Yshai Boussi Apologizes For Condemning Republicans At CHS Freshman Orientation

Camas, WA — The Camas High School administration team issued a statement this week regarding Monday’s freshman orientation that featured Yshai Boussi, LPC, a mental health professional, who said all students will eventually smoke pot and that “you can either be a good person or you can be a Republican.”

The CHS statement said: “It was brought to our attention this morning that a guest speaker at Monday’s freshman orientation made a characterization that was inappropriate and divisive. The remark made by this speaker does not align with our values and our mission to see and serve each student, and we apologize to the students and families who were upset or felt uncomfortable by the characterization. 

“At Camas High School and throughout our entire district, we work to ensure all students feel safe and included at all times. We will continue to work with guest speakers to ensure our student experiences are beneficial and inclusive. If you have questions, please let us know.”

In today’s CHS update they said “There were many very important takeaways from the presentation. We hope that many of the points resonated with students. Unfortunately, one comment during the presentation was hurtful for some students, and for that, we sincerely apologize. Our guest speaker from Monday, Yshai Boussi, has created a video that he would like to send to the CHS community.”

VIDEO LINK

Here’s the video: https://youtu.be/KNmv5Nxv-40

“It’s important for us as a community to offer students opportunities to restore any harm created by this experience,” CHS said. “Yshai suggested the chance to meet with students next week at CHS who were negatively impacted by what they heard. At least two CHS administrators will help facilitate this discussion. It’s important that we have conversations when messages are received that hurt people. We appreciate Yshai’s willingness to model accountability and listening to understand.”

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