SALT LAKE CITY — At the monthly Utah State Board of Education meeting, a resolution directing removal of DEI in Utah schools drew all the attention.
Utah has already outlawed DEI practices in government organizations as well as public schools, but five board members sponsored a resolution that was on Thursday’s agenda.
One of the five, Christina Boggess who represents District 8, said she got on board when she began receiving complaints of non-compliance to the law.
“There are what we would call an affinity group or a racial group in one of our schools. I personally received 5 complaints about it where in if you are not of a certain ethnicity, you are not allowed to participate,” said Boggess. “And there’s multiple complaints that it’s still occurring today, which is part of what radical DEI advocates.”
Before the board voted the resolution down 10 to 4, board member Joseph Kerry wondered if the board wasn’t wasting its time.
“I always thought resolutions were: 'in a year, I am gonna lose weight, I am gonna get to the gym.' This is like saying I am making a resolution that you’re gonna lose weight, and you’re gonna go to the gym, and I think when we do that, we have to use our rule-making authority, not our resolution ability,” said Kerry.
Jeanetta Williams, President of the NAACP Salt Lake Branch & Tri-State Conference of Idaho, Nevada and Utah submitted a letter to the board urging them to reject the resolution.
She couldn’t understand why there were references to the former Soviet Union in the text, and said the resolution missed the mark.
“It just doesn’t make sense because if there’s one or two schools that’s not fully compliant, then they need to find out what is that they’re not complying with and try to go in and maybe talk to those different schools,” said Williams.
Yet, despite the push back, Boggess said, she doesn’t plan on throwing in the towel.
“I think it’s important that our students are able to engage and have access to a discrimination free education. I think that’s important, so I am going to continue to work on an advanced policy in line with that vision, where we have equal opportunity for all students.”
