In Our Own Backyard - a message from Superintendent Jon Sills
If you need this document translated, please call your child’s school principal - Si necesita este documento traducido, por favor comuníquese con la escuela de su hijo - Se você precisa este documento traduzido, entre em contato com a escola do ses filho - Si vous avez besoin de traduire ce document, s'il vous plaît contacter l'école de votre enfant - 如果你需要这份文件翻译，请联系您的孩子的学校 - ،إذا كنت تحتاج /تحتاجين إلى ترجمة هذه الوثيقة إلى اللغة العربية يرجى الاتصال بمدرسة طفلك/طفلتك
Dear Families, Faculty and Staff,
Late last night I received an email from one of our African-American parents that included a SnapChat video of two white students, a middle school and high school student, with one saying the "N" word and the other laughing. The parent asked how she can know that her children will be safe in an environment in which racism and bias persist. No words of easy assurance have come to mind.
Yesterday, I also learned of an incident at Lane School that included a disturbingly racialized comment directed at another young student.
Who and what are giving permission to these students to openly express their biases, or even in the most benign of explanations, to use racism to express some other troubling adolescent issue? At some level the individual reasons matter little, because they are channeling the systemic racism, outright and implicit biases that are so deeply entrenched in our culture. We must do better.
Earlier in the week, one of our educators, who supports the Black Lives Matters movement, posted a Twitter comment about bringing out the hoses on violent protesters. While the educator has publicly apologized and expressed his/her shame at not recognizing the racist connotation that images of police hoses against demonstrators invokes, the racially insensitive comment shook many who saw it. In all three of these situations, appropriate responses are underway. Accountability is essential.
It is outrageous that in the midst of one of the most painful periods of public mourning for the state murder of George Floyd and so horribly many other Black lives that these punches to the gut of our African-American families and their white allies should be taking place.
This year's faculty-wide book study of Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain is one of multiple efforts to help our adult educators deepen our understanding of implicit bias and its role in impeding equitable learning opportunities for our students of color. The author stresses the systemic racist roots of inequitable education and the educator biases that perpetuate it. She argues that the "political" context has to be understood- the outside world permeates the schoolhouse. These recent insidious expressions of racism and racial insensitivity sadly prove that point.
White educators, white children and white families must do better. While the unprecedentedly diverse demonstrations against racism are a hopeful sign that many white people are committed to working on themselves just as they try to change our institutions, it takes only a racist comment here or a racialized microaggression there to shake the confidence of our families of color who must still worry for the safety of their children.
We must do better.
Jon Sills, Superintendent