Every rural person and place has a story. Change is part of that story.
“Rural Utah at a Crossroads” is part of the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Crossroads: Change in Rural America, which explores the changing meaning of rural life and identity. Utah Humanities is touring Crossroads to eight rural communities across Utah in 2024. As part of the tour, Utah Humanities and Utah Public Radio are partnering with exhibition hosts to interview local residents about change in their communities.
This interview with Piper Riddle took place at the Wasatch County Library in Heber City, Utah.
Piper Riddle: I'm the Executive Director for the rural school districts in northeastern Utah.
The whole vision and mission of a Rural School Service Center is to provide equity and access for rural districts. So that students anywhere, you know, it doesn't matter where you live, or how small your community is, or how small your class size is, that you have equal access to high-quality public education. And so that's the work and that is joyful work, I have to say. I mean, it's all service-based, it's all advocating for public school resources for students and for the adults that work with them.
So our youngest is 14 and our oldest is 26. And our oldest boy, he was 10 when he was diagnosed with Asperger's, and we took him to the University of Utah for that diagnosis. I was an educator and I had no idea. I really didn't know about autism, or understand, and we just always thought he was quirky and unique, right? And so we had just accommodated him. Once I understood that diagnoses and that community, and then all the resources, I couldn't find them up here. They were all, you know, down in Utah County or Salt Lake County.
That being said, I mean, that's not the landscape now. You know there's, I think, more and more resources. And then even within the school setting, because like I said, I'm in the school setting and I'm learning as an educator about my autistic child. And now I really feel like educators, certainly in Wasatch County and beyond, we have a better understanding of all the ways to be neurodiverse, and how to support and celebrate. And I certainly I would say the same for, so I actually have two queer children. And I don't know, if they could have come out 20 years ago in this community.
And then our 14 year old. We actually just adopted him in December, and he grew up in the foster care system, and he's biracial, which is also really unique in our community. That's still a major opportunity for growth and improvement. He has faced racial discrimination and pejoratives at school, all of his life. And that has been eye opening to me. So as a school teacher, and then a school administrator, I wasn't as aware of that.
Now as a mom, having children who are so unique in their ways of thinking about things, can sometimes be challenging in a rural community. But overall, I think the community has been not unkind and that all individuals who come and show up in unique ways in rural communities really do, I think, add maybe even more significant flavor than if they were in an urban area. That they matter and they become kind of a beacon for the others even more so.
“Rural Utah at a Crossroads” is a collaboration between Utah Public Radio, Utah Humanities, and the community hosts of Crossroads: Change in Rural America, a Smithsonian Museum on Main Street exhibition made possible in the Beehive State by Utah Humanities.
Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the United States Congress.
