We speak much about equity in education, but do people understand what we are saying? We ask that all children have equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from our educational system. If a child is hungry, they can not focus on learning, so we provide school meals. If English is not their first language, we strive to provide special instruction to bring their language skills to a level where they can fully benefit from classroom instruction and assignments. If a child is being bullied or harassed because of their race, religion, or gender, we seek to stop the bigotry so they can focus on their education.
Prejudice and bigoted behavior have long been issues in some of our WLWV schools. The district has diligently sought to educate students about equity to address bullying and harassment, but until now, they have resisted establishing formal policies to address the issue. The WLWV School Board is now developing a policy to address student harassment arising from prejudice and bigotry. The West Linn Alliance has advocated for many years in favor of policy addressing bigotry and racism, and we fully support the current efforts to establish such a policy.
The current School Board appears to recognize the profound impact that racism, antisemitism, gender-related bullying, and other forms of discriminatory behavior have on our students and community. The Alliance is following the development of this new policy and will keep our members informed when the Board releases a draft for public consumption.