By TJ Friedholm
In cities across the country, racial change is occurring. Black Lives Matter, equality, and ending racism has been a common sight in the news and on social media. This campaign to spread equality and awareness of racism throughout the country has been at the forefront of many people’s minds both nationally and globally. While George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have been examples of racism and inequality that have sparked protest nationally, Saline has had its fair share of events within the last year to cause change within the community, and especially within the school district. A series of events, starting last February in a group chat on Snapchat, brought to light the racial issues within Saline that had existed for years. The problems of racism within Saline ended up blowing up and going statewide, nationally, and even global. However, the original event that caused the escalation was within the High School, and thus it adds a fair amount of pressure on not only the high school but on the district as a whole to improve and work on the problems of racism within its jurisdiction.
The district has approached the problems around racism with the view that, as Steve Laatsch, the Saline Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Services says, it is “critical to being more equitable.”
The school district has done this in multiple ways. One example of action the school has taken is the creation of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership Coalition (DEILC). The DEILC has formed recently and is the result of 4 different social justice groups in Saline, The Student Society for Resistance, Saline Supports, Saline Parents Against Racism, and an original DEI committee. The DEILC has the purpose of advising the district on actions to take regarding racist problems but also advising on a broader scale of issues involving diversity, equity, and inclusion. The DEILC has 5 main pillars: hiring practices, curriculum, communication and community involvement, district policies and practices, and safety and empowerment. These five pillars describe much of the change occurring in the Saline School District
The first pillar, being hiring practices, is describing diversifying the workforce and the employees of Saline Schools. Channon Washington, a leader within the community and a parent of two children within the school district, a person of color, as well as a member of the DEILC, described the goal of improving hiring practices as “We should hire from within [the district] and without.” While Saline hiring former students or pulling within the district, is a great thing and a “testament” to Saline’s teaching, Washington also describes that “the district also needs to bring people into Saline...who have a different perspective, or lived in other places, or look different than the majority of Saline” and that the mixture of both retention and diversifying leads to a “high performing district.”
The second pillar is diversifying the curriculum. Washington describes diversifying the curriculum as, “making sure every child can see themselves within the curriculum.” While diversifying the curriculum does not mean removing all books written by white authors, but making sure that a fair amount of the curriculum is devoted to making sure that every child can connect to the book. Washington describes the feeling as a parent as “at some point, my daughter has read a book written by someone of African American descent.”
The third pillar of communication and community involvement is quite straightforward, and which means that the main goal is being set to involve and inform the community about these issues.
The fourth pillar is policy and practices. This pillar includes the newly added section and guidelines for specifically hate speech within the school. Before, hate speech had been enforced under the bullying guidelines. However, the implications, as well as the handling of hate speech, compare to bullying are quite different, thus leading to the creation of this new section of the policy. The policy and practices of the school have started to lean more and more towards education as a means of helping students truly understand the full implications of racism. When asked about Saline regarding education as its largest tool, Laatsch said, “education is the most important thing we can do.”
The fifth pillar is safety and empowerment. This pillar is there to make sure that when incidents occur, the affected students feel safe and empowered to express themselves, to do better and lead in the area of racism, and to make sure everybody is growing. Washington explains, “the district can’t just have rules against things, they have to promote growth and healing.” One example of the district's efforts to make sure that students of color feel safe and empowered in the schools is the founding of the Students of Color Affinity Group. This black student union is a group where students can share out about their experiences of racism that they have encountered in the schools. One of the club's main staff leaders is Jason Pickett explains that “make it a safe space to talk for students of color.” Pickett goes on to explain that the group was supposed to start the Tuesday after the high school got shut down for the first time last March, and has not yet been able to start as, “it's not a great group to start on a zoom…[zooms] can be impersonal, and this isn’t an impersonal topic.” However, the planning of this group is an example of the change that is occurring in Saline.
It seemed to be the consensus that while there is a long road to go, Saline is on the right path, and change for good is happening. In the case of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership Coalition, Channon Washington said that the main structure in the relationship between the board of education and the coalition is, “a lot of trust.” While on the national level a lot of change is happening to change the systemic racism of America, it needs to be remembered that Saline has its part to play. The recent founding of the DEILC, the Students of Color Affinity Group, and the district’s goals as a whole show the efforts of changing the approach to racism within Saline schools. Washington also said that “Saline has a lot of work to do, but the willingness [for improvement] was there.” The change in Saline might feel small in relation to the change happening on a national level, but Jason Pickett explains that “[people who want change think] they’re doing it already [on a national level], but they’re doing it there, and we have to do it here.”
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