Dr. Cutler,

We as a staff want to voice our concerns to you regarding the continued choice of politicians as keynote speakers at our graduation ceremony.

First, with the current state of politics in our country, it seems a bit antagonistic to half of our families to select a politician whose beliefs and votes may completely fly in the face of what they believe and support. As a staff, the current choice certainly concerns many of our beliefs about creating a safe space for all of our students, as both of these men who were selected are anti-transgender and have voted to pass bills against them.

Second, as a school that promotes equity, which you ask us to discuss monthly in our staff meetings, we do not support the choice to select people who openly pushed the University of Wisconsin Regents to freeze DEI staffing as a requirement to increase UW’s budget. More importantly, we continue to ask old, white men to be keynote speakers, which does not correspond to our mission and vision as a school and absolutely does not show that we value equity.

Finally, let us offer more than a concern or a complaint, but a solution. Let us consider asking strong Black/LatinX/Indigenous/Asian/LGBTQ+/female businesspeople to provide some inspiration to our students instead. Let us ask someone who, perhaps, has attended our school and has found success, or maybe someone who has had to overcome a disability. Perhaps a staff member would be willing to speak. McFarland School District graduation usually invites students, alumni, or staff to speak. We believe this would be more inspirational to our student body.

Please know that these concerns are very strong for many of us, but more importantly, they were voiced by students. If our mission is truly to do what is best for them, then please consider their voices. We understand that you want to offer this as a means to get legislation done, but we would encourage you to find another way to do this. We do not want to have a graduation ceremony that many of our students will consider unsafe to them or that they feel they cannot participate in. Please, reconsider your position.

With sincere concern,