Dear Indian Springs School Board of Trustees,

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Rayshard Brooks are four recent Black victims of police brutality of an institution plagued with racism. Indian Springs School has benefited from systemic racism from its founding as our school emerged to teach and accept only White males. Today, Indian Springs School still benefits from and contributes to systemic racism as a majority White institution of primarily affluent students and alumni.  The Interim Head of Indian Springs recently wrote a letter to the students, families, and alumni voicing his sadness and anger for this injustice and while we appreciate the letter, we want to see more than words. While Indian Springs School has pledged to train their staff to combat racism and educate their students on justice and equity, we do not believe these steps alone adequately utilize Indian Springs’ resources and capacity to address racism and inequality. We, the students, families, and alumni of Indian Springs School, call on you, the Indian Springs Board of Trustees, to take proportionate actions and to match your words of remorse to dismantle systemic racism.

We urge you to consider how Springs can use its core values of integrity, inclusion, and respect to live up to your “moral courage” and be an example to other institutions. We ask the Board of Trustees to:

 I.         Create an initiative to recruit more people of color (POC), particularly, Black and Hispanic people from Birmingham to address the lack of diversity in the faculty, administration, board members and student population today to promote a more inclusive and diverse environment for future generations. As an institution that prides itself on its diversity and inclusivity, the disparity between the racial and ethnic demographics of the Birmingham and Indian Springs community is unacceptable. 

 II.         Establish a scholarship with partial financial support from alumni donations for POC in the Shelby and Jefferson County School Districts to attend Springs. Indian Springs School values its diversity nationally and internationally but lacks diversity from within the Birmingham community. By making a stronger financial commitment and welcoming POC into the Indian Springs community today, we can rebuild and lay new foundations of our school to promote a more inclusive and diverse environment for future generations. 

 III.        Commit to building a stronger relationship with the city of Birmingham, Jefferson and Shelby County. Birmingham’s history of racism and racial segregation has placed today’s generation of Black Americans at a disadvantage in comparison to White Americans. Establishing relationships and initiatives to improve the lives of Black Americans in the Birmingham community will help Springs bridge the gap to make lasting changes for equity while also encouraging students to use their privilege to take direct action in combating inequality. This relationship must continue past Development Day to form substantial relationships and prevent a white saviorism complex.

 IV.        Publicly respond with a letter detailing a plan on how you intend to address our requests in a timely manner. Solely agreeing to these issues is not enough. Indian Springs School has the financial and social capability to address its role in systemic racism in the United States of America. Indian Springs School must use their power to enact change.

Institutions, including Indian Springs, are not neutral spaces. Springs has the potential to be an active agent in engaging with social change within the Birmingham community as well as with its current students and alumni. We want students of color to become strong leaders in our community, but how can we expect this if they do not see leaders of color in the Springs community? Indian Springs must listen to their community and change.

Sincerely,

The Current Students, Alumni, and Families of Indian Springs School