 This is a truly beautiful celebration and we're all so grateful that you're here to be a part of this. So you all have heard me speak so many times about so many things. And what's more important right now is that we hear from the voices of Vermonters whose voices are not usually heard, as well as those who should be celebrated and elevated. We should know their names, we should know their stories, we should know their histories. And that's really at the heart of this work that we're trying to do today. So it is absolutely my honor to emcee this piece. I'm really not saying much because I want to listen and I want to learn, as I hope you all will. So our first speaker today is Ezra Totten, who is here representing from the LGBTQIA Alliance and is a local Vermonter. Welcome up, Ezra. My name is Ezra Totten, I'm 15 years old. I attend Burlington High School and I identify as a transgender male. This historic legislation will help create an environment where we can truly share our histories completely and with pride. Acknowledging the contributions of everyone is the first step in full inclusion, equality and acceptance. LGBTQIA history needs to be taught because we know many historical figures such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Josephine Baker and Bayard Rustin and many more have had their sexual or gender identity erased from their story from our shared history. Erasing or hiding away someone's identity means we keep the truth hidden away from all of us, making it easy to erase our stories from not only the history books, but to keep them from being discussed in our classroom every day right now. Having a deeper knowledge and better understanding of LGBTQ figures and their importance in history will help to drive ignorance and prejudice out of our textbooks, our schools, our classrooms and to work to make our schools safer for all of us. Thank you. Yes, yes, for our youth. I'm so excited we're speaking up. So next we have Mary Ann Songhurst, who is a student from Montpelier High School. I am pleased to be here in the Vermont State House to celebrate the enactment of House Bill Number 3, an act relating to ethnic and social equity study standards for public schools. As a black female Haitian-American high school student who has spent my entire educational career in the Vermont public school system, I have directly experienced racism and discrimination at the institutional and personal level. Therefore, I am proud to be here today to see the start of the important changes in the educational space that will be made through new ethnic and social equity study standards as outlined in the bill. As written in my testimony, I feel that it is always extremely important to have student voices or a person who has actually experienced harassment as a member of the marginalized racial, ethnic or social groups, regardless of their degree or credentials, to be directly engaged as part of the advisory working group because of their personal experience in the school system. I am proud to have been part of the discussion around amending the bill to include my recommendation. I am excited and very hopeful to see how the work directed by H3 evolves over time, not just for myself or students today, but for future generations to come. I would like to take a second to thank all of the people in the House and Senate Education Committees who invited and encouraged student voices as part of their discussions. Also, there are so many dedicated individuals who have put countless hours of labor into promoting racial justice this bill and have continued to support the necessary changes to make Vermont's education system include and recognize different narratives that should be part of our curriculums. I would especially like to thank the members of the Coalition for Ethnic Studies and Social Equity, Amanda Garces, Kaia Morris, as said, Kaia Morris, and Sariqa Tandon for their work with ensuring student voice. To conclude, I look forward to the long overdue recognition and inclusion of intersectionality through equitable action in all Vermont public schools. Thank you. Thank you for that. That's amazing. We have more incredible speakers. So up next we have Bruce Pandaya, who is a student from U32. My name is Bruce Pandia. I'm a sophomore at U32. Last month I sat before the Senate Education Committee to speak in favor of H3. I spoke of my experiences with racism in school and about the fact that I felt that my Indian heritage was not adequately represented in our curriculum. I said, a curriculum which focuses largely on the dominant groups in society while downplaying or reducing to a footnote the history of marginalized people is a curriculum which is in my view guaranteed to foster hateful attitudes. Today Governor Scott put his signature on this historic piece of legislation which was passed unanimously by the General Assembly. Vermont has taken the first step to begin committing itself to countering that historic bigotry that has for too long affected the outcomes and attitudes that are shaped in our schools is the responsibility of every person in our society to fight inequality wherever and whenever it manifests itself. Prejudice is a travesty in itself and even more egregious is prejudice which goes unaddressed and is allowed to affect school curriculum. In my view our sense of what is wrong and what is right is one of the most powerful things we have. And I hope we can agree that prejudice is wrong, inequity is wrong, erasure is wrong and recognizing those things will put us one step closer to creating a more just world. But we cannot without a fundamental change the way we structure the systems of our society. The systems of oppression that create those inequalities are antithetical to regressing as a society. Vermont as well as the rest of the world has a lot of work to do, that's for sure but I know that we have many people who are dedicated to the fight against bigotry. If all people are united against systemic prejudice in all its forms it cannot be maintained. I hope that Vermont can be an example to the rest of the country in how to address these problems. I believe firmly that equity is achievable if we put in the work as a collective. It's not easy to address such deep-seated problems but I'm confident that we can continue to do it if all of us commit to the task of creating a more equitable society. Thank you. So, so gorgeous and that's so important and I hope that you all are listening and will hear and I hope that you're also going to start asking the youth in your lives about what this bill will mean to them and how it will change their school cultures and their school climates and their educational experiences. I'm sure they'll have a lot to say. So, up next I would love to welcome Chief Don Stevens of the Nohigen Band of the Kosuk Abenaki Nation who has also been a incredible support and member of our coalition. Thank you. Everybody hear me? Today is a milestone in the history of Vermont. The signing of this ethnic study bill H3 is an acknowledgement by the state of Vermont that the social and ethnic perception of Vermont's landscape has finally turned a corner. People of color, which includes the Abenaki people, have waited for this moment for many decades, if not centuries. Most Vermonters have not had the opportunity for a consistent learning experience about the Abenaki or marginalized people through the traditional educational system. Through caring teachers, educators and school districts interested in educating about the rich culture of the Abenaki people, we have managed to share our love of the earth, family and connection to all living things. My hope and expectation is that this legislation will standardize curriculum across all educational institutions. We have much to share from the teachings of our elders and our culture, our heritage and the contributions to the original fabric of Vermont. Even though we celebrate this milestone today, the final test on success is when the state of Vermont and educational institutions accepts and implements the recommendations of this working group in two years' time. No longer should the Abenaki voices be considered extinct, minimized or marginalized by dominant voices. It is time to heal old wounds and continue to provide pathways of cooperation. Without education, there is only fear and ignorance left to fill the void. Education fosters understanding, respect and the opportunity to embrace one another. Society benefits as a whole when diversity flourishes, openly acknowledged and is accepted. Vermont has been labeled as one of the whitest states in the Union. To some, this has been a badge of honor. To others, it has been a deterrent to live in our great state. We see and experience the hate that infects our national news and local conversations. Let the signing of this legislation be a beacon of hope, a light in the darkness for others to follow. We are demonstrating to the nation that working together in partnership provides endless possibilities and overcoming challenges that face our great state and the greater society as a whole. Thank you to the governor, the legislators and to all who celebrate diversity. Thank you. Thank you so much, Chief. And as we always should remember and acknowledge that we're standing here today on Abenaki lands. Up next, we have one of our most beautiful and beloved elders, Ms. Shahan Bouliet, who is the co-founder and co-contributor to I Am Vermont 2. Good afternoon and thank you for being here. My name is Shahan Bouliet and I live in St. Jay. I'm here as a mother, a grandmother, an educator, community organizer and coalition member. I stand on the shoulders of many. Paige Wadley Bailey, who was the director of VAROT, Vermont Anti-Racism Action Team, founded back in the 90s was one. VAROT, along with other organizations around the state, was created as a resource for schools, communities and educators. At the time, there were efforts, programs, etc., by individuals and organizations. This is a statewide coalition led by a multicultural and multi-generational group. I'd like to thank Amanda and Kaya for their leadership, energy and commitment. Amanda, for bringing the coalition together around this most needed and important legislation. Kaya, I'd like to thank you for advancing the coalition goals. Vermont Education System failed my son over 30 years ago. At the time, I thought it was because we didn't have any resources in the Northeast Kingdom. As I was coordinator of the African American Alliance back of the Northeast Kingdom back in the 90s, I became aware the schools didn't have the resources. Today, as I stand here, Vermont schools are failing. My grandson, who lives in Burlington, where there are more resources. The signing of this bill and the work of the coalition will make our stories visible, our narratives. It will validate the various experiences we have as well as demonstrate the value we bring to our communities. Participating in the coalition work has been a blessing for me. Working with the coalition members has been a refreshing process. I have made friends. I have broken through the silo of isolation. I look forward to what lies ahead and I'm grateful for the opportunity to bring equitable and ethnic studies to our schools where all our students can flourish. And before I end, I just want to say this was the first time in sharing the legislation and how it passed. I was ecstatic. Throughout the country, the feedback that I got, that we are leaders. We have people across the nation who are looking for us. So I would like to thank the legislation. I'd like to thank you all. And yes, thank you. I hope you can see how much this hits our hearts and our souls and our spirits. This is not just an exercise and whether or not people know how to add numbers or can recognize names and symbols on a periodic table. This is about our lives. Up next, it is my pleasure to welcome Sarah Launderville. From the Vermont Center for Independent Living. I just wanted to honor her contributions, her husband's contributions, the amazing work that Peter did before. And may he rest in peace. And there's a lot of people that are watching, a lot of ancestors that are watching us doing this work right now. So thank you, Sarah. Thank you so much. I have to take a breath. So we in the disability community applaud the Vermont State Legislature and their action of supporting and passing this important legislation. We want to highlight and thank the governor for signing this into law and doing it publicly in a fashion that shows his commitment to us moving forward. We also want to thank profusely Amanda for her leadership within our coalition work and her sincere dedication to this labor. I'd like to highlight our beloved Kaya Morris who works tirelessly as a leader and mentor tying together the intersectionality and purpose of this effort. And to my fellow leaders within the Vermont Coalition for Ethnic and Social Equity in Schools who are always careful and meaningful in our decision making process. Who took the responsibility seriously and came together in true coalition. The disability community became involved in this coalition because our state has an awful history of oppression and torture of individuals with disabilities. As a leader in the eugenics movement, Vermont sterilized and institutionalized individuals with disabilities and other ethnic, social and racial groups in hopes for a quote good Vermont stock. There is an extensive history of warehousing individuals with developmental and psychiatric disabilities as well. These are important parts of our history and largely underplayed because of the bias of policy decisions and systems set up in our state. The context of history is important in terms of those of us who have disabilities and work on policy issues. Believe the need to change and encourage a world that is accessible to all people with all different types of disabilities. I saw a sign today that we celebrate youth with disabilities. This sign signals an importance of this celebration today that all young people with disabilities fully included in our education system. Inclusion is not about the individual with disability, but it allows for individuals who don't have disabilities to gain a broader understanding perspective which in turn changes our communities. Having a system that highlights all sides of our history, all sides of our hopes and all sides of what can be done allows for the crucial changes that we believe will have impacts that will be far reaching. This law allows for more significant change to happen around addressing issues of ableism. The faults of low expectations of our systems can be addressed through this work. The commitment and action of addressing systematic policy issues of biases and discrimination will be addressed in this work. And the rising up of individuals who have been historically cast aside in our society will begin to be addressed because of the passing of this meaningful and vital law. We have a curriculum that will be brought to the table called Include that can be found on the Vermont Statewide Independent Living Council's website and is already connected in some of the schools. We are thrilled that H3 has been signed and we celebrate this legislation. More importantly, we commit ourselves to the hard work ahead. We look forward to the rich conversations that will lead to a more robust educational system which in turn will build a stronger Vermont community. Thank you so much. Thank you Sarah for that. And as she mentioned, there are schools throughout the state who are trying to dive into this work and what this opportunity does is provide a mechanism for people to come together and do this in a really systemic fashion. There have been schools that have placed themselves on the front lines. I know that we have Principal Mike Wraith back there and knowing the things that he and his students went through in trying to declare that Black Lives Matter at Montpelier High School is very much indicative of so many of the issues that we're talking about today. So it is also, I can't tell you how much I love these books. It is also my pleasure to welcome out my brother Wafiq Faur who is the founder of Vermonters for Justice in Palestine and has been one of the most amazing mentors and supporters of this work in helping to ensure that we are not forgetting voices that need to be heard. We did it. Salam Alaikum Warahmatullah. My name is Wafiq Faur, member of Vermonters for Justice in Palestine. As a Palestinian Arab Muslim, first I have to say we are standing over indigenous people land and this people house on the ground of the Apanaki people. Fifty years ago there was another bell called Greenup Vermonters. Vermonters saw a lot of trash around them, a lot of junk on the highway. This building passed a law to clean up this state and this state looks beautiful now. Today we passed another bell to clean up this state from racism, discrimination, prejudice against black, Latino, Arab, LGBTQ. We have to stand together and we have to stay together. People of this land, they didn't treat their history well. From today on it's the law to correct this mistake. Amanda we did it. Thank you. And our final speaker and we will have questions afterwards if people would like to ask of the speakers. We have Alyssa Chen who is not only a coalition member but a dedicated educator up in the Burlington area. I just want to name what an honor it is to be here today and I've appreciated being able to like learn and work with all these elders here and all the youth in the room. Let's give them another round of applause. And really name and think about as we move forward it's really about like who they are and what their needs are and what their voices are and to really see them and take them as leaders. I appreciate you all leading the way in today's press conference. Just a little bit about my background. I grew up in Rutland, Vermont and went out of state for 10, 12 years. I was teaching out in the Bay Area and I honestly got exhausted with having to fight the level of racism in those schools. And I thought oh I'll come back to Vermont. And I think when I was growing up in Vermont I didn't have the same level of awareness of race and racism. So I thought I'll come back there. I'll like be able to take a break. And like immediately when I came back I had like almost like a mental health crisis because like oh my god like this place that was safe to me is not. And the number of stories I heard just of horrific things that were happening in our schools. I think the level of lack of inclusion in the curriculum is one level. But then there's other things that produce even more violence in our schools. And so it's super exciting to see this bill pass. And at the same time I kind of want to put a call out to my fellow teachers that we really need to be using this as an opportunity to organize. And to really recognize that what this bill does is it creates different standards and curriculum. But if you give like a racist homophobic classist teacher like a new curriculum and they still have that in their heart it's not really going to make any changes. And in fact it can actually end up doing harm. And I've heard this from different students of color when teachers are forced to just change the curriculum which is happening in some of our colleges. But they're not changing their mindsets of the hearts. It can it can reproduce the same harm. And so I want to put a call out to teachers to really use this bill and this momentum as an opportunity to organize to educate ourselves. To to call out to our leaders for the training that we need to build relationships and accountability towards our young people our students our community members our parents from marginalized groups. And to build those relationships to kind of hold us accountable in this work. But I just kind of want to name and kind of put that out and really encourage teachers. This is like again a huge opportunity to build that those relationships and do that work together. And thanks so much to the coalition for making this happen. We have to do this together. This is a journey. It doesn't have to take 50 years. But it has to take all of us. So I want to thank each of the speakers that were here today. So many of the coalition members so many supporters from throughout the state. The people that are rooting for us across the country. Let's show them how we get it done here. Thank you for that.