June 2022
Pride Month Solidarity Edition
June, 2022
Dr. Monique Walton
Principal, Mt. Eden High School
Pride Month Background:
LGBTQIA+ Pride Month takes place in June to honor the Stonewall Riots of 1969. Nationally, the first president to acknowledge what eventually became Pride Month was Bill Clinton who initiated a celebration of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. More recently, Joe Biden commented that “Pride stands for courage, it stands for justice, and most of all it stands for love. As we recall the trials the LGBTQ+ community has endured and celebrate the trailblazers who’ve bravely fought for equality, let us recommit to the work that remains.”
In HUSD, the school board passed resolutions that affirm support for creating safe school environments for all students including LGBTQIA+ youth. Later, the district formed the LGBTQ Committee, which evolved into our Safe and Inclusive Schools Program. More recently the board adopted our Equity, Anti-Bias and Anti-Racism (AB/AR) policies that affirm our commitment to supporting and celebrating our diverse identities across race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, language, culture and more. Each June, we kick off Pride Month celebrations with flag-raising ceremonies across the district and at City Hall.
Pride Month is not only a time to recognize their invaluable contributions, but to stand in solidarity in the ongoing struggle against discrimination and injustice. Towards that end, in our school communities, we might consider: a) reading literature featuring LGBTQIA+ characters and authors; b) learning more about the history of Pride Month; c) asking people their preferred pronouns; and d) learning why active allyship is essential and how we can make a difference when supporting people in the LBGTQIA+ community and in other marginalized groups.
Identity: Related to all the ways we identify and are identified by others
Connected Topics:
SEL
Relevance
Awareness
Dr. Walton is an only child born in San Francisco raised primarily by her mom, and secondarily by her dad. She is creole - French, Black, and Native. Her K-12 experience was centered in diverse Catholic schools and her time was filled with many activities as a dancer (tap, jazz, ballet, creative) and basketball player. She recalls “being very shy until I was sent to summer camp in the fifth grade. At camp, I was around different people and I was able to get out of my comfort zone which was opposite of experience in Catholic school with similar sets of people daily. “
Racially, she recalls finding awareness and support early. “Racial affirmations came from my village. My mom was in business as a Vice President of a credit card company and I watched her ‘act different’ at work. I’d hear her one way on the phone and another when she hung up and spoke to me for instance. I’d think ‘Where did that other person go?’ Then I learned about code switching from her. She would explain ‘because you are black you have to be the best.’ I watched her navigate corporate America as a black woman and this taught me early on about leadership in these spaces. I didn't struggle coming up. My mom worked really hard to give what she didn’t have growing up. And over time, my dad helped to get my mom become more comfortable with the fact that I am gay.”
Dr. Walton notes that she knew she was gay in high school, but felt social pressure to remain silent about that and to show up socially as heterosexual, even taking a male friend to Prom who knew she was really gay.
Skills: Related to being able to fully participate as a citizen in this country upon high school graduation
Connected Topics:
College and Career Readiness
Democratic participation
Pursuit of happiness
She earned a basketball scholarship to play at an HBCU (Historically Black College or University) Delaware State for a Division 1 team. “It was one of the best experiences of my life. I was scared to go 3000 miles away at 17 but it was great. I learned a lot about who I was becoming as an educator without me truly knowing it.”
Dr. Walton remembers dealing with bias from an assistant basketball coach who was very homophobic during this time. “She would talk negatively about me and my sexual orientation to other teammates during study hall. She called my best friend's mom and said I was a bad influence on her and told my grandmother that if I did not change my ways I could lose my scholarship. Every year she made comments during recruiting to make sure girls are ‘in the church’ to try to make sure they are not gay.” More than this, Monique notes that her teammates “weren’t able to be themselves because of how they saw my treatment. For example, they hid their sexuality until she left. And they apologized to me at one point as well for participating in the Study Hall conversations about me. “ Importantly, the head coach facilitated a team conversation to address this bullying and bias and shared a statement about the institution denouncing homophobia. “Once the head coach learned what was going on she was apologetic and supportive. If my mom was healthier I could have sued. This was the start of building more of my own self confidence.”
Some of that confidence had been complicated by her mother’s reaction to the fact that she is gay. “My mom wasn’t accepting at first because she wanted grandchildren. She actually wasn’t fully accepting until I began dating my wife about 13-15 years ago. She was likely forced due to wanting to keep our relationship. I just felt like she needed to understand who I am and become ok with that. Before she passed, she said she knew my wife was here for me and she knew that she was my destiny.” Three to four years after that, her mom passed away.
When she got to college, she wanted to be a physical therapist after her experience rehabbing post-knee surgery. “I liked my experience. The closest opportunity was to get an Education degree with a minor in Physical Education because I was told we’d have a non-teaching degree in a few years. I went with it. It was in the gym and close to practice. I thought it would be simple. That non-teaching degree never came. I worked summer camps as a basketball instructor and always had the largest group of kids. I was thriving in an environment in which almost all the professors knew you. I could sit in their office and get a ‘mom or dad-talk.’ I built that relationship with teachers who I never even took their class with. Very nurturing and mothering and I needed that.”
Her first full educator experience was in Delaware at Dover High. “It was hard being a gay teacher for example because I was nervous at the perception that I might be perceived in ways that cause harm to students. There would always be something to prove. That was a struggle. And I looked like a student myself. Knowing how I present and how I show up encouraged me to use the background of my time as a camp leader. It pushed me to set some boundaries and expectations for behavior to protect myself and my students. I taught there for a year and a half and got homesick and applied in California. My aunts lived in Hayward so I looked in HUSD. There were 3 positions and there was a need for a female PE teacher mid-year, and the rest is history.”
Intellect: Related to what we understand deeply about truth, not just facts
Connected Topics:
Counternarratives
Scholarship
History and context
As an educator, Dr. Walton has background and experience in Counseling, Activities Directorship, and in coaching girls basketball in the district. She is an ACSA certificated representative; the AREA B coordinator for California Association Directors of Activities (CADA) state organization; and is finishing up her program for her doctorate degree. She desires to also be “a voice for black women leaders who show up authentically in leadership spaces.” She has led workshops on equity, student engagement, and school climate and a proud SLAM! ally at Mt. Eden
In developing innovative programs that tie student leaders to the next generation of basketball players, she reflects, “ I had a principal who saw my potential and pushed me to places that advanced my career. A lot of what my passion has been around uplifting, highlighting and empowering the connectors to student academics like sports and VAPA activities that build culture and make students want to come and stay and learn at school. My role is to empower and support those programs and encourage staff to do the same.”
Discussing the aforementioned basketball program, she notes, “Coaching basketball helped me develop the Squeaks Program in 2006. Here we trained the high school players to be able to work out and train youth players. It was a way of giving back and it gave them ownership that this was their program.”
Criticality: Related to what we do strategically to improve the world for all
Connected Topics:
Antiracism
Power
Inspired transformative action
Much of her leadership work has been grounded in positive student engagement, equity, and inclusion. “I began an intentional opening up of Leadership to our SDC not just Resource students to have a voice, choice, and space to be leaders in their communities. The impact was so positive on the school for them, their teachers, and their parents. Some of my rally leaders were my autistic students who otherwise wouldn’t have been public speakers. I had an impact on diversifying the norms of what a Leadership class could look like.”
When asked what undergirds her leadership, she reflected, “ I feel that I lead from the heart and from love, not simply from only logistics in a book. I want people to be seen and heard. My success comes from what I hear from my staff that they feel respected and valued.”
Towards that end, Dr. Walton has introduced supportive programs and structures in her schools. For instance, she facilitated work around the “I Can Help” social media campaign to lift up media literacy and interrupt cyber bullying at Chavez. She also supported their ILT. “The ILT at Chavez was super strong - we were very intentional about having an AB/AR lens throughout all ILT activities. From that work, in partnership with my ELA coach and our school Psychologist, we developed an MTSS around reading interventions and support for students with executive functioning skills to reduce overidentification of students for special education. It involved counseling intern check-ins; parent check-ins; and intensive reading interventions. This led to some great feedback from the students and families. One in particular felt motivated by the success they were seeing and the mom felt like she could really be an advocate and reported that he started doing homework more than previously.”
In creating support for racial affinity, Monique helped restructure support for the Hayward High Black Student Union. “ To diversify the approach we, I invited all of our black staff members both classified and certificated. We separated out and delegated the work to build the program. It didn’t have to only be for teachers. It was important for me to make sure the classified staff didn’t feel ‘othered.’” Additionally, she expanded course offerings at Chavez to include an African American Literature course and each student enrolled was on the Honor Roll. Shout out to teacher Ms. Arva Campbell!
Joy: Related to one impact of learning new things about the world
Connected Topics:
Affirming all of who we are
Motivation
Celebration
“Most of my joy right now comes from seeing our black girls light up when they see someone who looks like them as the principal of their school. I enjoy that they know they can walk in my office and just talk with me because this tells me that they know it is more than possible for them as well. I'm thinking of this one young lady I met one time and we sang some R and B 90s songs here in my office. At the send she said, ‘ You are the coolest principal I’ve ever had. I was able to just vibe and that was awesome.’”
She also commented, “Our students who are gay can see someone who dresses and acts and plays sports like me. They can see how I lead in non-traditional ways and I believe this is validating. It opens their eyes to all the possibilities.
To my LBGTQIA+ community, unapologetically I believe that love is love. I believe in being comfortable in your skin and how you show up. It's fluid. It will change and you will change with it. Know your parents may be the last to accept you but don't let that stop you from being who you are. Who I love should never stop anyone from loving me or treating me with dignity. It can be hard to have these conversations as a youth but there is support, care, and love for you in this district. And adults who are gay in the community, make yourself accessible. I myself could do a better job of getting on their level so they aren’t always just coming to me in the ‘principal's office.’ I know they are watching and they see me and I hold myself accountable to them.”