Nevada State School Board candidates Tim Underwood and Tricia Braxton.
Note: This story mentions suicide. Suicide is preventable. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 988. Nevadans can reach services by calling, texting, or chatting online. To find mental and behavioral health services in Nevada, visit:behavioralhealthvn.org
The learning environment for Nevada’s school children is largely driven by policies and regulations determined or approved by the Nevada State Board of Education — including graduation requirements, teacher performance evaluations, and school star ratings.
Eleven people sit on the Nevada State Board of Education. Four are elected by voters — one from each congressional district. The other seven are appointed by the governor or various public bodies.
In one of the races for a board seat this year, District 1 in Southern Nevada, a former chair of UNR’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee Tricia Braxton and a former senior advisor to Clark County’s Moms For Liberty chapter, Tim Underwood, provide voters with a stark choice.
As a former activist with Moms For Liberty — an organization that advocates against school curriculum that mentions LGBTQ+ rights, race and ethnicity — Underwood said if elected, his priority would be to scrub diverse and inclusive policies from all Nevada school districts.
For the last two years, Underwood has been a constant presence at Clark County School Board meetings, where he’s advocated for the elimination of the district’s gender support policy for transgender students.
Last year, while condemning the Clark County School District policy, he found out his adult child was transgender. A few months later, in August 2023, his transgender child committed suicide.
“I found out my adult son was transgender, of all things,” Underwood said in an interview. “After the shock, I felt relief because I have friends who’ve overcome it, and who have been healed. And I know the way out. And I thought, well, he’s got a father that knows the pathway out of his dilemma. But it didn’t work out that way, a year ago he took his life.”
Underwood said his child’s suicide solidified his determination to embed himself into the Nevada education system to prevent “transgender standards on American education.”
“As long as I’m around in the political arena, it’s not going to happen, or when it does happen, like it is now, it’s going to be stopped,” Underwood said.
Under CCSD’s support policy, parents can request their child receive a gender support team at school that can help address the unique needs of students with diverse gender identities, including protecting student privacy. Underwood describes himself as a parental rights candidate, but he said he does not believe parents should be allowed to request a gender support team for their child.
“Parents have been deceived and should not be allowed to trans their child in any way or encourage it in any way,” Underwood said.
“The board of education should not grant any kind of credence to gender ideology, and they should call for the eradication of any policy based on gender ideology,” Underwood said. “That cannot be allowed to stand as a policy, it must be eradicated.”
The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend social gender-affirming care at any age, such as gender-affirming hairstyles, clothing, name, and pronouns.
Studies examining mental health among young people who have received gender-affirming care are lacking, but research supports a relationship between gender-affirming care for gender diverse adolescents and improved mental health and overall well-being in adulthood.
A peer-reviewed systematic review of research by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that treating gender dysphoria in adolescents with puberty blockers was associated with improvement across multiple measures of psychological functioning. The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists does not recommend hormone replacement therapy until 16 years of age.
‘Supporting inclusive environments’
Braxton, the former chair of UNR’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee, now works as a senior coordinator for the university’s Extension Program, where she works on increasing engagement with underserved and marginalized communities.
“I can’t speak on why he believes what he believes,” Braxton said of her opponent. “While my opponent is focused on whatever he is focused on, I’m concerned about food insecurity for our students. I’m concerned about homelessness and unhoused students. When tragedies happen in our community, I’m concerned about how our students are coping.”
“These are real issues that require our attention, and I remain focused on that, and making sure that we are supporting inclusive environments, and that we’re supporting our students and all of their diversity,” she continued.
Braxton has received endorsements from a number of unions, including the Clark County Education Association, Culinary Workers Union Local 226, SEIU Local 1107, SMART Local 88, IBEW Local 357, and AFL-CIO.
From January through June her campaign raised nearly $9,000 in campaign contributions and spent nearly $5,000. Her largest campaign donor was SMART Local 88, which donated $1,000 to her campaign. She raised significantly more than her opponent Underwood, who reported $60 in campaign contributions.
Braxton said she chose to run because of her commitment to improving education outcomes for all students. If elected, Braxton said she would prioritize college and career readiness, teacher support, and safety for educators and students.
Board of education members can — and often do — advocate on education issues and work with state legislators on bills.
Braxton said she will advocate for an expansion of apprenticeship programs, which she believes are overlooked when discussing college and career readiness. Not all students will go on to college, and Nevada can’t overlook what education programs would benefit those students best, said Braxton.
“We have apprenticeship programs that are supported by our unions,” Braxton said. “I’d like to see where some of our deficits are, where the opportunities are, and where space is available to expand programs like that.”
Braxton said Nevada could even expand the College and Career Ready (CCR) High School Diploma — created by the Legislature in 2018 — to include job certification as part of its requirements.
“I see an opportunity for students to graduate with their high school diplomas, but also with an entry level understanding of the type of industry they want to be ready for,” Braxton said.
“I think it’s worth exploring how we can support different ideas of student success, because when our students are successful, and when they thrive doing what they want to do, their community thrives,” she continued.
Another priority for Braxton is improving support for educators. Robust professional development and support is necessary to ensure educators are confidently and effectively teaching a curriculum, Braxton said. She added that the lack of support for educators has contributed to Nevada’s teacher shortage.
The board of education guides policy development for school discipline, curriculum, class room sizes, social worker-to-student ratios, and other areas. But those guidelines are not mandatory because the board does not control state funding levels for education, meaning they cannot provide monetary resources to help schools and teachers accomplish said goals.
“There has to be more done to attract and retain our teachers,” Braxton said. “If we want our students to thrive, we need our teachers to feel supported by compensating them for the work they do, and by ensuring they have access to professional development.”