This is a petition for MECSD to include discussions of systemic racism and ongoing struggles POC face in the United States in its curriculum; K-12. Here is a letter I composed reflecting my concerns. 

Dear Maine Endwell Central School District,

You have failed me. You have failed me, alongside countless others, in your failure to educate us on the existence of systemic racism. I did not hear the terms “structural racism” or “systemic racism” until I attended college, an outlet only available to me through my privilege. As an educational institution, one of your primary objectives should be to produce moral AND educated members of society. Why did you not teach me how to speak up on matters of injustice alongside the other fundamental life skills I learned like cooking and sewing? Why, when I made a map of New York State in the fourth grade, did you not teach me about redlining? Why did you teach me that lynching was a part of America’s history and not a real threat that our black brothers and sisters still face? Some may argue that politics have no place in public schools. Racism isn’t a political matter; it’s a moral and ethical issue that has plagued our country since its inception. I urge you to include in your curriculum discussions of racial injustice and how we as a country have yet to address it. Talk about race with us when we are still young and before our minds can be touched by the prejudice and hatred that I know you are aware exists in our community. I believe that education is the most powerful tool we possess as a society, and as an educational institution, you possess control of that tool. Please, use it for good. Make a start. Make a statement condemning racism today. Follow it by altering your curriculum to educate students on systemic racism in the United States. Pledge to help make our community a better place and our students better people through education, so that we may then begin to make our world a better place.

Sincerely,

Josephine Trichka

Maine Endwell High School Class of 2013

Middlebury College Class of 2017

MD/PhD Student, Case Western Reserve University