When we opened the 2020-21school year with our staff, I was direct: “this year will be incredibly challenging.” But the ways in which we respond to life’s most challenging moments often shape who we will become as individuals and as an organization. How we learn, respond and grow together during this time of incredible adversity will ultimately make us better educators and push us to more fully achieve our agency vision: Every student educated, equipped, and inspired to achieve their full potential and enrich their communities.

The Oregon Department of Education’s Every Student Belongs guidance bears a particularly profound opportunity to examine and improve our practice.

Families entrust educators with their children and they depend on welcoming, warm and inclusive school communities. Bullying, hate speech and symbols can cause immediate and sometimes irreparable harm. When students experience intolerance, hate or racism, their well-being and ability to learn are compromised.

These experiences cause individual and community stress, which puts everyone involved (those harmed, those causing the suffering, and those charged with responding) at elevated risk for physical, emotional, and social illness. From many years of experience in schools, I can assure you that when one person in a school community experiences intolerance and hate, everyone in that school community is negatively affected.

Punitive responses, such as suspension, frequently ignore this multidimensionality in favor of immediate resolution. Alone, punishment does little to alter biases and attitudes. Response to bias, bullying, hate or intolerance must account for the systemic factors involved and create opportunities for learning and healing as a school community.

With ODE’s Every Student Belongs guidance, school and education service districts are charged with examining policies and practices to ensure they will create the conditions for welcoming and inclusive school environments.

In the fall of 2020, our Board established a new equity policy advisory committee, led by Sharif Zakir Liwaru, equity and family partnerships director. This advisory reviews our policies and moves us forward on our next steps in becoming an antiracist organization. If you have recommendations for how to implement this guidance in our programs, please email Liwaru.