Washington — Minnesota's most recent teacher of the year boycotted a White House visit with President Donald Trump on Monday to protest administration policies that she said defy her core belief that every student matters.
Kelly Holstine, an English teacher at Shakopee's Tokata Learning Center, was one of two from a group of 56 award-winning teachers who skipped the Oval Office meeting and photo shoot with Trump.
The group, meeting in Washington this week, is comprised of the most recent teacher of the year award winners from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and several U.S. territories.
"I work with a lot of students who face discrimination and prejudice every day of their lives," Holstine said Tuesday of her work at the alternative high school. "My frustration with the current administration are the messages and the actions and the policies and the words about the population of students I work with. It impacts them, and it hurts them. It impacts them both in their hearts, and it hurts them in the world because they have to deal with the fallout of all that discrimination."
Holstine held a news conference in Washington on Tuesday with the other teacher who boycotted the White House visit, Kentucky Teacher of the Year Jessica Dueñas. Both cited their own background as an influence in their decisions: Holstine as a gender-nonconforming lesbian, and Dueñas as the daughter of a Cuban refugee father and a Latina mother who was at one time an undocumented immigrant to the U.S.
"This administration's treatment of the Latino community has really broken my heart," Dueñas said.
The White House declined to comment for this story.
Holstine and Dueñas said they did not notify the White House of their boycott but did tell their fellow award-winning teachers. Both said they take no issue with the teachers who did participate in Monday's White House activities, which included meetings with Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
