Students in the LGBTQ+ community gathered Wednesday for the annual Pride flag-raising ceremony at San Diego Unified headquarters in University Heights, telling personal stories about the person they know themselves to be.
“My name is Jaqueline Tomas, I use she/her pronouns." Tomas, 15, is a sophomore at Lincoln High School. She told the audience, “If you feel alone, allow me to explain that you are not."
For the past several years, the student-led event has been held just before the start of Pride Month, June 1, giving students like Riyaz Parikh, 11, a chance to speak out.
Parikh is a sixth-grade student at Challenger Middle School, and said, “I am and have always been queer, non-binary, and most important … me."
The students are supported by the district's administration, including Superintendent Lamont Jackson.
“They want to be seen and they want to be heard the way they want to be seen and heard…not the way others see them," Jackson said.
He has now been SDUSD superintendent for two years, a tenure tangled with potential teacher layoffs, funding shortfalls, and most recently, pending litigation.
A lawsuit was filed late last year by a group of the district’s police officers claiming Chief Alfonso Contreras created a hostile work environment, with allegations of sexual harassment as well.
Last Friday, the district announced Contreras’s immediate retirement after less than two years in that position.
Jackson is also named in that lawsuit, and KPBS has confirmed he is the subject of an investigation being conducted by the Los Angeles law firm of Sanchez and Amador. School board trustees hired the firm in April, at a cost of $100,000, to investigate what the contract calls a “sensitive internal” issue.
At Wednesday's flag-raising event, Jackson would not comment on the pending litigation. He did say, “Our board, our leadership, our educators, and classified staff have proven that the community can continue to count on us.”
There was a vote of confidence for the district from students, too.
“Pride month is about saying we are in this together. It's about being prideful for our community," said Matthew Quitoriano, the outgoing Student School Board Trustee.
