Summer 2021
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Newsletter
#WeAllBelong
As the summer season began, Lexington Public Schools was well into our celebration of LGBTQIA+ Pride for the month of June! Many members of our community contributed to this 2021 Pride Video, which was coupled with dedicated announcements and lessons in our schools and classrooms.
In partnership with LexPride, the LGBT subcommittee of our Student Health Advisory Council (SHAC) provided this announcement to all members of our community about ways to get involved in the celebration.
Staff Voices
Current students and members of the DEI Student Advisory Council Abby House (Class of 2023) and Rhea Shah (Class of 2026) recently spearheaded an effort to collect the following staff profiles and voices in celebration of LGBTQIA+ Pride.
Jillian Johnson
Special Education & ELA Teacher, Clarke Middle School (She/They)For me, it is hard to be come out to people. I pass as female as well as straight. Unless you were to come up to me and ask for my pronouns and my sexual orientation you would have no idea. I also grew up in a time where gender was only male/female and being bisexual was seen as taboo. I'm very grateful for how the community has grown and how educated people have become. I knew I was bisexual since I was in middle school but never could put a finger on my gender. It wasn't until years and years later when I first heard of ANY non-binary terms and started to research for myself. I began to feel whole.
I hope our curriculum can include more books that normalize people of the LGBTQ+ community. Currently, I added a novel called Rick to my own curriculum, and it has been amazing. The students do have a lot of questions but they are learning and accepting. It's beautiful!
Sam Bosbach
Social Studies Teacher, Diamond Middle School (He/Him/His)One thing I've always loved about the community is the celebration of unadulterated joy for being yourself. For so many in this community "being yourself" is a daunting task from adolescence into adulthood, and yet the celebratory and congratulatory of each other is a strong quality that builds up others and helps shatter self-doubt.
Did You Know?
In 2011, archaeologists in the Czech Republic found what they believed to be the remains of the oldest known homosexual or transgender man, dating to the Copper age, nearly 3000 years ago.
Read more here or check out GLSEN's timeline of LGBTQ History.
Curriculum Notes
This summer, LPS officially launched the Community Input Team focusing on the adoption of a district-wide diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) curriculum. The group of nearly three dozen students, staff, and community members is spending the summer researching and evaluating DEI teaching and learning standards that will then be used to identify where we are currently meeting those standards across the district and to help identify gaps. Read more about the CIT's work here, and stay tuned, as there will be many opportunities for stakeholders to provide additional input! The complete CIT membership list is available here.
Willie: A Documentary
Near the end of May, Lexington resident Bryant McBride and co-producer of the critically-acclaimed documentary Willie met with district administrators to discuss the film, which chronicles the career of Willie O’Ree, the first Black athlete in the National Hockey League (NHL). Mr. McBride shared information on the Carnegie Initiative that was publicly launched on June 9th. The conversation with Bryant further solidified what several community members have suggested: that we need to make Willie's story part of the Lexington Public Schools curriculum. Filmmakers have worked with educational partners to create a 52-minute version of the film for classroom viewing, and the NHL has committed to providing both a male and a female professional hockey player to virtually visit schools to share about their experiences and the impact of the film on their careers. We are excited, as well, to be a part of several events during the fall launch for this film that will lead into the retirement of Willie’s NHL jersey in January 2021.
Resources
The following are recent articles, videos, and educational news items to check out as we engage in the lifelong journey of bringing greater equity to our community!
Power, Privilege, & Oppression (University of Denver School of Social Work)
Answering Your Questions about Recent Transgender Bills (PFLAG)
Myths and Facts: Battling Disinformation about Transgender Rights (HRC)
Antiracist School Discipline (Leading Equity Podcast)
Presently Invisible: The Arab Plight in American Classrooms (Learning for Justice)
Tribal Land Acknowledgements: What They Are and Why We Need to Do Them (Embracing Equity)
There Is No Debate Over Critical Race Theory (The Atlantic)
As States Place New Limits On Class Discussions on Race, Research Suggests They Benefit Students (Chalkbeat)
What White Colleagues Need to Understand (Learning for Justice)