Since President Donald Trump was sworn into office, he has been pushing his administration to make schools remove DEI from their policies. He’s railed against it in numerous social media posts and directed federal agencies to eliminate DEI in all forms.
You might be asking yourself, what DEI even is. Well, DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It was first created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Former President Lyndon B. Johnson signed this act, the federal law that outlawed various forms of discrimination.
But now, President Donald Trump has been wanting to stop DEI policies and stop funding schools that still have policies that support DEI. I hate that this is the plan that Donald Trump has while he is President. As a person who is part of a diverse community, it hurts me to see him pushing to get rid of these policies.
Trump also said that treating any person based on their race is illegal. This could have negative consequences for students in Austin ISD because most of the schools around the Austin area have high numbers of students from diverse backgrounds. Donald Trump is overall targeting people of color and the LGBTQ community rather than focusing on actual, real problems that need more attention.
The DEI policies in schools are typically focused on helping students feel welcome in schools. Many schools have posters or flags that show their support for the LGBTQ+ community. There are programs that provide resources to students that can help them. Many students rely on these policies for support when they need it. There are a lot of students who are in the LGBTQ+ community who will feel forced to act differently because of the policies that Trump has been implementing.
At Akins, we have a lot of pride flags displayed around the school. These policies will start to affect what the school will be allowed to put up around the school. Our school is mostly diverse, and it’s very open to different communities under DEI. If our school loses the funding we get because of the stuff we have around school, that will cause a lot of problems with the community.
Currently, in Texas, bills are being passed that will affect how schools function. Senate Bill 12 by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, will prohibit schools from factoring in DEI when they are choosing new staff or making programs for schools. This includes references to race, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation in their programs or when hiring new staff members.
There is also another senate bill authored by Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, that could reduce the options of books available in school libraries. This will enable them to remove any books that mention diverse content. Parents will be allowed to censor certain books that they don’t want children to read.
These bills getting brought up by representatives, will soon affect the mental health of many students around the world. Many students will feel like they are being targeted, and that will take a toll on their mental health. This can also be a safety concern for the students; the removal of DEI will dismantle safe spaces offered for students at school.
DEI policies are beneficial to have because they can protect the many students of diverse backgrounds. A lot of schools have diverse students, as half of their enrolled students are. That’s the reason why many schools have these policies in place. They need to have these policies for all the students they have who need support from the school’s DEI policies. Trump and his administration want to eliminate these policies because they feel they are unnecessary.
He doesn’t support the policies and wants to demolish them. Since Day 1 of his term as president, he has signed executive orders to push schools to remove their DEI policies. He has been telling schools and their districts that they only have 10 days to tell the government that they have removed their policies. He is also threatening to stop federal funding for these schools.
A judge of the Federal District Court in New Hampshire has said that the policy will restrict free speech in classrooms. Judge McCafferty has told the Trump Administration that they do not have enough detailed definitions of diversity, equity, and inclusion and has blocked their attempts to restrict federal funding to schools.
Trump will continue to sign more executive orders to push harder on schools to get rid of the DEI policies that they have. What we can do as a community to fight back against these problems is to vote to elect the correct people who can try to block the orders Donald Trump has issued. More people need to know about this because if we don’t do anything about this, it could have severe consequences. We need to try to fight back against these orders trying to demolish the DEI policies.
In conclusion, we all know that the future is very clear: President Donald Trump wants to erase everything involving minority groups and DEI-based programs. Honestly, this will ruin many plans that students have for the future because it will take away their opportunities and the help they have available to them.
I really hate the idea of him taking away DEI policies. The school shouldn’t be pressured to comply with these horrible policies that Trump has. All of this is just horrible for all of us, it ruins the whole world. We all need to try to elect representatives who can fight against this. The President doesn’t care about the students affected by eliminating DEI policies.
