Creating safe and welcoming spaces for all students is a priority of school leaders everywhere. ACSA’s Lead With Pride Summit returns for its second year this spring, promising educational and invigorating sessions on affirming the identities of LGBTQIA+ students and staff and how best to support them on school sites.

This year’s summit will be held May 3-5 at Town and Country Resort in San Diego. Last year’s inaugural Lead With Pride Summit took place in Oceanside, where more than 200 educators gathered for networking and professional development sessions on subjects such as representing queerness in curriculum, the “gender galaxy” and supporting Gender and Sexualities Alliances at schools.

Keynote speakers Amy Schneider and Jon Paul Higgins shared powerful accounts of their experiences with their own identities.

Schneider, a “Jeopardy!” champion who set the second-longest winning streak in the history of the game show, encouraged attendees to live their own truths and to encourage their students to do so, too.

“Living a lie isn’t really living at all,” Schneider said. “After a lifetime of worrying about what people think of us, we realize we don’t care.”

Superintendent Ben Churchill of Carlsbad Unified School District moderated one of the most popular sessions — a panel featuring students from San Diego County who discussed how educators can help them feel safer and more accepted at their schools.

“When you say you support us, show us that you mean it,” said Paola Simi, then a student at Poway High School.

Registration for the 2023 Lead With Pride Summit opens soon. Visit acsa.org/leadwithpride to sign up to be notified when registration opens.