On Oct. 15, about 15 district workers and parents met at South Middle School to discuss issues regarding the LGBTQ community and propose how to fix them.

Then yesterday, the student Gay-Straight Alliance club met with superintendent Rick Doll in the Black Box theater to further discuss issues.

The meetings were created to give parents of LGBTQ students a support group. Parents can obtain advice from other parents as well as collaborate with district workers about challenges students might encounter at school, said mental health facilitator Jose Cornejo, who attended the parent meetings.

“We know that the LGBTQ population is susceptible to certain challenges in schools,” Cornejo said. “It’s very important that we look at how to address those challenges and… some of the barriers that they might face in school.”

District workers can communicate one-on-one with students and parents at the meetings to make sure they are able to improve experiences at school. Tatyana Younger, head of the GSA, was excited to meet with administrators because students could share personal stories.

“A lot of students have gone through some things going through schooling systems, and they would really love to let the superintendent know what’s going on,” Younger said. “They don’t know what’s going on in the day-to-day lives of actual students — especially LGBT students — because a lot of them hold it inside. It’s a good moment for them to let out all of the things that they’ve been feeling.”

The parent meeting was a response to discussions with adults about what should be improved at school. One main discussion point was the issue that parents with children in the LGBT community should have a support group, Doll said.

“The Board of Education sets goals every year,” Doll said. “Every year we ask teachers and administrators to give us feedback on the goals… and it was brought up at one of those meetings last year that we ought to expand our equity work to include LGBT. So we did.”

Allowing for meetings gives people a chance with common stories to discuss problems in hopes of fixing them.

“It’s always good to let out how you feel because if no one knows your problems, no one can fix your problems.” Younger said. “Letting the superintendent know all the issues and stuff that’s going on is totally going to help, plus it’s just going to help [students] get it off their chest and let someone know someone’s listening to them,  and someone cares about how their schooling is going.”