The Essential

What a busy year! Seems like we've all been stretched to the limit. Thank you for the tireless work you do, DDSD!

Equity and inclusion work is not a linear journey. It is not ONLY about doing what best serves the real, in the flesh humans in front of us with practices that offer voice, visibility, and space to learn as they are. Equity invites us to confront our biases and assumptions daily. It is also an invitation to stretch our edges and extend love and inclusion even where we don't share the same experience. Much of our learning this year has been about growing in empathy, looking beyond what we've always done and taking inventory of where change and growth are needed. Our world is a beautiful and diverse place that constantly changes.

DDSD is lucky to have many wonderful LGBTQ staff serving our students and community. Our staff showing up as their full selves in the world can create spaces that are more welcoming and inclusive for everyone. Hilary Reed, English teacher at DDHS has graciously shared some of her journey below. Thank you, Hilary!

"Growing up as a 90s kid, I didn’t have any LGBTQ role models, especially at school. My identity felt like something marginal and shameful, not to be discussed in mixed company. Though I was fortunate enough to have supportive parents and live in an inclusive community, I spent years trying to reverse the internalized homophobia created by the omission of queer people in my personal and academic life. When I became a teacher, I decided to use my relative privilege in my community, as a cisgendered white woman, to support LGBTQ students in a number of ways. It’s important to me to help usher in the voices of the underrepresented in the classroom, both to reflect students' identities back to them and to normalize and destigmatize the queer experience for students in privileged positions. Collaborating with other teachers and staff to support queer students and colleagues has also been particularly meaningful to me, and serving on the Equity team has provided ample opportunities for this important work. Lastly, I’m indescribably excited to teach Gender Studies to seniors for the first time next year, as conversations around the intersections of identity serve to educate and unite us all."

Those of us who don't identify with the specific experiences of others, and especially those of us who daily work with children should take care to avoid causing further harm to individuals who find themselves alienated by their queer identity. According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, LGBTQ youth have a higher risk of sexual assault. According to the Trevor project, 1 in 3 LGBTQ youth have been threatened or harmed due to their identity and roughly 30% have been kicked out of their homes, run away, or become homeless. As educators, we can help create safe and accepting spaces that mitigate harm and reduce trauma, if even a little bit. Our young humans are in pain and need us to compassionate, embracing adults in their lives.

Check out this booklist to celebrate Pride Month. It is not even close to exhaustive. Do your own search if you're looking for something specific. Every child should see their family represented in the images, stories, and teaching that happens in school. They should feel fully accepted and celebrated for who they are. By making these things more visible in your classroom, you set the tone for student safety.

When communities that have been historically relegated to the margins fight the silencing of generations and begin to share their experience of history and the untold parts of the story, we need to listen. Because the narrative of our history as a nation has been defined, interpreted, and written by powerful people we find ourselves piecing together the rest of the story. Folks from the margins have always held their own history, through art, music, storytelling, struggle, and striving. Juneteenth is one such assertion.

We have completed our first year of districtwide equity learning and are in the process of reading and processing the end of the year surveys to inform the learning opportunities that will be offered next year. Equity work is not convenient or easy. It does not happen without an investment of time and resources, but it is also critical to improving our success with marginalized student groups. While it has been a heavy lift, trends in survey results show that over the course of the year, more and more people felt they learned important and meaningful things about our students and their needs.