To the Valparaiso Community Schools Board,

Allies Against Racism is a coalition of community groups, parents, students, teachers and other individuals dedicated to making our community and our schools truly welcoming to all.  Our conversations with people of color in the Valparaiso community and with students in the Valparaiso Schools reveal that Black and Brown students and others in marginalized groups face racist aggression, discrimination, and a culture of white supremacy, often on a daily basis.  Often our culture and our educational system does not recognize their value and contributions to building this nation and its wealth or their active agency in bringing about their own liberation and leadership in striving to achieve our highest ideals of equality and justice – articulated by our founders, but not always lived up to by our local and National society today.

Since August of 2020, we have met with two Board members on one occasion and followed up regularly with the Superintendent, Dr. Jim McCall.  We appreciate the time and attention given to these discussions. And we recognize that Covid and anti-mask hysteria have consumed much energy leaving little energy to address racism.  However, the effects of the long history of inequality and marginalization damages many of our children.  Good intentions will not undo this pathology.  So, we have proposed policies and offered resources to address these issues. 

1.      Implement a restorative practices / justice process to deal with racial and other discrimination against marginalized groups and to resolve conflict and bring an end to racist and other forms of bullying. Students must be involved in the training and in the process as well.

2.      Provide Implicit bias training for teachers and administrators.

3.      Hire people of color in teaching, administrative, counseling and other positions.  This will  benefit all students

4.      Conduct a thorough and critical examination and updating of curriculum. We should assure, among other things, that students gain an understanding of the ongoing tension between our highest ideals and the lived reality from perspectives often ignored such as those of enslaved people and native nations. 

Census data suggests that our community will continue to become more diverse and our children will be entering a more diverse nation. We need to prepare them to live in that world and if they go on to higher learning where diversity will be much greater than represented here.

This is formal request for the school board to recognize Allies Against Racism as a community partner and resource, and to initiate steps to implement the four policies listed above.

Sincerely,

Allies Against Racism and supporters of the above proposed policies