Decisions, Decisions

What would it look like? Continuing on from yesterday’s post about the recent statement from the Board of Education, what would it look like to:

.....denounce any bias and racism towards any groups who have been ignored, marginalized, discriminated against and/or oppressed,  

.....and allocate resources in accordance with these values as a school system and a Board.

A reader suggested that this might be a way to approach renaming schools named after slave-holders and plantations. I wondered if it might somehow be used to fortify an “improve, don’t move” narrative. It depends on how you look at it.

The folks at CARY (Community Allies of Rainbow Youth) saw those words and made a connection of their own. They wrote a letter to Superintendent Martirano addressing the hiring of central office staff in the area of diversity and inclusion.

I’m sharing the letter in its entirety here, with permission from CARY. (It’s that good.)

Dear Dr. Martirano,

 

We understand that the hiring process is underway to bring on three more central office staff members whose responsibilities involve furthering the school system’s diversity and inclusion goals. We are here to urge that at least one of those staff members have strong expertise and familiarity with all issues pertaining to the LGBTQ+ community.

 

LGBTQ+ students are still a heavily marginalized group. Studies show suicide rates far above the general average and one of the exacerbating factors has been shown to be a lack of support for these students in their community. Often such students find themselves at odds with their own families who don’t accept their identities, and schools may be the only place they have to turn. Getting LGBTQ+ acceptance right is literally a question of life and death.

 

It is also an academic issue. Students who do not feel accepted or safe will not devote the necessary effort to their studies.

 

The needs of LGBTQ+ students are complex and multifaceted. Bathroom and locker room use. Dress codes. Participation in athletics and single-sex activities. Name and gender marker on school records. Issues faced by non-binary students. Students who are out at school but not at home, and vice versa. Overcoming resistance among staff members and proper briefing of substitutes. Identifying outdated and offensive content among curricular materials. Interacting with families of LGBTQ+ students and of their peers who refuse to normalize the presence of these students in our schools. Ensuring sufficient representation so that LGBTQ+ students see themselves among staff, administrators, and historical and contemporary figures being studied. These are only a sampling of the issues that these new central office staff will need to address.

 

There is no way a passing familiarity will do. Someone who has attended a few trainings on the subject will find themselves woefully unprepared to deal with the breadth of the issues involved. Nothing less than in-depth experience and knowledge gained from long-term immersion will suffice.

 

We wish we could say the track record thus far has been satisfactory. It is clear that our school system is eager to provide LGBTQ+ students with the supportive environment they deserve, but the lack of in-depth insider expertise has taken a toll. We were disappointed with the quality and thoroughness of the training materials provided to staff during the 2018-19 school year and the lack of follow-up during 2019-20. How some issues have been dealt with has proven to be problematic in ways that would only be clear to those with an immersive familiarity with the issues involved.

 

For these reasons, we strongly recommend that among the qualifications considered when choosing applicants for the three open positions, at least one of them needs to be an expert on how to accommodate and support LGBTQ+ students and address the issues they face.

 

Respectfully,

 

Community Allies of Rainbow Youth (CARY)

*****

If the Board is sincere in its intent to follow through on the allocation of funds to address previous wrongs towards vulnerable groups, then they will be willing to look carefully at these upcoming appointments when they are presented by the Superintendent. While Dr. Martirano chooses the people to add to this team, the Board must approve his selections. 

In a way, it will be a test of their resolve to see how they committed they are to ‘walking the walk’ and not merely ‘talking the talk.’ A statement such as theirs is not useful if it exists in isolation. It needs to be connected to decision-making in order to have any meaning whatsoever.

CARY states,

Students who do not feel accepted or safe will not devote the necessary effort to their studies.

I’d suggest that sentence could go farther. Students who do not feel accepted or safe may very well be rendered unable to devote the necessary effort to their studies. Existing in a state of rejection and fear is damaging. Rejection and fear sabotage the learning experience for our students. A failure to address this is a failure to make decisions that uphold the mission of the school system.

In case you think that’s a rather bold claim, I submit the following from the HCPSS web site.

The Mission of HCPSS is stated as:

HCPSS ensures academic success and social-emotional well-being for each student in an inclusive and nurturing environment that closes opportunity gaps,

and includes this Vision:

Every student and staff member embraces diversity and possesses the skills, knowledge, and confidence to positively influence the larger community.

The larger community can postively influence the Board by supporting them in their desire to do better. You can always send a note thanking them for making this statement. You can encourage them to make choices that will further this goal. You can remind them if it looks like they are in danger of losing sight of their commitment. 

They can’t go it alone. They’ll need partners if they hope to make any lasting progress. Let them know you’ll be there to back them up.