Gardner Elementary 5th Grader Testimony to Stop His School From Closing

Editor's Note: San Jose Unified School District is consideringclosing multiple schools including Gardner Elementary School in the Gardner neighborhood in San Jose. Many parents and students are speaking out and demanding the district keep their schools and communities together. One of the students, Ethan, a 5th grader at Gardner Elementary, gave his speech at the hearing.

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Photo of Ethan's speech and notes to speak at the School District meeting

Hello,

I am Ethan a 5th Grade student at Gardner Elementary. I was going there with my babysitter before I was even in education system. I have recently heard that it is shutting down, this does not affect me since I am going to middle school BUT this affects my friends, my family, the Gardner Community.

They call it "Schools of Tomorrow" they say it is to make full schools because they still pay staff to clean a whole school, this is absolute insanity, they are prioritizing bank accounts over community's that depend on these schools, thousands of kids, thousands of adults. They are ripping communitys apart they are not healing, they are ruining friendships, jobs, and school's histories. They care about the future, "Schools of tomorrow,"... What about the "Schools of Today?" what about the families of today? what about the community that exists now? you can't do schools of tomorrow without schols of today, it's basic logic.

You want to shut down these schools for your own problems, you claim this is for efficiency. But these schools aren't numbers on spreadsheets, they are people family's, they are friendships they are teachers that change lives. We are not just statistics. We are not just expenses. We are Students.

Save Gardner.

Ethan