The Community Wellness Project recognizes that structural racism is a public health issue, and schools have a fundamental responsibility to create an environment of safety, justice, and inclusion. We are committed to partnering with our school districts to uncover and unmake institutional policies and practices that perpetuate structural racism, and make schools unsafe places for children, families, and staff of color.
In the summer of 2020, CWP sent this letter to our local school boards:
We would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to nurture a more diverse, inclusive, and healthy community for the students and families of Jefferson County.
This moment, as we grapple with the economic and cultural shock of a global pandemic, the economic and racial disparities experienced by people in our society are being illuminated and exacerbated. We know our world will not return to a pre-pandemic “normal;” we will be reckoning with the tectonic shifts for years to come. As we reopen schools this fall, we support you in designing creative, collaborate, restorative models that will prioritize the health, well-being, and resiliency of our students and their families—we urge you to adopt a “Community Responsive” model of education. (www.communityresponsive.org)
We must prepare our students to create a more inclusive, diverse, and healthy community. A change in school culture will create ripples of knowledge and understanding, throughout the students’ and their wider communities. Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction has unequivocally recognized the need to address such issues:
“We know that despite real progress, educational systems and institutions continue to contribute to racial inequality and injustice. We know that we have a much higher responsibility than teaching content in classrooms. We know that each of us owns a piece of injustice. We have an opportunity in the reopening of our schools to take another step forward in what must be a lifetime of energy toward a more just world.” (Reopening Washington Schools 2020 District Planning Guide, pg. 4)
“The impacts of fear, hatred, and systemic and structural racism within institutions cannot be ignored, and they yield tragic outcomes. Washington’s public education system must engage in anti-racist capacity building, leadership, and resource allocation. Dismantling systemically racist structures will make progress on inclusivity and will better serve students of color, students with disabilities, students who are English learners, students who are migratory, students experiencing homelessness, students in foster care, students experiencing intergenerational poverty, and students who identify as LGBTQ+” (id., pg. 8)
Additionally, at their meeting on Thursday, June 18, the Jefferson County Board of Health issued on open letter signed by 1,288 public health professionals, infectious diseases professionals, and community stakeholders advocating for an anti-racist public health response.
“White supremacy is a lethal public health issue that predates and contributes to COVID-19.” (Jefferson County Public Health Minutes and Agenda, June 18, 2020, pg. 23)
We know individual staff members have been working to incorporate anti-racism teaching in their classrooms, and adding social and racial justice tools to the school community. We applaud those efforts! The Community Wellness Project would like to emphasize the importance of incorporating anti-racism explicitly and systemically in the operation of the school district as a whole. As a start, we’d like to see the District participate in the following actions:
Pursue professional development training and workshops related to social justice, racial equity, multiculturalism, etc. for all staff, certificated and classified.
2. Pay stipends and professional honorariums to BIPOC classroom speakers, presenters, artists, etc. working in the schools.
3. Allow teachers to purchase racial equity and social justice curriculum materials to use in their classrooms.
4. Prioritize incorporation of “Since Time Immemorial,” an OSPI curriculum that is grade level standard and common core aligned, online, and free. STI introduces the concept of Tribal Sovereignty, as well as Native history, culture, language, and government.
5. Include BIPOC representatives from the community and an anti-racist lens in all curriculum and policy review.
6. Prioritize racial and social justice equity when advertising for and hiring the next superintendent, as well as all leadership and staff positions.
We understand that you’re wrestling with how to reopen this fall—it is a heavy lift. There will be increased trauma coming to school with students this year. We want to encourage you to embrace wellness as the heart of the reopening effort with courage and boldness. We want the schools to be a place where all kids are loved, can thrive, and are supported in reaching their unique individual potential. We offer ourselves as partners in centering wellness in our schools, classrooms, and communities. We can help gather resources, recruit experts and activists in social and racial justice, fundraise for speaker series or professional development, and think into creative and innovative models for delivering content.
You have our support, our brainpower, and our collaboration in service of this critical work.
Sincerely,
Community Wellness Project Board of Directors