Camas leaders push for more inclusion, equity

Three weeks after a federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to punish public K-12 school districts over diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a group of Camas school, city and business leaders gathered inside the school district’s Joyce Garver Theater to talk with community members about what they are doing to help all Camasonians feel included, safe and like they have a sense of belonging.

Sponsored by the Camas School District and its Community Equity Forum group, the event featured Camas schools Superintendent John Anzalone, Port of Camas-Washougal Executive Director Trang Lam, Camas Mayor Steve Hogan, Camas City Councilor Marilyn Boerke and downtown Camas business owner Melissa Peake.

Katie Seidl, the school district’s opportunity access and inclusion coordinator, moderated the “Let’s Talk Together” event and took questions from some of the roughly 50 people who attended.

Several of the speakers shared personal stories highlighting the benefits of building more inclusivity, diversity and equity in a community like Camas, which prides itself on its small-town feel but can feel less than welcoming for people who fall outside the town’s white, upper middle-class, heterosexual majority.

“I don’t live in Camas,” Seidl said. “When I came to work here 11 years ago, I asked a question (common) in the queer community: ‘Do you feel comfortable holding your spouse’s hand here?’”

A decade ago, Seidl said, she did not feel comfortable as a member of the LGTBQ community in Camas, but things are slowly changing.

“In 11 years, there’s been a ton of work to make (Camas) more inclusive,” Seidl said, citing the annual Pride block party, which is expanding to a three-day event this year and expected to draw over 1,000 visitors to the city during the third weekend in June.

Seidl said seeing the community gather for a Pride celebration — and noticing Pride flags or “All are Welcome Here” signs in local business windows — helps members of the LGBTQ community and others feel a greater sense of security.

“I know there will be people in that business who will have my back,” she said.

Peake — the owner of Bookish, a downtown Camas book store — said she tries to help all of her customers feel welcome, included and valued by offering books that reflect a wide variety of people and life experiences so that customers can see themselves reflected in the books’ images and stories.

“I’m taking the seriousness of diversity and inclusion and making it fun,” Peake said. Sometimes that means finding books that meet the needs of a rapidly diversifying community — displaying Ukrainian language books, for instance, for war refugees starting over in the Camas community — and sometimes it simply means offering a cozy space where all community members feel welcomed, Peake said.

“At Bookish, we want to be a ‘third space,’ where you can come and feel safe and unchallenged,” she said, “and where you can be who you are.”

Hogan spoke to the value of those so-called third spaces — not home, not work, but where people gather with others in public. He said he is doing everything in his power to preserve one of the town’s most visible third spaces: the Camas Public Library.

“It’s a priority for me,” he said.

All of the speakers agreed that the community will be better served by embracing rather than rejecting the push to become a more diverse, more inclusive and more equitable community.

Boerke, who recently retired from the Camas School District, noted the community’s demographic changes over the past few years.

“The Camas School District is now 69 percent white, which is a significant change from a few years ago when it was over 90 percent white,” Boerke said. “That’s worth celebrating, because we’re stronger together.”

Lam, whose family moved to Portland from Vietnam when she was 4 years old, said she tries to be authentic about who she is and about her experience as an immigrant and as an Asian woman in a leadership role.

“We don’t see a lot of Asian people, Asian women, in government leadership,” Lam said, adding that she, like Seidl, chose to live outside Camas.

“Do I always feel safe here? Not really,” Lam said. “I feel welcomed in a lot of spaces, but we still have work to do.”

Anzalone said the school district is working to create a community that feels safe, welcoming and equitable for all students and staff and their families.

“Camas is diversifying quite a bit,” he said. “We have a large Indian population, Ukrainian refugees and Latinx (students). And we’re doing intentional things so kids and families feel welcome in our district.”

Anzalone said social media posts reiterating the district’s dedication to protecting Camas children regardless of the anti-DEI messages coming from the Trump administration seemed to resonate with the entire community.

“I had the most positive emails from those (posts),” he said. “What’s happening on the federal level impacts our families. And we want them to know we are here to protect and support our kids — all of our kids.”