By Amy Moran, Ph. D. with Cheryl Bell-Fortes
This Women’s History Month, we honor Cheryl Bell-Fortes! Cheryl started her teaching career through alternate route certification in 2004 at Science Park High School in Newark, where she teaches health and physical education to juniors, coaches girls’ basketball and is the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) advisor. Drawing from extensive basketball coaching experiences at Drew University and Union County College—where she was also inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player in 2003—Cheryl uplifts and mentors young people well, having led her teams to national championships twice.
Out at work
As a veteran teacher in the LGBTQIA+ community, Cheryl recommends that younger teachers “feel comfortable in their own skin,” reference their own relationships and engage in real talk with students and colleagues. Cheryl also emphasizes that queer identities are one of many personal attributes that we hold, saying, “There’s more to me than just that.” Whether she’s interrupting occasional hallway slurs about race, body type, sexual orientation or gender identity/expression, it’s coming from a place of informed experience, and kids know not to try it with Coach Bell!
More inclusive health curriculum
When I asked her about the New Jersey Student Learning Standards for Comprehensive Health and Physical Education (CHPE) adopted in 2020, Cheryl acknowledged that the inclusive language it incorporates around sex and sexual health—inclusive of the transgender experience—is long overdue and impactful for young people who deserve comprehensive sex education. She also acknowledged that some of the language—while familiar to younger health teachers with more exposure to this culture—can feel like a reach for some veterans who came up at a time when curricula centered on exclusionary heteronormative ideals, “abstinence only,” and when being “out” was a big deal. Inclusivity, however, validates the needs of the students we have, Cheryl says, and sometimes it’s OK for the teacher to become a student.
Cheryl’s own teaching is now more gender inclusive. She has some students who change clothes at school so that their gender expression matches their authentic gender identities. And rather than relying on grouping students by perceived sex, she now organizes teams in her physical education classes based on those who want to play competitively and those who want to play noncompetitively, counting off by ones and twos to separate the groups evenly before the game begins.
GSA work
Cheryl helped create a vibrant and dynamic GSA presence over the last fifteen years at Science Park. While participation ebbs and flows year to year, Cheryl provides participants the opportunity to let their leadership skills shine. She green-lit various student initiatives, like bake sales, raising the Pride flag in June, donating money to a local queer youth shelter and co-producing one of the best talent shows the school had ever seen.
For those considering doing GSA advisory work in their school, Cheryl recommends stepping back so students can lead, letting kids control the agenda for the year and encouraging young people to grow and glow in their own directions. She also recommends bringing in outside speakers to inform students about community resources and events and to introduce them to community members who are thriving queer professionals.
With phenomenal women mentors like NCAA women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley, Newark’s own championship coach Vanessa Watson (now an administrator), and her own mother Bernice, it’s no wonder where Cheryl gets her quiet strength and wisdom from!
Amy Moran, Ph.D. is an out lesbian educator, leader and activist working to make education affirming and inclusive for all of her students and colleagues Moran has taught middle school for 30 years and was a high school GSA adviser for 16 years.