School board in California took offense to the word ‘homeless’

California School Board Member Criticizes Use of “Homeless”

A member of the school board in California expressed being “personally offended” after a speaker referred to students as “homeless,” suggesting instead the term “unhoused.” During a meeting on January 14, Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board Vice President Joy Flynn openly shared her displeasure.

Flynn’s remarks followed a presentation by Michael Berman, the deputy director of educational services, who included a reference to a group of students as “homeless” in his report on student performance.

The school district is currently dealing with serious allegations regarding its handling of a student’s gender change.

After the public comment segment, Flynn stated, “I would like to see the term homeless updated to unhoused.” Another board member quickly pointed out that “homeless” is a term commonly used in California.

Flynn replied, “It’s not over yet,” addressing the colleague who defended the usage of “homeless” by emphasizing that just because some use a term doesn’t mean it has to be adopted universally. She expressed her concern over how black students were discussed in Berman’s presentation as well.

She insisted, “Just because other people are doing it doesn’t mean we have to. It’s a respectful word to talk about our community.” The report itself, a “Student Performance Report,” aimed to provide data on various student populations through the California Schools Dashboard, highlighting metrics like graduation rates and suspension levels.

The findings indicated that black students faced the highest suspension rates, categorized in red to denote “very high” status. Notably, while the district’s population is predominantly Hispanic at over 85%, the percentage of black students is below 1%.

Berman mentioned, “There’s only one group in the red, and that is Black and African American students. This is a big problem.” He elaborated on the inadequacy of having a sufficient number of black students to be recognized in the metrics linked to graduation rates.

Flynn responded, asserting that the existing data fails to account for the importance of every black student enrolled in the district. She expressed, “If there is one black student, that student is statistically significant enough to be included in the report.”