LEWISTON — The School Committee has adopted an action statement designed to create an anti-racist learning environment for students.
Fatuma Hussein File photo
Members voted unanimously Monday in favor of an educational equity action statement presented by members of the district’s Equity Resource Team. Fatuma Hussein, a founding member of the Lewiston-based Immigrant Resource Center of Maine, shared her experiences with the committee.
She moved to Lewiston in 2001, among the first of thousands of Somalis to relocate here. She saw a need for equity work and joined the local City Spirit chapter.
“This community was not used to people who are Black and brown,” she said. “For 20 years, I have worked to make Lewiston better. A lot of accountability needs to be done.”
She said six of her eight children were born in Lewiston, and when the family first moved to Maine, her daughters attended school in Old Orchard Beach because other children of color went there.
But it wasn’t good. Other students threw rocks at her daughters, she said.
Those daughters eventually were accepted at Georgetown University and Swarthmore College. The eldest was accepted at 11 schools, including Cornell and Johns Hopkins, despite not having a letter of recommendation from her school counselor. According to Hussein, her daughter was told, “She would never get into Georgetown, so why bother?”
“We need to look at equity and not shy away from it,” Hussein said. “When we hold ourselves accountable, we acknowledge that there is room to grow, to address the systemic racism we encounter.”
Ayesha Hall, the district’s equity resource coordinator, told the committee that the team would use the statement as a guide to “challenge the systemic imbalances of power and privilege.”
She noted that Superintendent Jake Langlais already is reaching out to stakeholders, creating pathways for more people to be involved in decision-making. The action statement includes dozens of steps, including building equity infrastructures for permanent spaces for schools and the district to address equity issues.
This would include:
· Access to diverse professional learning communities;
· Collecting and reviewing data with an equity lens;
· Proportionate hiring and retention of educators;
· Professional culture of continuous social, emotional and cultural learning;
· Anti-racist curriculum and instruction;
· School climate of acceptance and belonging;
· Discipline practices that seek to build and restore community for all students.
Committee member Kiernan Majerus-Collins urged his colleagues to adopt the statement.
“This city continues to struggle with the poison of racism,” he said. “We need to provide an actively anti-racist education.”
Member Lynnea Hawkins said someone in the community had asked her, “’What’s the big deal?’” in striving for equity in schools.
She said she responded, “’Don’t you think it hurts your student when they see others treated differently because they’re poor or because of the color of their skin?’”
The person said it makes her child uncomfortable.
“What if they didn’t have to be uncomfortable?” Hawkins replied. “Wouldn’t they learn better and be happier in school if their friends weren’t excluded?”
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
