The message of solidarity was sombre but clear in Washington, D.C. as the National Education Association's LGBTQ Caucus honoured the 49 lives lost in Orlando last month to open the 154th Representative Assembly.
Although the annual National Education Association (NEA)Representative Assembly (RA) was highlighted by the speech of presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton, the violence in Orlando that struck at the core of the LGBTQ community across America set the tone.
“I don’t want to begin with tears, but I will not begin without this,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen-Garciaas 49 educators filed to the front of the stage with the images of the 49 people who died in the Pulse nightclub shootings in Orlando. “Today, we mourn with Orlando. And we will not begin without honoring those who lost their lives for no other reason than that they were gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender,” she said.
The moving observance led by the NEA LGBTQ Caucus was followed by the passage of New Business Item A which states that the National Education Association of the United States shall implement an action plan to prevent acts of discrimination and violence targeted at people who are perceived or identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning (LGBTQ).
The observance was followed by the opening address by Eskelsen-Garcia, who is also an Education International (EI) Vice President for North America and the Caribbean. Eskelsen-Garcia’s speech was a call to the NEA to fight institutional racismand discrimination while also leading on student success in a post-No Child Left Behind (the high stakes testing legislation that NEA helped change) world. She stressed both the national and international ramifications of a Donald Trump victory in November and listed the reasons she was excited about a Clinton presidency, noting that it comes 95 years after women won their right to vote.
On July 5th Hillary Rodham Clinton, the presumptive democratic presidential candidate who had been endorsed by the NEA at the start of the primary season addressed the delegates. In her RA speech she announced plans to launch a national campaign to elevate the profession that will spotlight the importance of career-long professional development, higher salaries for teachers and education support professionalsand relief for crippling student debt. Clinton also said it was an outrage that Education Support Professionals continue to struggle to provide for their own families.“And supporting educators means supporting unions,” she continued. “Unions helped create the strongest middle class in the history of the world.You’re not just fighting for your members. You’re fighting for your students, and families across the country.”
Following the speech,the NEA invited its12 international guests, leaders of EI affiliatesfrom every region to bring messages of solidarity to the delegates. The CTERA-Argentina’s Eduardo Pereya got a standing ovation in an impassioned social justice speech where he stressed that education cannot change the world but “we educate people and they can change the world.” Other international guests like Wilson Sossion from theKNUT-Kenya joined EI’s Mar Candela from the Global Response Campaign team in leading a joint NEA and GCE-US Global Response to the Commercialisation of Education seminar where they provided ways for NEA members to get involved in defending the right of children to a free, inclusive quality public education against profiteers.
The business of the NEA RA can be followed at http://ra.nea.org/.