In response to the modern-day lynchings of Ahmuad Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tony McDade, and in New Jersey, Maurice Gordon; that have all taken place within the first six months of 2020, the United States and the entire world have witnessed a resurgent demand for racial justice. The current protests and social revolution known as Black Lives Matter is rooted in the historical struggle for Black liberation in the United States of America. This is the legacy of Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Fannie Lou Hammer,  Audre Lorde, Martin King Jr., Ella Baker, Malcolm X, Ida B. Wells, Oluwatoyin Salau. The moral fire within our spirits that has engulfed our nation in response to the public murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police is not simply about abolishing the police; the fire raging in us today is the fire that Baldwin referred to as “the fire next time”. And while the fire of Black Lives Matter reveals the need for change, true transformation requires deconstructing the 401 years of institutional, structural, and personal racism that pervades every aspect of this nation. Due to the top-down and bottom-up tactics practiced in the United States, White Supremacy and anti-Blackness have found their place in Lawrence Township, NJ, and made their bed in Lawrence Township Public Schools. 

 

The overt White Supremacy experienced by young Black women who were taunted and urinated on at a Lawrence High School football game was not an isolated event. This was the key to the locked box of Black people’s traumatic lived-experiences of both overt and covert White Supremacy in Lawrence Township, and more specifically Lawrence Township Public Schools. The flood of #BlackInLawrenceNJ stories and the October 2019 incident staunchly contradict the placating and superficial catechism “hate has no place in Lawrence Township”. Such a communal narrative denies the lived experience of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) persons, and the trauma they experience. Clearly communicated, community informed, measurable actions need to be taken. 

 

We are therefore sending this letter to the district's Board of Education and Superintendent to end systemic racism and implement a radical reconstruction agenda for our public schools.

 

We need revolutionary change in our town. The historical sea of unisolated, ignored, traumagenic events deserves it. The fire in our bones and our protest demands it. 

 

We look first to our education system to acquire the radical change Lawrence needs. 

 

We will no longer be silent or silenced. 

 

Our Demands

As students, parents, faculty, staff, alumni, and residents of Lawrence, NJ we make the following demands on our public school district to end systemic racism and all related injustices:

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1. Rethink Discipline. Eradicate School-To-Prison Pipeline Practices & Policies. The current call to abolish local police departments and prisons cannot be separated from the United States’ long tradition of incorporating racial bias in its administration of “justice”. Trading the whip for the gavel, racism has long outlived slavery. Through criminalization and punishment, the descendants of freed slaves are continuously placed under the knee of White Supremacy. Such continuity depends on structural systems that seek to protect institutional commitment to White Supremacy through instantiated policy, prevailing negative stereotypes, and practiced degradation of Black, Indigenous People of Color. These systems imprison bodies, spill blood, and steal breath of Black Americans. In our schools, this has manifested through what is known as the School-To-Prison Pipeline. This pipeline is enabled by the zero-tolerance code of conduct that prioritizes punishment over education and embodies White normativity as its ideal. We are calling for an immediate block in this pipeline, through the following steps:

• Remove any law enforcement assigned to be present on a regular basis in Lawrence Township Public Schools by January 1, 2021. This would prohibit a regular presence, such as being stationed full or part-time in a school or set of schools, making daily or weekly visits, or the inclusion of a school in an officer’s regular beat. This includes School Resource Officers (SROs), police, all in-school presentations by police (D.A.R.E./L.E.A.D., Bus safety, K-9 shows), and security guards. 

• Establish a School Climate and Culture Leadership Team that directly responds to misbehavior by January 1, 2021. Create a positive school environment through equity-focused, trauma-sensitive, culturally affirming social, and emotional learning strategies. Such a team must consist of certified behavioral, trauma specialists, equity coaches, and violence interrupters (current LTPS security guards who have been retrained in healing centered de-escalation). All LTPS faculty and staff must be given adequate and consistent training on equity-focused, trauma-sensitive, culturally affirming social and emotional strategies throughout the school year. 

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• Eradicate detentions, in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, involuntary expulsion by September 1, 2020. Remove zero-tolerance policies regarding, but not limited to, school and class attendance, in-class participation/misbehavior, substance use, and physical violence which have traditionally resulted in detention, suspension, or involuntary expulsion. Institute alternative safety plans, restorative practices, and expulsion as the absolute last option with the student’s right to appeal removal. Take the necessary steps to establish and implement district-wide Restorative Justice practices and policies as evidenced by professional development and student engagement. Restorative justice programs strengthen communities, prevent bullying, and reduce student conflicts. Successful adoption warrants reductions in suspension and expulsion rates.

• Publically end the relationship with Rubino Academy by September 1, 2020.

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2. Liberation and Transformation. An Actively Anti-Racist Guidance Department. The socio-psychological wellness and educational attainment goals of every LTPS Guidance Department must stand staunchly against the intrinsically biased values of the American education system. Such values have historically protected cisgender, affluent, straight, able-bodied, white, Christian men. As the heart of every LTPS building, the Department must be the seat of liberation and transformation in the district’s quest to be actively anti-cissexism, anti-classist, anti-heterosexism, anti-ableist, anti-racist, anti-religious oppression, anti-sexist, and anti-adultism. This means:  

• Take ownership of all #BlackInLawrenceNJ stories pertaining to Lawrence Township Public Schools by July 15, 2020. Accept all #BlackInLawrenceNJ stories pertaining to LTPS as true and consult the community around ways LTPS will publicly acknowledge the adverse impact systemic racism has had on people’s lives as exhibited in these stories.

• Hire Counselors not Cops by January 1, 2021. Census data show that 70 percent of U.S. school counselors are white; in New Jersey, 83 percent of support-services staff, including guidance counselors, are white. Within each LTPS building’s Guidance Department, house the School Climate and Culture Leadership Team. Hire counseling staff who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) for PreK-12 positions.

• Hire a Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Coach by January 1, 2021. Each building shall be assigned its own Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity professional who identifies as a BIPOC that is committed to the intersectional work of deconstruction. Such experts shall chair the School Climate and Culture Leadership Team and provide feedback to Master Teachers on curriculum and pedagogical development.

• Institute School-Day Group Therapy by September 1, 2020. Establish voluntary peer to peer mentoring and group therapy sessions for historically oppressed students (BIPOC, Queer, Woman, Poor, Differently-Abled, Non-Christian), under accredited students, and repeatedly disciplined students. Weekly sessions should be held during the school day, rather than outside school hours, in order to respect the socio-economic demands students navigate.

• Remain Teachable by September 1, 2020. Provide all Guidance Department staff, including the School Climate and Culture Leadership Team, with radical and revolutionary professional development that will increase the school’s commitment to being equity-focused, trauma-sensitive, and culturally affirming.

• Revolutionary Affirmative Action by September 1, 2020.

  • Train pre-collegiate counselors on pre-collegiate counseling for first-generation, low-income students and their families

  • Provide free SAT/ACT prep classes, materials, and test waivers to students who are typically underrepresented in Higher Education

  • Provide free, in-state and out-of-state, college tours for students who are typically underrepresented in Higher Education. Include both Historically Black Universities/Colleges (HBCUs) and non-HBCUs on annual tours. 

  • Formulate a mentoring relationship between BIPOC LHS Students and local college students who are BIPOC from Rider University, The College of New Jersey, and Princeton University. 

  • Formulate strong relationships with the Educational Opportunity Program/Educational Opportunity Fund and McNair/TRIO Programs at Rider University, The College of New Jersey, and Rutgers University.

 

3. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Educational Accountability. Paulo Friere stated “There’s no such thing as neutral education. Education either functions as an instrument to bring about conformity or freedom...Leaders who do not act dialogically, but insist on imposing their decisions, do not organize the people–they manipulate them. They do not liberate, nor are they liberated: they oppress.” There is an inherent complexity to working with a diverse student population. Research has found that many teachers and counselors go into the beginning of their service stating that they have anxiety about teaching different ethnic groups and about teaching multicultural education content in their classrooms. That is, when preservice staff have negative attitudes toward student diversity, they tend to be unwilling to practice and implement a multicultural curriculum. This must be met with the following steps:

• Institute PreK-12 Humanities (History, English, Arts) curriculum and courses that teach and center Black experiences by September 1, 2020. 

• Establish faculty-lead equity teams in each building that are predominantly made up of teachers who are BIPOC and other minorities by September 1, 2020.

• Hire and retain BIPOC faculty and professional staff by January 1, 2021. Hire and retain BIPOC teaching professionals at a ratio which is representative of Black student demographics, ensuring that BIPOC staff are core subject teachers, with the acknowledgment that research shows it is important  for students to see educators who look like them in positions of leadership in their classrooms and schools

• Hire and retain BIPOC as Master Teachers/Instructional Supervisors by January 1, 2021. Hire and retain BIPOC in-class supervisors who are committed to PreK-12 curriculum and instruction development inspired by an Abolitionist Teaching framework and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy.

• Reserve a seat on the Board of Education for a Black Alumni of LTPS by August 1, 2021. One seat on the board must be reserved for a Black alumnus of Lawrence Township Public Schools, who resides in Mercer County. 

• Start from within by September 1, 2020.  Organize a school-wide protocol for staff to ensure staff’s understanding of their own multiple identities (individual characteristics, family dynamics, historical factors, social and political contexts, and other elements) before every school year; only then can they help build cultural responsiveness

  • Hire an educational equity consultant to conduct an equity audit to assess areas of strength in the district, and areas where we need to address disparities. Conduct individual and building-wide self-assessments. Consider completing an inventory, such as the Intercultural Development Inventory, or engaging in a ”Who Am I?“ exercise, in which a person writes down as many identity descriptors as possible to help identify his or her cultural, philosophical, and social identities and begin to understand the social contexts that guide individual belief systems.

  • Establish a system-wide approach to be utilized to support the development of mindsets and skillsets for equity grounded leadership and more culturally responsive practice among district staff and the broader education community. 

• Restructure Community Involvement by September 1, 2020. Take on a new commitment to exploring culturally specific ways that increase all families’ involvement, access to information, and contribution to a sustained positive climate and culture. This includes but is not limited to Back-to-School Night, Parent-Teacher Conferences, extra-curricular activities, concerts, Graduations.

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4. Conduct an Audit of Current Hiring Practices & Execute the Hiring of Black Staff by January 1, 2021. 

• Release the statistical breakdown of traditionally marginalized, specifically BIPOC, LTPS applicants, and LTPS Board of Education candidates.

• Release statistics on how many applicants were Black and were offered positions.​

• Conduct an audit by an outside party of LTPS hiring practices and LTPS Board of Education election practices.

• Conduct surveys/open door listening sessions with Black applicants who were not hired or did not accept offers to give feedback about LTPS’ hiring process.

• Conduct group listening sessions with current BIPOC faculty about their experiences.

• Adopt standardized best practices for hiring BIPOC staff.

• Attend statewide job fairs to attract and recruit more diverse candidates.

• Make permanent such changes that will ensure fair representation of BIPOC amongst faculty and staff.

 

5. Embrace and actively support district-wide Black Student Organizations led by Black Students by September 1, 2020. 

 

6. Embrace and actively support a distinct-wide Minority Teacher Organization led by Black Professional Staff by September 1, 2020.

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We will not be silent or silenced anymore.