An Open Letter to FWISD School board members and fellow Fort Worth Residents

My name is Joanna Koo. I have been teaching for more than 15 years. I am currently a private music instructor but I am also a former public and private school teacher from Miami-Dade County in Florida where I taught a wide range of students including those with severe physical, social and emotional problems at a Bertha Abess Children's Center. 

I empathize with every child that has been bullied because they were too skinny or too short or too fat or too smart or too religious or too bubbly or too quiet or too different. I know what it was like to be bullied. I was often bullied as a minority, suffered depression and anxiety growing up, and went through school with a mentally handicapped brother who had stones thrown at him. However, this is not about the children, nor the adults, nor who is wrong or right. 

Before Texas and Florida, I lived in China, specifically Hong Kong, for 16 years.  We moved to Florida in 1997 because the British had to hand Hong Kong over to Communist China after a loan. My parents decided to immigrate to the land of the free because they believed that the US constitution would allow their children and children’s children grow under the protection of their own choices. 

My parents’ fears slowly came true about Hong Kong.  If you care to read about it, please research the Umbrella Movement. I was already a mother then, and was thankful that my children and grandchildren could live under the liberty and protection of “We, the people” and our choices.

My oldest child has been studying the constitution and asked me about the new bathroom guidelines and why no voting was needed to pass such an important policy that affected so many children. I didn’t know what to tell her except that no one is perfect and that people find ways to abuse their power in office. Thankfully, the Constitution and those who uphold the Constitution still exist.

From studying American history, I was inspired to learn how Americans fought for their freedom to vote and struggled to keep the Constitution intact to protect the country. Benjamin Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” If we let this go tonight without repealing and putting this to a vote, how can we still call ourselves America? The deeper issue here is about what we are giving up as the People. Progress cannot be quickened by judicial tyranny but by the patient progress of the People’s choices. If this important policy is not repealed and put to a vote, it will display to the entire world, a severe symptom of a broken democracy. And to those who keep telling people like me to get with the program, I quote Captain America who said to Nick Fury regarding Project Insight,  “Don’t hold your breath.” Thank you.