Challenging Discrimination in Education, Seattle Teachers Hold District-Wide Black Lives Matter Rallies

In an unprecedented display of unity in the face of continued institutional racism, 2,000 teachers and employees across the Seattle school system on Wednesday donned t-shirts that read “Black Lives Matter/ We Stand Together,” while students and teachers across the district organized rallies with the declaration, “Black Lives Matter at Schools.”

The action, which was meant to draw attention to the school-to-prison pipeline and call for racial equity in education, was done with the support of the Seattle Education Association union, the Seattle PTA, as well as the Seattle Public Schools (SPS). Social justice luminaries, including Noam Chomsky, 1968 Olympic medal winner John Carlos, Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, and professor and former MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry, also signed a letter of support.

Jesse Hagopian, advisor to the Black Student Union and teacher at Seattle’s Garfield High School, explained that institutional racism extends beyond policing and mass incarceration, and has roots in the education system.

“It’s also important to understand that for black lives to matter, black education has to matter,” Hagopian told KUOW-FM. “This movement is also broader than police accountability. In a school system as dramatically unequal as ours, it’s incumbent upon educators and families to stand up and say something about this.”

Highlighting some of the so-called “opportunity gaps” in the Seattle district, The Stranger reports:

Many educators also took the opportunity to teach lessons and hold discussions “about the ways institutional racism impacts education, our nation, and our world,” organizers said.

In an email to Common Dreams, Hagopian said that this is “the first action in the country where teachers across the district will support the movement for Black Lives,” adding that he hopes “it could help spark similar action[s] around the country.”

The widespread day of action was prompted by teachers at Seattle’s John Muir Elementary School, who had initially planned on September 16th to wear Black Lives Matter shirts and hold an event to dispel stereotypes and celebrate black students before they were forced to cancel after threatening phone calls were made to the school.

The original celebration was called “Black Men Uniting to Change the Narrative,” and would have included more than 100 black men gathering outside the school and greeting students as they walked into the building. In what has been described as “a truly stunning show of courage,” dozens of black community members defied the violent threats and showed up anyway, high-fiving students as they entered the building.