Education Week - July 15, 2020 - 18

LETTERS
TO THE EDITOR

PRESIDENT & CEO Michele J. Givens
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & CHIEF CONTENT OFFICER Scott Montgomery
DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORS

Mark W. Bomster, Stacey Decker, Emma Patti Harris

The Human Cost of the Coronavirus
To the Editor:
Thank you for the page of "Educators We've Lost to the
Coronavirus" (www.edweek.org, April 3, 2020). It made
me cry. It really puts a face on who and what has been lost
during this pandemic. And it just seems to go on forever.
Many of these educators were retired but many were
not. Young people with so much to offer and older people
who had given so much. What a loss. Makes you stop and
realize that this is much more than just an inconvenience.
Donna Marshall
Head of School
The Westview School
Houston, Texas

Don't Lose Momentum on Racial Justice
To the Editor:
In a recent blog post ("'Teachers Cannot Be Silent': How
Educators Are Showing Up for Black Students Following
Protests," Teaching Now blog, www.edweek.org, June 1,
2020), it was noted that several educators were coming
up with innovative ways to reach out to their students
following the killing of George Floyd.
As a Black educator, I often think of ways that I
can advocate for my students. Reading this blog post
highlighted the necessity of culturally responsive and
relevant education. While it is definitely a teachable
moment in our classrooms, we cannot lose the
momentum that this movement has provided us. Quite
frequently, teachable moments remain within the realm of
the moment.
As we reflect on our 2020 virtual learning experiences
with our students, I hope that we can look back and realize
it was this moment that actually led to great changes in
curricular choices nationwide. When I discuss the George
Floyd killing with my students, I find myself wanting to
share more about the institution of systemic racism. I
ponder what changes I can make in my own curriculum
for the foreseeable future.
While U.S. history class may present the most obvious
opportunity for discussions and lessons on historical
and systemic racism in the United States, curricular
changes have to be made across the board. Teachers
and students must be willing to engage in the difficult
conversations about what has led us to this moment.
For our conversations with students to have long-lasting
meaning, they must be paired with curriculum that
explores the positive and negative historical experiences
of all Americans.
Wardell Minor
High School English-as-a-New-Language Teacher
New York, N.Y.

We Must Take on Bias in Schools
To the Editor:
The recent article "Teachers Are as Racially Biased as
Everybody Else, Study Shows" (www.edweek.org, June 9,
2020) highlights an undeniable truth. We educators have
biases that are implicit and, at times, explicit. We all must
reflect on these biases to acknowledge our privilege and
prejudices to ensure that our views and perceptions do not
harm students.
The stakes are too high not to acknowledge, address,
and make a conscious effort to eradicate racial biases
within the school context as it is our moral, ethical, and
professional imperative. In the article, the author of the
study states, "Teachers perceive, evaluate, and treat
students differently based on their race." Our biases
should not affect student outcomes, but they already do.
We must identify areas of disparity and develop policies,
systems, and protocols to curb the epidemic of biases.
Schools should be a safe zone where our students are
educated and are protected from such injustices. Training
is not enough; instead, we must focus on implementation.
Educators must use data to identify racial disparities to

eliminate bias from education. We must have courageous
conversations and ask tough questions about what we are
doing as a school, district, and school system to address
this epidemic.
We convey messages in our silence and our inaction. Let
our actions speak volumes and foster a shift in the status
quo.
Kinsley R. Jabouin,
Special Education Teacher
New York, N.Y.

Schools Need More to Face Trauma
To the Editor:
We are writing to offer additional considerations related
to the opinion essay "Police Violence and COVID-19
Have Been Traumatizing. Here Are Tools That Can
Help Schools" (www.edweek.org, June 16, 2020). While
the essay offers an overview of research on trauma with
a focus on how schools can identify and respond to
children who have been affected, it is missing attention to
necessary systems for effective implementation.
Author Heather C. Hill appropriately identifies that
reactions to trauma will be individually determined
and recommends that restarting school should include
screening for exposure and symptoms. Although
screening may be appropriate, effective screening
procedures must involve more than adapting a particular
instrument and having students complete it without
having supports available to avoid retraumatization. The
systems supporting appropriate data use and response are
equally, if not more, important.
With tighter budgets and ever-expanding lists of
decisions that need prioritizing, schools must think
carefully before engaging in any new assessment
practices. They need to ask critical questions, including
what data are needed to inform response, what data
are already available, and how to prepare staff for
identification and response roles.
We also agree that trauma-informed response must
attend to both staff and student needs. An emotionally
safe environment is critical to successful recovery and
will not happen if staff are not ready and able to support
students. We recommend relying heavily on existing
frameworks for tiered service delivery with emphasis on
strengthening core services based on community context.
Core services must have relationships at their center
but should extend beyond teacher-student relationships
to adult-adult, adult-student, and student-student in
coordinated partnerships across school, family, and
community.
We strongly recommend that schools engage their
existing multitiered frameworks for identification and
response, focusing efforts on strengthening the role of
every staff member in identification and response to
trauma.
Sandra M. Chafouleas
Licensed Psychologist
Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor
Neag School of Education
University of Connecticut
Storrs, Conn.

Jeana Bracey
Associate Vice President of School and Community Initiatives
Child Health and Development Institute
Farmington, Conn.

ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITORS

18 | EDUCATION WEEK | July 15, 2020 | www.edweek.org/go/opinion

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7/7/20

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Education Week - July 15, 2020

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