Noah Dempsey has earned the Al Luneman Student Activist Award of $2,000 for speaking up at the Prosser School Board meeting.
By Noah Dempsey
I want to thank everyone for the kind words and support. This has truly been a transformative experience and it has helped strengthen my ambition to pursue public service and introduced me to so many similar-thinking individuals in my community. As an atheist and a socialist, it has been very hard to expose my views to the very conservative bible-thumping community in which I live.
That being said, the Prosser (Wash.) School Board meeting on Jan. 24 was going well until near the end. Director Vermulm suggested that meetings open with prayer. Yoshimi Garcia and I exchanged concerned looks and Yoshimi was the first to speak up. I followed directly afterwards. I argued that there is no need for more controversy and that I would be opposed to the inclusion of prayer. Vermulm doubled down and pushed the point once again.
Throughout the whole election season, I have been in strong opposition to Frank Vermulm’s and Brian Weinmann’s policies and positions on the board. Weinmann has positioned himself with a far-right congressional candidate and has espoused a traditionalist and conservative approach to education. Vermulm had, in previous interviews, mentioned his very conservative views, such as school personnel being armed, having education return to “back to basics” and “not getting diverted or sidetracked to the politically correct things of the day.”
And, as for Board President Jason Rainer, he has been a thorn in my side since he took office in 2021. He is very conservative and brackish.
At the next board meeting, individuals spoke in opposition to the board proposal and supported us for our comments. We got local press first and then national press from Hemant Mehta (“The Friendly Atheist”) and FFRF, so the community started to become very vocal.
We had two individuals question our roles as student representatives and asked if we ran the meetings because we had managed to effectively kill the proposal on the spot. The board collectively decided they were going to let this issue die down, which, luckily, it did.
Vermulm now prays before the meetings in a corner of the library. Overall, this experience made me realize that I do have a voice and that speaking up, even if it seems you are in the minority, is worth it and the only way to effect real change.
Noah Dempsey, 18, is a senior at Prosser High School and after graduation plans to travel and then wishes to attend the University of Washington.
