During the month of February, Black History Month is a very important celebration to the Black community. It honors African Americans who have made great contributions to the United States. Even though the month is only 28 days long, it’s very influential because it teaches important Black History that isn’t usually taught in schools. 

Unknown Black historical figures and forgotten moments in Black History are brought to light and are recognized during this month. Black History Month is more than a celebration, as it can be used to educate those outside of the Black community. This historic month wouldn’t have happened without the help of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who was also known as the “Father of Black History” because of his work to ensure that Black History Month would be recognized. 

It all started with Dr. Woodson, who was a historian that helped establish the African American Studies field. He had a strong passion for the study of Black history, becoming one of the first to study the history of the African diaspora. In 1915, Dr. Woodson established the Association for the Sstudy of Negro Life and History (ASALH), which encouraged the discussion of Black History. With this organization, Dr. Woodson founded the first Black History Week in February 1926. The shortest month of the year was chosen because it included the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, two influential figures in Black American history. These two men played a significant role in helping to end slavery. Since it was tradition for the Black community to celebrate these significant figures’ birthdays, Dr. Woodson created Black History Week to “commemorate the Black past '' according to ASALH.

Black History Week was a hit and blew up across the country. Dr. Woodson and the ASALH had trouble keeping up with the increasing demand for material. They created a theme for the celebration and lent educational materials to teachers, including lessons, photographs, and plays depicting Black historical events. Black History Week had a huge impact, as it encouraged many to study Black History. 

High schools in progressive communities formed Black History clubs. The expanding Black middle class became big consumers of Black culture. Mayors issued Black History week proclamations, and even white allies came through to support them. These efforts contributed to the process of expanding the study of Black History. 

The Civil Rights Movement was also a big contributor, as it encouraged the change from Black History week to Black History Month. After almost 50 years, Black History Week was noticed by President Ford, who issued a message encouraging the observance of Black History Week. In the message he urged Americans to “recognize the important contribution made to our nation’s life and culture by our black citizens.” With the President’s support it helped  

The following year, ASLAH used their influence to officially change the week-long celebration to Black History Month. The change resulted in Congress passing “Public Law 99-244” in 1986, which granted the establishment of the month of February as “National Black History Month.” President Reagan recognized this and issued the “Presidential Proclamation 5443”, where he declared how influential Black History is. He said it offers Americans an “opportunity to gain a fuller perspective of the contributions of black Americans to our Nation.” With both the government and President recognizing the importance of Black History Month, it became the holiday we know today.

  As Black History Month ends, we must acknowledge the long journey this celebration went through to become what it is today. This celebration is important, as it allows for the discussion of Black History without being silenced or suppressed. It helps the Brown School and many other schools have Black Student Unions and other clubs centered around different marginalized groups. Without Black History Month and the help of Dr. Woodson, the accomplishments of African-Americans may have gone unknown for who knows how long.

On February 7th, 2023, the Jefferson County Board of Education voted to further investigate the implementation of metal detectors in schools. 

According to data from Jefferson County Public School records, JCPS has seen 20 guns with disciplinary action taken in the first 99 days of school during the 2022-2023 school year. 

While some believe metal detectors will create safer schools because guns can be found before students enter the building, they are expensive, among other cons. They would be very difficult to provide to all schools. If a gun is found, a student would have to be policed and the number of officers is limited, especially with the current job shortage all schools are facing. A few board members also worry that students of color might feel targeted by their school with the implementation. 

Within Brown School, Matt Davis, the high school Transition Teacher, said gun violence in JCPS is disturbing. Though he doesn’t agree with all school board members that the issue has gotten worse in recent years. “It's just getting publicity.” Social media has given gun violence a platform to be more prevalently seen every day, and because it doesn’t go away, the issue appears larger, Davis explained. He agrees that schools do have to consider the dangers of racially targeting students. While he was working at Moore High School, teachers' privileges of using wands to check students' backpacks was disregarded after minority groups felt targeted. However, he did favor metal detectors with certain conditions, “I think high-risk schools should have metal detectors, I think they [JCPS Board of Education] should come up with some metric to decide if schools are high risk, or not. Not every school needs one.”

Emilie Blanton, a Freshman Seminar Teacher at Southern High School Magnet Career Academy, who is also a member of Jefferson County Teacher Association believes that gun violence isn’t a problem that just JCPS can address. “I believe we need to do more to address the root causes of gun violence, namely poverty and generational trauma.” As for the addition of metal detectors, she believes it  would be a band aid solution that may calm parents. She explained, “There are too many workarounds that students could use to get a gun into the building.” Blanton also says it wouldn’t address the issue of gun violence.“I think it's worth noting that Tyree Smith [the Eastern High School student killed by gun violence in September 2021] would not have been saved by metal detectors because he was murdered at his bus stop.” 

She explained in the past, multiple students had been suspended for carrying a knife to keep themselves safe on dark streets walking home from bus stops. “Students don’t often feel ‘unsafe’ while physically in their school building, but many talk about the journey to school being unsafe and scary.” In school, she said JCPS’s implementation of SRO’s has made her school safer and helped kids avoid problems. It's easier to have dedicated security in the building that she can send her safety concerns to rather than an AP. Though those issues were resolved inside school, she says, “The responsibility of keeping guns off the streets can’t fall on schools. We already cover enough societal failures…I can’t imagine we have the ability to handle every single thing wrong with the world.”

Dr. Brian Garrett, Brown School's 6-12 Assistant Principal agrees with Blanton's explanation that gun violence at bus stops is one of the larger issues. Dr. Garrett explained in his previous schools, it was mainly smaller hand-held weapons, and handguns that were found. Students were scared, but without staff at bus stops, students are at a lack of safety. But they have to follow the rules in schools and not bring weapons in. 

“I think JCPS has taken a lot of steps to create a lot of layers, to keep students protected. Hired positions find violence in communities and communicate that information to schools to make them aware.” He said while this doesn’t interfere with keeping students from harm in the community, the schools are trying to help students in any way they can while on school grounds. With the implementation of metal detectors in schools, he said, “I don’t know what direction that would go.” Though metal detectors would do their job of keeping guns out of school he explained, "We want our schools to be safe, not prisons.” He agreed with Blanton again, “Our job is to keep students safe and educated, but there are so many issues the public school system can’t face.” 

Curtis Moss, Browns Safety Administrator, said during the safety meetings with other safety administrators and school resource officers, guns being used in schools with mal intent isn’t the largest issue. He agreed, mainly finding guns on students who feel unsafe (again) at bus stops in the community is the larger issue. He added to Davis’s statement that gun violence in JCPS is spread through the media, and therefore it increases students' fear of safety in not only the community, but in schools as well. Moss explained with the implementation of metal detectors, most schools don’t use them, and in past years, they don’t seem to last very long in schools. Currently, 3 out of 167 JCPS schools use metal detectors, which is equivalent to less than 2% of all JCPS schools. Moss said, “Is it feasible in every school: no. [They are] expensive, it extends the time it takes to get into school. In larger schools with hundreds of students, it takes more time to get everyone into classes, especially students that arrive later, [because] it would interrupt class instruction time.” 

Superintendent Marty Pollio said in a weekly wrap-up video on the JCPSky Instagram on February 10th, that JCPS is taking gun violence seriously and trying to create more resolutions to increase student safety. “On Tuesday, the board charged me with bringing a plan forward by April for weapons detection in our schools next year. As always safety and security is of the utmost importance to us. We want to make sure we bring a successful plan that makes students feel safe, but also that we can staff it.” The plan over the next month is to travel to other districts across the nation to find how other cities are attempting to stop gun violence. 

Mayor Greenburg has stepped up with a plan to change legislation to make gun laws stricter in Louisville. “Right now we want to fight for a bill in Frankfort, and give Louisville the freedom we want and need to get guns off our street once and for all.” He said this in a press conference that featured a family who is suffering from the loss of their son to gun violence attack in the Louisville community. Gun violence in JCPS is complicated, but both the state and school board are working towards a solution to keep all students safe.

On February 23rd, the JCPS superintendent, Marty Pollio, delivered his 5th annual State of the District address. He talked about the topics of the new school start times, staff shortages, opening new schools, amongst other topics. The speech was to address the district’s progress since 2020 when the Future State plan was laid out. The Future State plan includes the building of new schools, investing more resources into high-need schools, as well as implementing the district’s School Choice plan. According to the Future State of JCPS website, the plan is supposed to bring system-wide change to JCPS through investment and research-based programming that improves student learning.

In his address, Pollio talked about using the district’s billion-dollar plan to renovate and build more schools. “We are going to open 26 new schools by 2036,” Pollio said. Dr. William Perry Elementary School in West Louisville & Echo Trail Middle School in East Louisville will be opening on the first day of school next year. Dr. William Perry Elementary School is the first brand new school to open in West Louisville in almost a quarter century. 

In the past 23 years, JCPS has only built 10 new schools. Built in 1968, Ballard is JCPS's most recent high school. “It is absolutely something that is going to make a difference in our kids' education,” Pollio commented. “If they have the money they can do it and some schools are overcrowded & buildings need to be replaced. It’s ridiculous it’s taken this long.”  Matthew Davis, the Brown High School Transition teacher, responded to this idea. But, some people don’t think this idea is realistic. 

“It might not be a realistic idea and there are certain things that need to be taken care of in the schools we already have,” according to Miles Kelly, a Brown sophomore.

He also talked about the crises that the District is facing when it comes to students being chronically absent, the over 300 teacher vacancies throughout the district, and JCPS needing to fill bus driver positions. Pollio talked about how the budget needs to be opened up so that teachers can be paid more. He shared the importance of getting more teachers to fill those vacancies.“We are raising 5%, but I don’t think that’s nearly enough,” Pollio said. 

“Increasing pay will help, but the main issue is the stress level at many schools due to student behavior/ administrative requirements and a lot of people think it’s not worth the money because it’s a quality of life issue. If you are miserable at work, a few thousand dollars a year may not be enough to stay,” Davis stated. 

Pollio also discussed a solution for the shortage of bus drivers and student attendance, which is to stagger school start times. The plan reduces the number of bus routes from 730 to 600 to deal with the lack of drivers as well as the 3 million minutes of instruction that JCPS students are currently missing by being late. “The data and the research support it and we must make a change if we’re going to have different outcomes for students (Pollio).” 

Although Brown will not be affected by the school time changes because we do not have buses, it may affect families with students at other JCPS schools.  “It will affect students at schools whose parents work starts before their child's school starts,” Davis said.

Pollio also discussed the plan to increase student safety. His proposal to install metal detectors in schools must be brought to the school board before April 25th. “Some schools need [metal detectors] and they need to come up with some measure to figure out who needs [metal detectors] and who doesn’t. 

There are other solutions we should try first,” Kelly stated. Pollio said he is working closely with mayor Craig Greenberg’s administration to tackle youth and community violence. “It’s simply this: as long as we have the number of handguns and illegal handguns on our streets that are accessible to young people, we’re going to continue to have this problem,” Pollio stated. JCPS was awarded a $3 million federal grant that will go towards helping to prevent school violence and address student trauma. “It’s imperative that we work together,” Pollio said.

There are a lot of things that the district needs to continue to work on. “Athletics needs to be fully funded. It’s very important and there should be multiple gyms, fields, courts,and teams in each school. It is unfair compared to other districts and states how underfunded sports are in this district.” Modernizing athletic facilities is in the JCPS Future State plan, but it was not discussed in the State of the District Address. 

Brown held its first ever Advisory talent show in the auditorium on February 3, 2023, for high schoolers. The event was organized by Amanda Klakamp, Brown’s librarian, and Mike Moreland, the high school Physics, Chemistry, and Makerspace teacher. 

Moreland organized a talent show at his previous school and therefore assisted in the planning of the show. Klakamp explained, “We thought it would be something fun for staff and students.” She explained the audition process was based on the “validity of talent”. Students had to sign up with their interest and Klakamp and Moreland had to make sure their performances would work with the school's sound system. She took the entertainment of the act into account, and had to determine whether it would be a realistic talent for the space they had. Overall she considered the talent show to be a great success and would love to see it again, possibly annually. 

The talent themselves consisted of various high schoolers. Seth Langford, a Freshman, shared his experience performing for the show. Langford chose to sing “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac because, “It got me through a hard time and it's my favorite song.” He explained practicing consisted of rehearsing the song all the time, anywhere, and everywhere. “I sing all the time, just for fun, music is everything to me.” Overall Langford enjoyed the show, and though he was very nervous, he said he would definitely do it again. “I was really nervous, but everyone was so supportive, it was really nice.” 

Amelia Conaway, a Junior and upcoming opera singer performed a piece for the talent show while also performing as a wind up doll. “It was one of the first pieces of opera that I saw online when I was 12, and therefore I really like it.” She explained the song fits well into her aesthetic, and while she hopes to one day do a professional show, she does think people enjoyed it, and would encourage others to try something if Brown hosts another show.

The final act, Julianna Johnson, junior, and Jake Amettis, high school History teacher at Brown performed an originally written rap battle. Johnson explained that she wrote the entire rap and raps outside of school. She explained, “I regularly go to a studio, and the first time I went was at the beginning of January.” Johnson said she loved rap, and tried it herself, and realized she had a talent for it, and overall it was really fun.  She explained that the two were nervous because when practicing and writing, their timeline was going by really quickly though she explained “But it was just a talent show for school and we had fun.” She also agreed with Klakamp that she would love to see another talent show, especially with new people joining in. 

Amettis, her rap partner said, “I was pretty nervous because Juliana is more talented, [but] I had an absolute blast. I am here for the people!”