidentified/multiple speakers (base for diarization ID)]: Hi, I am Fiona. I am from Otter Valley. I would like to start off by thanking the committee for your time in letting us all be here today, so we can bring issues to light that may not be seen as much by the committees outside of this. I would like to bring attention to House Bill H. Eight thirty nine that would allow youth to access unaccompanied transitional housing.

[Fiona (Student, Otter Valley)]: This one is something that I for one see a lot of as somebody who argued that they would fall into the low income housing group. I see the effects that not having the housing that you need has on kids today, and it has a terrible effect on how they can transfer that to their education. Kids without the proper housing that they need are very much negatively affected by the lack of that housing. And the homeless rate among those of LGBTQ youth has tripled since 2020. And they tend to experience this at a higher rate because of that factor. And accessible housing for all, especially teens, is vital to their learning. And safe housing allows for them to focus on not what park bench they may be sleeping on tonight, but working on their grades, making sure they are passing and getting all the work that they need done when they need it done. And it also allows them to not have to worry about what they might eat for dinner the next night. I would love to encourage all representatives in here to pass the bill H. 839, that again would allow access to unaccompanied transitional housing, as this is especially important for teens who are facing any problem of housing in the special homelessness. Thank you committee

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: for your time. Thank you. That's a big issue. It's a very complicated one.

[Unidentified committee member/attendee (base for diarization ID)]: I'd

[Susie (Student)]: like to speak now as an educator. Great.

[Katie Sherry (Teacher, Otter Valley UHS; former Spaulding HS)]: I'm Katie Sherry. I've been teaching in Vermont for thirteen years. I taught at Spalding, so I used to live in Montpelier and I voted for you representative McCann. I believe you know Sue Brennan. Okay. Yes. So I know her and then I live in Middlebury, so I also live in Bruiser and teach at Otter Valley now. And I love teaching. These are the reasons I love teaching. It's them every single day, but the politics of just the structure and administration at the town, state, and federal level are getting in the way of what I really love, which is spending time with these amazing kiddos. I want to echo what Fiona just said about Bill is it eight H eight three nine? I calculated I, on average, spend about $2,000 a year on food for children. And it is something I am happy to do because I have so many kids that come in and they don't have an adult who is tucking them into bed at night, who is thinking of their needs. And I feel like I am more of a parent than a teacher sometimes. I've helped kids figure out a way to find access to a reliable shower. I've helped kids I've had I've had kids confide in me or a guidance counselor shared, oh, they're actually living at a hotel right now. When I make my own sandwiches, maybe I'll make three or four extra sandwiches and just quietly give it to a kid. And this is just a consistent thing that I've done for the last, especially in the last post COVID era, I'd say is really when it ramped up. I'm happy to do it just because as a human being, I want to take care of my fellow citizens, but it is getting harder and harder while systems fall apart under this administration, the federal administration. While systems fall apart, schools begin to be the place of care and community. And what's pulling these kids back in is not the education piece, not my topic of World War II or whatever the topic is of the day. It's that there's a guidance counselor that's asking when have you had a hot meal? Can we help you do laundry? You know, are you safe? I've had kids share horrendous things just ranging the scope of assault and just things they see at home. And essentially what it feels like right now is that schools are the place that are taking care of our community because on top of the kids we're taking care of, there's also parents too, parents struggling with addiction, parents that don't know how to parent, that don't have basic common understanding of the needs of children, and it's falling on the backs of us. Then to pair that right now with the budget crisis in our state, to watch our governor post on Facebook encouraging people to vote no for their budget, which the odds of you know, the Otter Valley budget got voted down tremendously. People think they're sticking it to the government, but really who they're sticking it to is me. One of my colleagues is on the docket for getting cut next year. And that quite literally will shuffle things around and make me go into teaching eighth grade social studies when I've taught high school for the last thirteen years. Who is getting cut? Who's getting impacted? It's one less adult in the building that our kids rely on. That adult just had a baby. He and his wife just moved here to Vermont to be with family. And and if it it goes down this path, he will be out of the job. The budget crisis isn't isn't sticking it to Governor Scott or whoever people think they're they're sticking it to you when they vote no. It's impacting us daily and it impacts them even more. And I just want to remind us that teachers are taking the brunt of it all right now. And it's a lot to shoulder. So thank you so much for letting me speak.

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: Excellent. Let me ask you to hold just a minute. Just because sort of this visit has been sponsored by Outright Vermont. Yes. I thought I would just offer the opportunity if you want

[Unidentified committee member/attendee (base for diarization ID)]: to talk about Outright Vermont. Outrite the

[Susie (Student)]: Month has

[Katie Sherry (Teacher, Otter Valley UHS; former Spaulding HS)]: been a godsend. So I've been an LGBTQ advisor, both at Spaulding High School and with Sue and both at Otter Valley. And in a time when I'm trying to navigate how to best support LGBTQ youth, LWR Vermont is the people that are my like, porch and my, my support. They help us just remind us that there's more community around than just the one or two adults that are bi like myself and just kind of fell into the role of advisory for the LGBTQ youth. That's essentially what happened at Spalding is like all of my queer kiddos just kept gathering in my room. And then all of a sudden, there was a need for an advisor. And it's like, well, I already happened here anyway. So I'm just going to keep letting them gather. Outright really helps us as adults feel like we're not alone, give us tools to help the children have tools to empower them, to understand how we can run our alliances, and to allow for space for queer youth to just be queer together and then queer youth to also have advocate for themselves. I mean, like this is exactly why Outright Vermont has been just the most wonderful thing ever. Every year they have this big conference. I went many times at Spaulding. I've been to the State House with them at Spaulding. And then I didn't go to the State House last year, but I've been to Outright's two, your last two conferences. And they allow all of the LGBTQ educators to gather together and bounce ideas off each other. And that's just the biggest piece that's been so helpful to like see me, the me and the other schools and gather together and say, hey, what support are you getting or not getting? What are your kids wanting or not wanting? What are you struggling with? Oh, you're also struggling to find a bathroom that is safe for the kids. Oh, you also don't have a space that you guys can gather and be. That has just been the biggest help ever. So yeah, big, big kudos to you guys. Thank you for everything Albright has done.

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: Thank you very much.

[Katie Sherry (Teacher, Otter Valley UHS; former Spaulding HS)]: Thank you very much.

[Rachel Pearson (Community member)]: My name is Rachel Pearson. I'm from Ohio, but with the Lester two years ago.

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: I want talk about

[Rachel Pearson (Community member)]: Bill H-eight 39. It's about what? H-eight 39. I'm from Columbus, Ohio, so I have a very unique opportunity to speak on this. I'm from the inner city, not many housing, and most of my friends are either prison, single moms, or homeless. Growing up in Ohio and moving here, seeing how there's a housing crisis here, I think we can, if we pass the bill, we could show other states on how to help other states to show how you can do these things for homeless people. Because homeless people are not drug addicts. Some of them are. Homeless people are not just drug addicts, mental health crisis, and just lazy. They are working with the homeless. My dad was an electrician working fourteen hours a day. We were homeless at times, then we stayed with my aunt or my grandmother. We had to travel thirty minutes to have hot showers, not any showers. Our electricity went out a couple of times. We also helped other people who were in our situation when we were wealthier. Now we are in a pretty good wealth situation, and I just recently helped a former student of R Valley. He got kicked out of his home, and he's currently homeless. He stayed with us for a couple of days to shower, have food, and stuff like that. Not everyone is as fortunate as me, and not everyone is as fortunate as the people who find people like my family who can help. And I think if we had a greater outreach to the homeless youth and also homeless adults, was showing them this is the steps of, A, if they have drug addiction or mental health crisis, we should have better rehabilitation. We should have we have halfway houses here?

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: Traditional housing, to a certain extent, probably not nearly as much as we should.

[Rachel Pearson (Community member)]: We should have more transitional housing to help the homeless get a job and being able to provide for themselves. Because most of the time, when you have a job, you need to have a billing address to get your check. If you do have a house, where? If you do have these things, you cannot have the things that most people have. So think about the kids who are sleeping in their cars. Think about the families who are sleeping in the basements of their grandparents. Think about people who don't want housing. It took my grandparents two years to find a house here, and they are pretty well off. It's not just, it's a holiday crisis here, it's a holiday crisis on some condition. And if Vermont takes the first step in seeing what we can do to have housing, I think other states of New England, then of the East Coast than Midwest than the West Coast could see what we can do to have housing and improve their expense. You. Great.

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: That is a big, challenging, challenging issue.

[Unidentified/multiple speakers (base for diarization ID)]: Yeah, thank you

[Unidentified committee member/attendee (base for diarization ID)]: very much.

[Ginger Irish (Senior Director of Development and Partnerships, Outright Vermont)]: Would it be okay if I spoke?

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: I'll just switch seats, I

[Teo (GSA Network Coordinator, Outright Vermont)]: guess. So I'm coming to you all as an Outright employee, but I actually just recently started working for Outright. My previous role was in the Burlington School District, and I was a restorative justice specialist at an elementary school there. The reason I lost my job is the reason many educators are losing their jobs right now. Health care costs made it so my position was no longer affordable. I was seen as excess and cut from the school district budget. I'm sure you're all very familiar with those issues and those stories. I'm here to advocate when you're considering HHB propositions. I'm here to advocate for restorative justice as someone who has seen it happen on the ground at the elementary level. And that's maybe not the level that a lot of people are considering it at. I think it can certainly be effective at the high school and middle school level. But even at the elementary school level, when we're working with kids that young, it's so almost magical to watch it happen. We're giving them the tools to resolve conflict in a way that is almost otherwise unseen in their lives. And it's especially helpful for those students who experience conflict at home. And they see it resolved in really unhealthy and abusive ways to give them models and avenues and language for them to resolve it in a way that feels genuinely resolved and healed, they're able to move on in their relationships and keep their sense of belonging in their schools is, to me, one of the most powerful things we could be offering youth. I know there's a lot of myths and misconceptions about restorative justice, And a lot of the pushback we receive is from educators. I experienced that a lot in my school district. There was a lot of skepticism about if it was effective. And many people saw it as too soft or without consequence at all. And I'm here to just push back against that and say that a lot of that is actually just coming from a desire to do unto others as they've experienced in their own education. Like the more traditional educators who are a little bit more old school just have a difficult time imagining the change. And that's really where it comes from. But restorative justice sees the difference between consequence and punishment. And there is consequence, and that's the most important thing, is we do offer an avenue for that. And usually, the consequence of sitting with the person you've harmed, in most cases, and facing the truth and hearing the story of the impact that you had is far more uncomfortable for most than it is to go home on a detention or a suspension. A lot of the students who cause the harm are maybe at home playing video games. They're missing out on schoolwork. They're also told the message of you don't belong in this community, when what restorative justice does is say, you all belong in this community. Let's talk it out and figure out a way for you to have your space and have it feel safe. So that's just the piece I wanted to share.

[Peter Conlon (Chair)]: Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you. Thanks to all of you for taking the time to come in with really thoughtful comments and for sharing it with us. Appreciate it.