Community groups are coming together to come up with a plan to address racial tensions at Boston public schools. Boston Latin School has been in the national spotlight amid a federal investigation into allegations of racism. Now, groups like the NAACP and ACLU are trying to figure out what can be done. I attended one of their brainstorming sessions.
After a few laughs it was down to business in the basement of Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Dorchester, where members of several civil rights groups put recommendations together on how to move Boston public schools forward.
NAACP Chapter President Micheal Curry says this is all about honesty.
“One is that you have to admit you have a problem it’s like an addiction or anything else and Boston is notorious for not admitting we have a problem. But there is an issue of race in this city and it manifests itself in how we police, how we educate, how we provide guidance counseling.”
Curry believes that’s the first step and then,
“We hope Superintendent Chang and the Mayor focus on one, dissecting this issue of race in our Boston public school system particularly now in Boston Latin School.”
Curry was joined by community members and representatives from the ACLU, the Black Educators Alliance and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. Kim Janey is with the Massachusetts Advocates for Children. She wants to see more changes, she says.
“I think moving forward It’s important to have more teacher diversity, right now the district is lacking in terms of the number of Black and Latino teachers in the district I think that would go a long way to ease feelings of isolation.”
And Janey thinks more should be done in the classrooms.
“I think we need to deal with the curriculum, I think we need be sure that when these items are coming to the forefront that they are heard and not swept under the rug.”
The breakout sessions created other ideas like teacher trainings. Most important to everyone is a more open and transparent relationship with school officials. The group plans to create a list of recommendations in the coming weeks.
