PBS News Hour Opinion: Why I am celebrating ‘Black Lives Matter at School’
Jesse Hagopian wrote this short article for the PBS News Hour about our hugely successful Black Lives Matter Week of Action. Photos by Sharon H. Chang.
I don’t think I’ve ever been emotionally moved by a robocall, but there’s a first time for everything.
On Sunday night I got a call from my sons’ elementary school. When I answered, the recorded voice of the principal began speaking. She was calling to let all the parents know that the teachers would be participating in the national “Black Lives Matter At School” week, and that parents should ask their kids about what they were learning.
How it grew
The story of Black Lives Matter At School starts with one school in Seattle in the autumn of 2016. John Muir Elementary had been engaging in conversations and staff trainings around equity and race for years. During the end-of-summer professional development, in the aftermath of the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, school staff read and discussed an article on #BlackLivesMatter and renewed their commitment to working for racial justice.
In support of this work, DeShawn Jackson, an African-American male student support worker, helped organize the group “Black Men Uniting to Change the Narrative” for an event at the school to celebrate black students.
The school’s art teacher wanted to show that John Muir staff supported this celebration of Black students, and so she designed a shirt for educators to wear that said, “Black Lives Matter/We Stand Together/John Muir Elementary.”
A backlash erupted when it was reported in the local news that the teachers would be wearing the #BlackLivesMatter shirts. The school began to receive hateful email, and then the unthinkable happened: A bomb threat was made against the school. In response, the school district officially cancelled the event, which made it smaller than it would have been, but the staff carried out the celebration anyway.
“The bomb-sniffing dogs found nothing and school was kept open that day. The CONTINUE READING: PBS News Hour Opinion: Why I am celebrating ‘Black Lives Matter at School’ – I AM AN EDUCATOR
