All Means All is a group of intervention specialist undergraduates in the College of Special Education who fight against House Bill 616, which is threatening inclusion and diversity in public schools.
Arin Kreil, Liberty Messer, Domunique Woods, Erin Waitkus and Kate Breiding founded the group in a content literature class and have since expanded it to reach all first-year intervention specialist students, faculty and community members.
This group of students came together to fight HB 616 after realizing many children do not know how to advocate for themselves, so teachers and other adults in the school have the responsibility to do so.
HB 616 will prevent of teaching divisive or racist concepts within public school classrooms. Inclusion and advocacy are taught in intervention specialist classes, therefore students knew that they had to stand up for what they believe in.
“To advocate for this cause is for myself, for my future students’ well-being and for the well-being of the future,” Breiding said.
The bill hits close to home for these students as some of them are part of the minority. While going into the field of education, they recognize that some laws and policies do not protect children in the minority.
“I could not imagine being in school right now and not being able to learn about my history or be forced to not talk about things like who I am,” Woods said.
The group started with outreach by emailing state representatives and speaking to classmates, educators and administrators to spread the word. All while doing heavy research. They have also made t-shirts, which are distributed to intervention specialist undergraduates.
This didn’t seem like enough for the group, so they created a presentation and webpage with information on what HB 616 is and how to join the fight against it.
“Diversity, equity and inclusion are just words if we don’t make them a priority,” Waitkus said.
Students and community members can help advocate alongside these students by going to the group’s website to learn more about HB 616, or by emailing the representatives and expressing their opinion.
