Letter to UESF Leadership

Dear President Curiel and UESF Leadership Team,

The leaders of SF Parent Coalition have always respected UESF, even if we don’t always agree. Yet we feel forced to speak up today after learning the official UESF social media accounts shared an image filled with factual inaccuracies, including claims that SF Parent Coalition is a “predominantly white reopener group” and that we are “school privatizers, resource-hoarders, and opponents of anti-racist initiatives.” This image was crafted by an individual who has been spewing lies about our organization since we began. 

UESF’s re-share of this is more than irresponsible: it is misinformation and erasure of our BIPOC parent and children’s voices, who have been speaking out for themselves and others in their communities from the beginning. This allegation by UESF is deeply, personally, hurtful to many of us, given that we entrust educators to practice what they preach, to speak honestly, and to encourage dialogue that leads to restorative practices. SF Parents is proud of our diverse coalition of members and majority BIPOC + LGBTQ+ Board, all of whom are committed to improving our public schools. We are families with children, educators, and caregivers in this community. UESF’s intimidation with this image and hurtful discourse does not serve our SFUSD community. Furthermore, the erasure and the insinuation that the BIPOC members of our Board could not have been involved in organizing this effort is unacceptable. We hope that UESF is truly committed to equity and social justice, and will discontinue silencing and negating BIPOC parents and their experiences, views, and advocacy, even when they may differ from those of your organization. 

Our leadership has reached out to UESF leadership–new and previous– several times over the past 12 months; a short conversation could have cleared the air, rather than have a reputable organization like UESF spread falsehoods. While we have certainly made our own mistakes this past year, there is no deeper irony than calling a volunteer parent group organizing to improve public schools “privatizers.” We ask that UESF remove this image immediately and issue an apology.

Respectfully,

San Francisco Parent Coalition Board

Cyn Wang, Seth Brenzel, Meredith Dodson, Yvette Edwards, Kit Hodge, Cliff Yee