In light of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others, as well as the sustained institutional racism that pervades throughout the Florence community and the nation, we the undersigned do hereby demand that Florence Township Schools immediately execute the following actions:

Demands for Immediate Action Regarding Educational Equity

1. K-12 school curriculum revision that includes Social Justice History, social-emotional learning, and equity of voice and representation in class content (especially in humanities subjects). Staff needs training to implement this. 
2. School district will increase the number of black, indigenous, and other people of color within their faculty by 30% by the School Year 2021-2022 and an additional 20% increase by School Year 2022-2023(teachers, counselors, nurses, etc.) 
3. Mandated yearlong (at least once a quarter) Diversity Equity and Inclusion (referred to as DEI), Restorative/Transformative Justice, Social Emotional Learning and Undoing Racism training for the School Board members and School District Staff (Teachers, Leadership Team, and Senior Leadership Team).
4. Establish a DEI Task Force that is a part of the Superintendent’s Office. They will nominate a DEI Officer to the School Board as well as conducting DEI needs-assessments of the network for accountability at the K-12 campus level. All diversity information is published for transparency and the communities viewing.   
5. Create a district-wide framework for accountability of racist/discriminatory behavior, and work with the union to include contract language that addresses this. Teachers, coaches, and administrators must be held accountable as deemed by the District and community for racist/discriminatory behavior. 
6. School district will contract or directly hire behavioral support staff and/or a school psychologist to appropriately support students with special needs and learning disabilities with DEI Training.
7. Divert Funds from Security Guards/Resource Officers to the Student Support Service Team community building and Restorative/Transformative Justice. 
8. Replace Guidance Counselors with Student Support Team including Testing Coordinator, Dean of Students, Behavioral Specialists, and College Preparedness Advisor, etc. This team will also focus on empowering black (POCs as well) students within the school system to prepare them for college. 
9. Appoint a high school student who will serve as part of the DEI initiative at the school district. They will also be a part of the scholarship committee for low-income black students looking to pursue college, participate in athletics, and/or pursue extracurricular activities in the K-12 campuses. 
10. Implements a district-wide system that dismantles the current School to Prison Pipeline decreasing suspensions, expulsions, and detentions by 80% by year 2022 of black, indigenous, and other people of color. System should also take into account the current SPED tracking and funneling for Black/POCs in the school district and support at risk black/POCs students (Selective Mutism in early childhood, PTSD, etc.) 

It  is your job as an educational institution to empower your students to be phenomenal and achieve their wildest dreams, to empower them to take on the community and the world around them with love and justice, and to challenge our society in order to make it better.

When students, current and past, continue to speak to how the Florence Township school system and community have torn down their dreams, used violence, built up pain, caused trauma, and brought about hate that begets more hate, it is then your duty to live up to the mission that you set as educators, members of the school board, and the school district. 

As a school district you did not stand with the black young people who graduated with a debt of trauma that many are still trying to wrestle with and pay today. As a community you did not stand with the black young people who experienced racism on the pitch, the field, the court, and the classroom. As a community you did not stand with the black young people who wished for nothing more than to love the skin that they are in.

Below are the list of those who stand with us, current students, faculty members, alumni, as we seek collective educational justice for the community of Florence Township. 

These efforts must be executed with intention and organization, such that they are continued for generations to come and deliver long-term progress, rather than short term increases in diversity. We are not simply numbers you count when reporting on DEI to funding agencies; we are the people who bring the sagacity, and moral consciousness derived from multicultural experiences.

We want all your voices to be heard, we want to establish transparency, and we want you to pledge your dedication to the cause if ever we need an ally, a co-conspirator, and a friend. Please sign the Petition for change. 

None of us are free until all of us are free