Please join us in holding Wellesley Public School leadership accountable for making a commitment to racial equity and inclusion.

YES (Young Ethnic Scholars) has been trying to get these demands completed for two years now, and many of the demands are yet to be met.

Ignoring the injustices of widespread, normalized racism and intolerance of others, or simply making a statement, is not an option. Kingston Bay Group’s 2018 WPS Racial Climate Report unearthed some distressing findings: 49% of participants have witnessed or heard “Anti-DE&I Behavior” among students and 80% of students “are indifferent or feel race/racism has no impact on education.” To effectively educate our students on systemic racism, injustice, and privilege, WPS must take measurable action to provide students with the knowledge, empathy, and critical thinking skills necessary to understand the historical and present realities of racial and social injustice. Conversations about race profoundly affect our student’s lives, and they have power to influence our society’s collective strength. I ask you to please take time to continually educate students, staff, and faculty on these matters, ask questions and take action.

By signing the petition, we request WPS to do as follows:

(i) Begin education about race, power, discrimination and privilege in kindergarten. By age 3, children can internalize racial bias, and by age 12 many children become set in their beliefs about race (Anderson and Dougé).*YES has discussed

(ii) Reevaluate and restructure the curriculum in every WPS school through an intersectional lens that incorporates race, gender, and socioeconomic status to teach students not only about the history of systemic racism, but its current and ongoing manifestations. *YES has been involved in and discussed

(iii) Establish required training for teachers and faculty on how to be anti-racist to equip them with the tools to support and educate all students.*YES demand

(iv) End the relationship between WPS and WPD and recommend that the current budget ($4,320 per fiscal year) is reallocated to counselors, special speakers, and other resources (i.e. take-home materials, webinars for parents etc.) All future discussion of WPS and WPD relationships be directed to Y.E.S.*YES demand

(v) Release a detailed plan to recruit, hire, onboard, and retain educators of color.*YES demand

(vi) Include and focus on literature and scholarship by Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and anti-racist authors in History and English and incorporate these knowledges into STEM classes.*YES has discussed

WPS must decide what part of history they want to be on. 

In addition to signing the petition, send emails to Wellesley Public School leadership members to demand this change! Attached is a google doc link that has a written email template that addresses action items the community wants WPS to take to address racial equity and inclusion at Wellesley. It also has all the email addresses of WPS faculty in positions of power to enact this change. It will take less than a minute.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ItZsiejQ4YnMxPSkjF7p5M8zYu7me7KQRbaD_3gLvUY/edit?usp=sharing

(If promoted to donate by change.org, do NOT donate because all the money goes to change.org NOT the cause)