Share this with your students, families, and other friends! (It's a great extra credit opportunity...?)
You can sign a petition in support of the students here.
To learn more about this act of violence, please visit the links provided below:
You can find the full statement below: On Saturday, January 24 a group of about 50 students aged 9-13 and their chaperones attended a professional hockey game in Rapid City, South Dakota (many for the first time). The outing was a reward; the students were part of the school’s 21st Century program and had demonstrated academic success. A fellow attendee not affiliated with the group described the students as “some of the best behaved he’s seen.” During the third period of the game, the group was forced to leave out of concerns for their safety. From the suite above where the students sat in the stands, intoxicated individuals allegedly poured beer on the students and peppered them with racially-motivated slurs. The management of both the hockey arena and the company who owns the suite have issued statements apologizing for what happened. Police are investigating the incident. And there’s a good chance this is the first you’re hearing of it. The students and teachers are from the American Horse School located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, a community that works hard to foster a strong sense of self and Lakota-pride in its young people. What happened at that game wasn’t just racist, or a hate crime, or whatever words one might choose to describe the harrowing incident. What happened at that game made ignorance and brutality permanently parts of those students’ lives. It told them that they can’t travel to certain places, and that there are people who deem the Oglala Lakota Nation as less-than. The incident made the students unwitting victims of prejudice, instead of the incredible future leaders they are. The students were literally made to feel unsafe in their own ancestral home. And the hard reality is, this has been the case for Native communities for hundreds of years. As leaders of Teach For America’s Strategic Initiatives & Partnerships team, we refuse to stand idly by without raising our collective voice against this cowardly act. We represent communities across culture, content area, and grade level, and it would be easy for many of us to ignore this outrage. To say that it didn’t happen to our students; it happened to Native students many states away. But as Dr. King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” We are one community, one that believes all students deserve an educational system that fosters academic and personal pride and accomplishment. There is no room for hatred in this community. The incident in Rapid City hasn’t received mainstream attention. One could speculate on why this is: Is it because our society has grown immune to these sorts of injustices, that they’ve become white noise? Or could it be that Native students aren’t deemed to matter the same way other students are? Whatever the reason—and there are many, and they are complex—we hope to spread awareness of what happened so that the students of the American Horse School know that they are not alone. We all stand with them. All kids matter. These students are all our children. In solidarity, Grant Besser Senior Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships Rachel Brody Managing Director, Diverse Learners Initiative Viridiana Carrizales Director, DACA Initiative Stacey Cleveland Director, African American College Access Initiative Robert Cook Senior Managing Director, Native Alliance Initiative Sid Ellington Director, Military Veterans Initiative Amanda Fernandez Vice President, Latino Community Partnerships Daniel Grant Vice President, Strategic Initiatives & Partnerships Sarah Ha Managing Director, Asian American & Pacific Islander Initiative Evan McKittrick Director, Service & Engagement Initiative Laura Dallas McSorley Managing Director, Early Childhood Education Initiative Tim’m West Managing Director, LGBTQ Initiative Joseph Wilson Managing Director, STEM Initiative At my conference in Dallas, I had the privilege of sitting in a session on how to support undocumented students with Educators 4 Fair Consideration (E4FC), who dropped so much knowledge on me.
I have some posters from them that you could put up in your room. If you are interested, please send me student work/ teacher works that shows you are actively affirming students' identities in terms of being undocumented. For example, you could share a students' note with you, student reflections on why we've got to drop the i-word, a video of you as an educator talking about college opportunities for undocumented students, or a lesson plan of how you're incorporating E4FC's creative writing prompts! All work will be showcased on our Learning From Each Other page. From Brittany Packett, Executive Director of TFA St. Louis:
TFAmily, Thank you so much for continuing to encourage and support us here in St. Louis and in Ferguson. Having space on The Chat and affinity spaces this morning to reflect on this with you was critically important, and I appreciate the opportunity to reflect equal parts outrage and hope from STL. I cannot tell you what a relief it was last night to finally be allowed to peacefully assemble in the name of Mike Brown. But there is still so much work to do. The change in policing tactics last night was important, but did nothing to ensure an independent, fair, truthful and transparent investigation into Mike’s death. In addition, just two days after Mike was shot, Ezell Ford was gunned down by law enforcement in LA, and only 10 days before, John Crawford was shot while holding a toy rifle in an Ohio Wal-Mart. Mike, Ezell and John represent an epidemic that was named today - there are many Mikes in every city. Your students, your friends, and some of you, have been continued targets of racial profiling and police harassment and brutality. This is why we are continuing to push the #DONTSHOOT movement and are respectfully asking your help to do so. By collecting a united front of diverse leaders in education, both allies and those from marginalized groups, we can send a message that (to channel our board member John Legend) “these are our children, and we stand against the racism that killed Mike together.” To participate, please:
Thank you for considering this request - it will be an important contribution to ensuring the #DONTSHOOT conversation continues far beyond this week, and to help in the long fight to ensure our young people are free to live and live with dignity. |
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