Discord at the Start of Black History Month/Black Lives Matter Week

Black Lives Matter week is Feb. 4-8.  The district has information here about activities.  From their webpage (partial):

Educators have been thoughtfully preparing for Black Lives Matter at School week, Feb. 4-8, and the district’s Ethnic Studies workgroup has provided educator-developed lessons. Additionally, hundreds of staff have attended workshops learning and preparing for this week. 

During Black Lives Matter at School Week, students will be given opportunities to learn the richness and conflicts of our histories in a truthful and accurate manner, they will learn about structural and institutionalized racism – and become equipped with the tools to combat it, and they will observe that educators in Seattle Public Schools will do whatever it takes to make sure they achieve their goals and dreams.

Seattle Public Schools looks forward to an educational and impactful Black Lives Matter at School week.

The district's webpage is heavy on rhetoric but less so on detail.

I'm interested to hear what different schools are planning.

The group, Race and Equity Educators, had this at their Facebook page:


Wednesday, Feb. 6th at JSCEE from 4:45 pm - 6:30 pm.
#BlackLivesMatter at School - Seattle School Board Mobilization
This is an event by the NAACP Youth Coalition; rally at 4:45pm in the lobby (to note, the meeting starts at 4:15 pm)

Youth will be at the regular school board meeting asking that their demands be met:
- ending zero tolerance
-mandating black history and ethnic studies
-hiring more black teachers
-funding counselors, not cops

Friday, Feb. 8th
Cleveland High School from 6-8 pm.  Student talent showcase and Speak Out. 
 These creative youth--dancers, poets, filmmakers and more--will define the phrase, "Young, gifted, and Black!" and make the case for how to uproot institutional racism in education!

Black Lives Matter Curriculum Guide for 2019.
A bit of a black eye for Roosevelt High's newspaper which had a disquieting cartoon on the cover of their newspaper for an article, “The Struggles of A Life with Addiction.”  It's unclear who is buying and who is paying in the transaction between a black man in street clothes and a white guy in a suit but it just looks to be in poor taste and yes, racist.

As the principal said in a letter to students and parents, it's the adults who failed.  I would agree.  What is interesting is that it turns out that the artist is a student of color.  Via Facebook, the father of the student said he had not seen the cartoon before it went out but when he did, he talked to his student.  He says his student did raise concerns with the advisors about the illustration but it was deemed okay.  The father said:

On a personal note, please know he is positively sick about how this illustration has hurt people, especially as a member of the Black Student Union, especially as he carries his own emotional stress over dealing with racist microaggressions from his fellow students. By creating this image, he feels like he's let his fellow students of color, his school, and his family down.

Principal Anderson Rodgers put out a lengthy statement that included this:

At this time, I am keenly aware that there are perceptions throughout our city as well as school data that tells us that this is not happening with fidelity across the board at Roosevelt High School. This means that as educational leaders and educators, we must continue our own professional growth and we must be intentional in our racial equity work.

As a school, we have been working hard to improve the culture of Roosevelt and create identify safe spaces for students and staff. For example, the Black Student Union has led community workshops on many racial equity themes including how to address microaggressions at our school. This incident demonstrates that we must continue to make this work our highest priority.

The RHS Black Student Union also put out a statement that included:

We want to address the cover of the Roosevelt News article that was recently published.  This cover was not an intentionally malicious action but a common mistake made at RHS. 

We as students of color within the Roosevelt community feel as if this illustration lacks racial sensitivity and awareness towards the dangers of perpetuating stereotypes.  This instance shows the dire need of Roosevelt to focus on issues of race and equity in the student and staff bodies. 

To help with this, we urge students and staff to pay extreme attention to the "Black Lives Matter at school" curriculum that is going to be taught in the upcoming weeks.  In closing, we as a school need to recognize our implicit biases that stem from a lack of diversity and place of privilege and work together to minimize the negative impacts of the intention and unintentional acts of bigotry that happen at our school. 

Denny teacher Tracy Castro-Gill, who has a blog, recently wrote about issues around principals and Black Lives Matter (and used the illustration in the RHS newspaper in her story).   Ms. Castro-Gill worked on the Ethnic Studies curriculum for SPS and is a highly-regarded teacher.

In her post she complains that the principals' association - PASS - is not working hard enough on issues of racial equity.   She speaks about the efforts to shut Middle College High School down and claims that former senior staffer, Michael Tolley, said some teachers working on racial equity issues were commies.

She also singles out the student who created the RHS newspaper illustration , saying it can't be defended.  (She's right but the blame should fall to adults and not just on the shoulders of one kid.)   Interestingly, she has an essay this student wrote two years ago about racism by students to students of color at RHS.  Tough reading.

She says:

As of today, every single education association affiliated with Seattle Public Schools but one has passed a resolution of support for both ethnic studies and Black Lives Matter at School, including the Seattle Education Association, Washington Education Association, National Education Association, the The Seattle Council PTSA, and the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors. The one organization that’s missing from that list? The Principals’ Association of Seattle Schools (PASS).  This is unsurprising considering some of the reports my colleagues and I have heard from educators about the barriers many principals are putting up in their buildings when it comes to racial justice*.

That asterisk?  *It’s not just white principals.

Educators report building principals restricting access to teaching materials for both ethnic studies and Black Lives Matter at School. Principals are also denying educators time to learn about and plan for Black Lives Matter at School even when their educators are asking for it and after every principal and assistant principal in the district participated in a professional development session where they were handed tools and materials to take back to their buildings with the expectation of preparing for the upcoming week of action and learning.  

Educators reported last year that many principals refused to allow educators to wear Black Lives Matter at School t-shirts, let alone teach about it, citing the racist phrase, “All lives matter.” It’s been reported to me that another principal invited police officers into their school during the week to show students how “nice” police officers are. I can’t even begin to imagine the trauma some students experienced having a uniformed officer on campus after one of the worst years of police brutality in recent memory.

If these have been your experiences with building administrators, please share them in the comments. We can no longer allow them to act in the shadows. Their efforts to uphold White Supremacy must be exposed.