Seattle Public Schools educators plan to come out in force Oct. 19 to support their Black students and push for more culturally responsive curriculum and punishment practices that do not target youth of color.
A group of teachers, parents and advocates held a press conference on Oct. 12 at the Garfield Community Center declaring their intention to wear Black Lives Matter T-shirts on Oct. 19 in a demonstration of solidarity with the movement. Teachers across the district have also coordinated special lesson plans that are “Black lives-centric” and have a rally planned at Washington Hall that evening.
Teachers have sold more than 1,000 T-shirts in a range of designs that give voice to different marginalized groups within the movement — specifically, Black and transgender women — said Jesse Hagopian, a history teacher at Garfield High School.
“We want to affirm Black lives in our schools,” Hagopian said.
The effort comes almost a month after a “Black Men Uniting” event scheduled at John Muir Elementary was canceled when the school received an online threat. The celebration would have included hundreds of Black men lining up to greet students with high-fives and teachers wearing Black Lives Matter T-shirts in a school where nearly half the student body is Black, according to a report from KUOW.
Some carried on with the original plan, regardless, and the Seattle Police Department released a post on its blotter that the police would be investigating the threat.
The Oct. 19 event is being held in response to that antagonism, Hagopian said.
“We’re here today to back up what they did at John Muir,” he said. “They were courageous standing up for Black lives. You can’t intimidate Seattle’s educators like that.”
The Seattle Education Association (SEA) Representative Assembly voted unanimously to endorse the district-wide action, which also has the backing of the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA).
The PTSA felt that this was an issue that fit clearly into its mission of including every child, regardless of color, said Sabrina Burr, president of the Seattle Council PTSA.
Sarah Arvey, a special-education teacher at Hamilton International Middle School and adviser for Hamilton Against Racism, brought the resolution to the sea. Her students inspired her when they asked her when their teachers would wear Black Lives Matter shirts.
“My inspiration as a teacher is my students,” Arvey said. “To celebrate them, their families, the community, it is of the upmost concern.”
District spokesperson Luke Duecy said that while the district does not endorse political activities, it does take steps to ensure campuses are safe in the event of threats, such as those toward John Muir Elementary.
“We will be closely monitoring our schools to ensure that we provide any additional supports and we closely collaborate with SPD and other emergency providers to ensure a coordinated response,” Duecy wrote in an email.
The Oct. 19 event will coincide with a day of unity planned by the district as part of its #CloseTheGaps campaign, which aims to target the achievement gaps in public schools between children of color and their White and Asian peers.
According to an SPS website set up for the campaign, this includes improving attendance, issuing a moratorium on non-violent suspensions and an expansion of summer learning and mentorship, among other actions.
SPS has the largest achievement gap between White and Black students in Washington state, and the fifth-largest among the nation’s 200 largest school districts, according to an analysis by the district released in May.
In 2015, 85 percent of White students in grades 3 through 8 scored at or above “proficiency” on the newly introduced “Smarter Balanced Assessment” compared to 34 percent of Black students. In math, those rates were 80 percent and 31 percent, respectively.
The teachers coordinating the Wednesday campaign have more on their agenda than wearing T-shirts. They see this effort as the first of several steps in improving the experience of children of color in Seattle’s public schools.
That means securing appropriate funding for schools, creating culturally responsive curriculum and instituting discipline policies that do not disproportionately punish youth of color.
There are consequences to this sort of fundamental change, Hagopian said, specifically referencing the coordinated lesson plans that coincide with the T-shirt event. These kinds of lessons that reflect the history and culture of the students don’t show up on standardized tests, which use a “whitewashed” version of history.
“Facing the oppressions that our kids face is not ‘standard,’” Hagopian said.