Skip to main content

Now is the Time


Yesterday I talked about the problem of getting people to care:

This can be difficult in a culture where many are content to believe that if something isn’t a problem for them, then it just isn’t a problem. At all. 

That’s exactly where we are with the issue of removing SRO’s from our schools, unfortunately. Though the harm to Black and Brown students is well-documented, there has been consistent pushback from those whose children don’t experience the harm. 

“It doesn’t happen to my kid, so, I don’t think it really happens.”

Or, perhaps, 

“It doesn’t happen to my kid, so, it isn’t a problem for me.”

This attitude is mind-blowing to me. All of the students in our schools should matter to us. We should feel responsible for all of them. School policing is harming a specific portion of our school population and we have it in our power to do better. Schools can be safer and students can have better outcomes if we invest in counselors and restorative practices. We have the solution. 

But it involves caring about people different from ourselves and challenging assumptions we're used to falling back on.

Right now the Howard County Delegation is considering legislation proposed by Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary (Local Bill 10-21) to create police-free schools. They need to make a decision by February 5th - - that’s tomorrow. If you support this measure, now is the time to send them an email and let them know. 

Sharing from Erika Strauss Chavarria of the Anti-Racist Education Alliance:

The HoCo delegation to the MGA are unable to decide what to do about Del. Atterbeary’s police-free schools local bill, 10-21.

Their deadline to vote on this is FRIDAY, February 5! We need as many Howard County residents (or folks that work in Howard County schools) as possible to call and email their reps today or tomorrow. Use this template letter or your own to urge our lawmakers vote in favor of 10-21.  Please sign, send, and share! Thank you!

Here’s the link to the template: 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/1_cpapgeJW5kudfwI1DBLKHHpRZjByoUm/edit?filetype=msword&fbclid=IwAR3558Vh_Mq31Mk15iFeC-xm6kAK8Ukq2NkxqZnQ9bVPX7OFg9u-XDprshw

You can find contact information for members of the Howard County delegation here. 

The practice of policing in schools has been a long-term source of limiting and damaging educational experiences for Black and Brown students. The more we learn the more we see how devastating this is: school policing actively diminishes their futures. If focusing on education is a top priority, then removing SRO’s should be at the top of the list. If we don’t act to address this we are complicit in sustaining educational malpractice. 

Creating police-free schools will make our whole community stronger. It’s not a loss. It’s an investment in our children’s future and in our future.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
1 comment
Read more

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...
2 comments
Read more

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
1 comment
Read more