'I Do Not Feel Safe at This School.' Alhambra Students Speak Out on LGBTQ+ Resolution, Pride Flag at Emotion-Packed School Board Meeting

Teens detail abuse, harassment experienced on campus, as board member comes under fire for initial opposition to flying Pride flag at district office; downtown mercury spill prompts health warning

In a meeting packed with emotion and tension, students representing Alhambra High School’s LGBTQ+ community and their adult allies spoke out passionately Monday night as the Martinez Unified School District Board of Trustees once again took up the question of flying the Pride flag at the district offices during the month of June.

Though there was unanimous support among board members for a resolution recognizing June as Pride Month, trustee Carlos Melendez’s opposition to flying the flag had stirred debate at the previous two board meetings and prompted students and their supporters to pack Monday’s meeting to speak to the issue, often in raw, heartfelt terms.

In all, 14 people spoke during the public comment period (I was among them), far more than is typically the case for an item at a board meeting. Every speaker supported the resolution and the flying of the Pride flag.

Six of the speakers were Alhambra LGBTQ+ students who expressed dismay over Melendez’s position and shared painful experiences of harassment and abuse on the Alhambra campus, as well as the mental and emotional struggles facing their community.

Melendez sat stoically during the public comments as one speaker after another took him to task. When it came time to vote on the resolution authorizing the flying of the Pride flag, he initially hesitated before voting yes with the rest of the board, causing some momentary confusion as board President Anne Horack-Martin asked for clarification on his vote.

Melendez’s ultimate vote in favor of the resolution following public comment represented a stark reversal from his comments during Monday’s discussion, where he restated his opposition to flying the flag.

“I maintain that the display of the Pride flag does not include or represent all members of the district, does not represent inclusivity and acceptance,” he read from a prepared statement before public comments began. He went on to state that while he was fully in favor of a resolution to support the safety and well-being of the LGBTQ+ school community, he would not support “the display of any flag that does not represent our entire community.”

After the four other board members and student board representative all voiced their full support for the resolution, including the flying of the flag, it was the public’s turn to weigh in — and they did so with a degree of passion and emotion rarely seen at a school board meeting.

When the first student was called upon to speak, other students in the board room stood in solidarity and remained standing for the duration of the public comment period.

Public comment began with an Alhambra junior, representing the school’s Gender and Sexual Alliance Club (GSA), who expressed “shock and dismay that Mr. Melendez has taken it upon himself to project his own personal agenda and beliefs onto the entire school board.” The student pointed out that the Progress Pride Flag in question had been redesigned by artist Daniel Quasar to celebrate diversity and create a more inclusive society. “Mr. Melendez’s notion that the flag is anything but inclusive is completely preposterous,” the student said.

The next speaker, the vice president of GSA, talked about the “intense abuse” members of the club had experienced on campus. “I personally had to leave the Alhambra campus because I felt extremely unsafe attending, not only walking around the halls but also within class hearing numerous slurs, threats of violence in the past, being barked at as if to say I am an animal. … I have even experienced discrimination from teachers.”

The student went on to say that LGBTQ+ youths are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide as their peers.

“The fact we are debating whether or not to put a flag up for one month instead of giving our students a safe environment is disgusting,” the student continued. “I am scared for mine and my friends’ safety anytime we go into an MUSD school, and yet we cannot raise a colorful flag every year without debating it for multiple months. I cannot support a district that does not support me.”

The next speaker, the parent of a transgender child, rejected the idea discussed at the previous board meeting that LGBTQ+ students should work with the rest of the student body to “create some new beautiful flag together.” She said it reminded her of the “Thanksgiving myth that we were all taught in childhood.”

“Are we asking kids who have been bullied and ostracized by peers and teachers to lead the charge on inclusivity and belonging?” the parent said. “I’m disappointed that members of the school board so readily embraced this idea.”

Another GSA member discussed how club members were harassed during a campus bake sale. “Me and my community are being discriminated against daily, and I do not feel safe at this school.”

And another student, who described herself as a third-generation Martinez resident who played “Cinderella” in the school’s latest drama production, stated: “Alhambra has posters everywhere saying that it is a safe place, that our LGBTQ+ students are welcomed and represented, so why should that not be reflected at our district office?

“Who is it hurting to raise a flag … who is it hurting to show support?”

The theme continued with each student who took a turn at the podium. “We are here once again because we are disappointed, we are scared, we are angry, and we feel very much excluded,” another said.

Former board member Jonathan Wright also spoke in support of the LGBTQ+ students and the resolution. “We provide a safe haven to underrepresented students and their families,” he said. “Please help make us proud to be Martinezians.”

Wright, the incumbent, defeated Melendez in the 2020 election for the Trustee Area 1 seat but resigned less than a year into his new term. Melendez was ultimately appointed to fill the vacancy in a chaotic process. The initial appointment of Horack-Martin’s mother, former board member Bobbi Horack, to fill the seat was rescinded after it was found to lack the required majority support from the rest of the board. Board members failed to agree on multiple other candidates before appointing Melendez. Melendez ran unopposed in the 2022 election to serve out the remainder of the term, which expires in 2024.

Dodi Zotigh, the interim executive director of the Rainbow Community Center in Concord, also spoke in support of the students, saying, “This flag is an example of uplifting all.” She spoke of growing up in a Buffalo inter-city school “where being queer meant that you endured violence on many levels.” She provided data from the Human Rights Campaign that 92% of LGBTQ+ youths say they hear negative messages about their identity, with the top sources being school, the internet and their peers.

She said her organization had been asked to speak at three funerals over the past year in Contra Costa County of LGBTQ+ youths who had died by suicide. “This data is horrifying, gut-wrenching and can seem insurmountable to overcome, but we know that there are protective factors that counteract these statistics,” she said, noting that youths who have access to spaces that “are affirming of their identity” have lower rates of attempted suicide.

Justin Gomez, who led the effort to create the “Black Lives Matter” mural in front of the county courthouse in the summer of 2020, told Melendez that the words he had spoken on the topic at the previous board meeting were “violent.” “You are complicit in violence against the LGBTQ community, and you need to be held to account,” he said.

Her voice cracking with emotion, trustee Courtney Masella-O’Brien, who first brought forward the Pride Month resolution and idea to fly the Pride flag last year, told the students and other audience members following public comments, “I’m really proud of all of you. I’m really sorry that you had to come here for this.”

The wording of the resolution was amended before Monday’s meeting to remove the requirement that the board pass a new resolution each year to fly the flag. Absent a future board rescinding the resolution, it will become an annual practice not requiring board approval. This was the second consecutive year the board approved the resolution. Melendez was the only board member who did not support it last year.

Monday’s board meeting can be viewed at the following link.

The discussion about the resolution begins at about the 3-hour, 40-minute mark of the video.

A city-sponsored Pride celebration is being planned for June 10 at the Martinez marina. Stay tuned for more details.

Anyone experiencing a mental health crisis can reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling 988 from any phone.

Refinery ad hoc committee formed

There was also significant public comment at Monday’s school board meeting over the proposal to form an ad hoc committee of board members to tour Martinez Refining Co. and speak with refinery officials in the wake of November’s toxic dust release that has been a topic of community concern for months. Community members expressed reservations about the school board engaging with the refinery over its safety practices and fallout from the incident without also engaging with agencies such as Contra Costa Health Services that have been investigating the incident for several months (I also spoke on the topic).

Trustee Yazmin Llamas, who at the last board meeting suggested “pausing” the district’s relationship with the refinery until it agrees to install the necessary equipment to meet a new regional air quality rule that would significantly cut particulate emissions, said she was not comfortable touring the refinery given the questions that have arisen around its operations, but she would be interested in meeting with local health officials.

The board agreed to appoint Llamas and Masella-O’Brien to an ad hoc committee on MRC without committing to touring the refinery. They will discuss next steps. The board also expressed interest in getting a district representative appointed to the county-run MRC Oversight Committee that has been investigating issues related to the “spent catalyst” accident.

Community Warning System activated over mercury spill

Contra Costa Health Services declared a “Level 2” health advisory through the Community Warning System (CWS) on Tuesday night in relation to “minor mercury contamination” detected in the street on Marina Vista Avenue to Alhambra Avenue to Buckley Street to Berrellesa Street. Residents were advised to avoid walking in the street and to remain on the sidewalk if they were required to be in the area. According to a Contra Costa Health news release, the mercury was inadvertently spread by a garbage truck that had picked up trash from a waste receptacle at the Amtrak station.

“The contamination is limited to the street and has not been detected in amounts great enough to create an immediate risk to health,” the news release read.

Cleanup will be occurring for the next several days in the area, according to the health advisory.

I believe this is the first time that residents have received automatic notification via text message and/or email of a “Level 2” CWS alert since the city implemented a new communication system to inform residents of such events following concerns about lack of communication in the wake of several incidents at the Martinez Refining Co. late last year, including the Thanksgiving night “spent catalyst” release. Previously, only “Level 3” incidents (the most serious level under the CWS) triggered automatic notifications.

A “Level 2” alert indicates possible health impacts for sensitive populations. I detailed the changes in the notification system in this March post.

Residents not already signed up for CWS alerts can do so at this link: https://cwsalerts.com/registration/