“Being anti-racist or attempting to be an anti-racist school community is on the shoulders of everyone.”
–Ralinda Watts (National Association of Independent Schools, 2021)

DEI…starting from neurodiversity 

We have a lot of neurodiversity at Temple Grandin School. Our students understand what it’s like to feel different, and even excluded – especially in schools. But here in Boulder County, we don’t have many opportunities to encounter racial diversity. How do you have a substantive conversation about race and racism in a community that is, according to the US Census Bureau, “90% white alone?” Our county and state do have an active Hispanic population (14-20%), but living where we live…Could it be possible that we have students in our small school community who have never known, or even met a Black person? Not any more. To wrap up Black History Month, we devoted our quarterly Inquiry Days at TGS to the topic of social justice, and we opened our inquiry by hearing from Shiquita Yarbrough, Director of Community Engagement and Equity at the Boulder County YWCA.

Listening to diverse voices

Shiquita took an hour of her time to talk with our students via Zoom, to help them understand what it feels like to be Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color (BIPOC) in a classroom of white people. She shared how her own son was the sole Black student in his classes and how his classmates would turn to him whenever a racial issue was mentioned. She reported that he felt the weight on his shoulders of representing his entire race, and it created a great deal of stress for him. This painful and personal experience was just one of many she shared with us. Other experiences she described were ones that most of us here in Boulder only see on the news:

Being called promiscuous for wearing her hair naturally instead of in a more white style.

Having police called when walking and talking on a cell phone in an apartment complex, trying to find a friend’s apartment.

Fearing for her son when he was walking home in the dark in their predominantly white neighborhood.

Being called the N-word in a church.

Toward a more just and equitable education system

With Shiquita, our students brainstormed ideas in response to the question: “How can we create a more just and equitable education system?”

Here’s the list they created together. Some ideas are familiar, as they have been called out frequently in the national news. Others are small steps that anyone can take. All things considered, it feels like a good starting point for a group of neurodiverse kids fumbling their way through a conversation with a stranger on a Zoom call.

• Get to know people. Accept them for who they are and not how they look. Refrain from judging them.
• Start the diversity conversation early, in elementary schools.
• Talk about people’s own implicit biases.
• Restructure systemic racism.
• Reform law enforcement.
• Call out explicit biases.
• Create more diverse communities so people learn not to be scared of what is different from them.

For the remainder of our two-day inquiry, students took the question of creating equitable education to their core classes. In STEM, they discussed systems thinking and the science behind changing systems to become more healthy. In Language Arts, they talked about how reading and education can support systemic change. From the Social Studies angle, students discussed possible educational policies that could help schools become more inclusive.

DEI…in independent schools?

Donna Orem, president of the National Association of Independent Schools, writes:

“This is a moment for independent schools to take action, within their school communities and their surrounding communities. I believe that begins with truly listening to and understanding the stories that Black and brown students, parents, and alums are sharing. They are allowing themselves to be vulnerable in telling their stories and exposing their pain. White members of school communities must be vulnerable, too. We must drop our defenses and really listen.” (Orem, 2021)

Our conversation with Shiquita Yarbrough was just a small step in our own independent school taking action. We acknowledge that social justice can’t be achieved in two Inquiry Days. But we have begun the conversation, and we will continue to listen to diverse perspectives as we explore pathways to foster true inclusion within our school and surrounding community.

References

Orem, D. (2021). On my mind: The work to be done. Independent School, 80(2), 8-11.

Perspectives: Ralinda Watts. (2021). Independent School, 80(2), 49-51.