Friday, March 1, 2013

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Friday Open Thread

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Friday Open Thread:


Friday Open Thread

It's Read Across America day - what is your school doing? I fondly remember coordinating Read Across America day at my sons' elementary school. Read to a child (or go dig up a Dr. Seuss book and enjoy).

A sad chapter in Seattle Schools' history surfaced this week via HistoryLink (a free online encyclopedia for Washington State History).

On February 27, 1942, the Seattle School Board accepts the resignation of 27 employees who are Americans of Japanese ancestry. The young women have been pressured to resign by the school district, which in turn has been pressured by a committee led by Esther Sekor, a Gatewood Elementary School mother. The white mothers circulated a petition and received a lot of press. The Japanese American women were further pressured to resign by Japanese American Courier editor James Sakamoto, who insisted that they would be fired if they did not resign.

Forty-two years later, on April 11, 1984, the Seattle School Board began to consider testimony concerning a resolution for redress of this wrong. The resolution for redress passed by a narrow margin. An act of the state legislature was required before the Seattle School Board could recognize a "moral obligation" as a basis for