By Maribeth Calabro
These are extraordinarily difficult times. While a pandemic races around the world, killing more than 106,000 Americans and sickening millions more, we’re also reeling from the heinous, unspeakable racist murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and so many others who preceded them, for the offense of just being Black. The murders, and the protests in the streets of cities from coast to coast, have reopened the raw wound of racial injustice, calling out for a deep, sustained and meaningful change of beliefs, systems and values. We need honest conversations in our schools, within our communities, and at the state and national levels. Our schools must be safe places where all children can know that they are valued and they matter, where they are treated with dignity and fairness.
Here in Providence, where our community and schools are racially diverse, it will take concerted and continuous work on the part of all stakeholders to not only practice but model anti-racist beliefs and ideals and to provide a high-quality education that can help all children reach their potential.
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