Have We Really Changed?

Rhoda O’Donnell speaking during the public comment period at the WSSD school board meeting on August 2.

For me the story leading up to the school board meeting on August 2 begins 20 years ago when my military family made the move from Illesheim, Germany, to Wallingford, Pennsylvania. There are many differences between military and civilian life, the most glaring of which was the lack of overall diversity in many communities outside the military, and very specifically— at that time— in the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District. Soon after moving to Wallingford, a friend came to visit. This friend is a beautiful person both inside and out, and he has a wonderfully diverse family. During the visit, one of our neighbors asked him, “What are you?” I was shocked and began to answer angrily, but he cut in quickly and answered, “I am a human being, what are you?”

Fast forward four years to when my family moved to Swarthmore, and took a family walk around the neighborhood. My ex-husband, a Korean American, was approached by a neighbor who asked him how it felt to move into a WASP community.

I’d like to sit here and write that I think we have come a long way in our community since then, but that would not be a truthful assessment. I pass yard signs popping up everywhere about how inclusive we are here in WSSD, but I look at the leadership in our community and I fail to see that verbiage instituted.  

When I think about the reason the school board exists, it is simple. The purpose of the board is to give the children of our district the best overall education possible with the resources available. When I look at how the meeting on August 2 was handled, I cannot understand how that value was represented.

We are neighbors, friends, family, and each of us cares deeply about our children. To imply otherwise, whether it is by limiting speech to 3 minutes (10 is typical, 5 is the usual when shortened), whether it is walking out on someone speaking after you ask them to wrap it up, whether it is calling the police on differing voices, or whether it is just beginning anything by assuming that you already know what is best, and making an active decision not to hear other opinions. All of these things do not represent a community that is trying to have an open dialogue to come together for the best education of the children. As someone who was in attendance at the meeting, there was no threat to the community or to the board. The police force presence was entirely unnecessary.

Now, we have a more diverse community than 20 years ago. When I look at what happened at the August 2 school board meeting I am still struggling to try to understand. What I do understand, is that I see a board that does not well represent the entire community. In addition, they continue to perpetuate the lack of diversity in their selection of new members mid-term. And I can’t help but feel as if—still today—someone is asking me, “What are you? And, how does it feel for your family to live in a WASP community?” My answer is, I’m your neighbor, your friend, the mother of your children’s friends, I am different than you, and most of all a human being. And if you are asking me how it feels to live here today, I’d have to say I’m concerned about the lack of change in the past 20 years. 

And to the members of the school board, the obvious lack of consideration for opinions that differ from yours is a direct reflection of what we, as voters, have all been negligent in permitting to be “normal” in our community for so long. Unfortunately, there is nothing “new” about this “normal.” In my opinion, it is past time for a “new normal.”