To: Orleans Parish School Board, Orleans Parish Charter Schools, The New Orleans City Council, and The Mayor's Office of New Orleans.
What Is It About Black Children That You Choose Force Over Love?
Orleans Parish School Board allows security guards/ resource officers to carry guns on campus during school hours. It is supposed to be seen as a way to prevent crime or intervene in situations within the school. Instead, it takes the kids' minds back to trauma and makes them too comfortable with criminalization which will lead to more Black youth being incarcerated. Schools should be a safe environment and a place to get away from any trauma that they may deal with in their neighborhoods or even at home, unfortunately. Teachers, security, and any faculty should approach the students with love, compassion, and care, and we will begin to see the change in our students. Security guards/ resource officers and teachers should be trained in de-escalation techniques that do not involve any violence, control, or threats to students that can cause a situation to escalate. If there is open communication between the youth, parents, school administrators, teachers, educators (there is a difference), and resource officers, the school won't only be more manageable, it'll be pleasant and actual learning can and will take place on both sides. Isn't this the case in pws? Will these resource officers be in all schools in Orleans Parish? Especially since historically white schools are known for mass shootings.
What happened to meeting them at the gates, outside stairs, lawn? Getting the younger ones in a routine to meet in a very particular spot every morning? And for the older ones, teachers can still align the outside to the corridors to usher kids from lockers to class so there's not so much lingering. But when they recognize that you all are working in unison, assertively, and not trying to "handle them" you can get more out of most. For those that you can't, which will always be a small few, you separate them from the others and circle back to see what's going on with that child away from the others. Remember, you were a child once, too.
1) We need you to start loving on our children.
2) We need you to see our children as your children so they will start trusting you.
3) We need you to get consistent training.
4) We need you to stop allowing any and everybody to have a school because they want one and because they aren't native New Orleanians which is discriminatory, to say the least.
5) We need you to go through the proper ranks of teacher to administration to CEO of a school.
6) We need you to have anti-racism/internalized racism trainings through the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond facilitated by New Orleanians Mama Barbara Major, Robert 'Kool Black" Horton, Derrick Shackerfield, Dr. Kendra Harris, and co-Founder Ron Chisom. WHY??? Because being Black is not wrong. Just as being white or any other race, yet, you make our children feel as though it is whether you realize it or not and that is a problem. It is traumatizing. Then when they call you on it or even lash out as a result of you trying to defend it, you become the victim. This is constant predatory, racist behavior that has to stop because the end result is Black children incarcerated or worse.
7) We need you to get a New Orleanian veteran educator as a mentor if you're in this for real (and not Mama Jen--she can't save all of you and ain't tryin' to; Veteran educators like Monica Boudin at Kipp Believe or Dr. Latasha Labostrie at Xavier Prep--although not a charter, she's a New Orleanian who attended both public and parochial schools, HBCU in New Orleans, went through the ranks and taught in New Orleans schools prior to and after the 2005 storms before being blackballed).
8) We need elementary schools to have 1 full-time child psychologist/psychiatrist, 2 full-time counselors, 1 full-time social worker;
middle schools to have 2 full-time child psychologists/psychiatrists, 3 full-time counselors, 2 full-time social workers; high schools to have 2 full-time child psychologists/psychiatrists, 4 full-time counselors, 3 full-time social workers; they all do very different jobs that align if you allow them to. Please respect that so we as parents, educators, stakeholders, and tax-paying citizens who pay an education tax can get more from them. And, the aforementioned licensed professionals should look like the students in the school as well or at the very least be trained by those who do (e.g., Ayanna Molina, LPC at True Love Movement, Shayiotta Winters, LPC, Dr. Mithra Butler, Dr. Monique Lewis, Maya Galathe, LPC, Victor Onuoha, LPC, Dr. Jeff Rocker, and more!).
What happened to meeting them at the gates, outside stairs, lawn? Getting the younger ones in a routine to meet in a very particular spot every morning? And for the older ones, teachers can still align the outside to the corridors to usher kids from lockers to class so there's not so much lingering. But when they recognize that you all are working in unison, assertively, and not trying to "handle them" you can get more out of most. For those that you can't, which will always be a small few, you separate them from the others and circle back to see what's going on with that child away from the others. Remember, you were a child once, too.
1) We need you to start loving on our children.
2) We need you to see our children as your children so they will start trusting you.
3) We need you to get consistent training.
4) We need you to stop allowing any and everybody to have a school because they want one and because they aren't native New Orleanians which is discriminatory, to say the least.
5) We need you to go through the proper ranks of teacher to administration to CEO of a school.
6) We need you to have anti-racism/internalized racism trainings through the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond facilitated by New Orleanians Mama Barbara Major, Robert 'Kool Black" Horton, Derrick Shackerfield, Dr. Kendra Harris, and co-Founder Ron Chisom. WHY??? Because being Black is not wrong. Just as being white or any other race, yet, you make our children feel as though it is whether you realize it or not and that is a problem. It is traumatizing. Then when they call you on it or even lash out as a result of you trying to defend it, you become the victim. This is constant predatory, racist behavior that has to stop because the end result is Black children incarcerated or worse.
7) We need you to get a New Orleanian veteran educator as a mentor if you're in this for real (and not Mama Jen--she can't save all of you and ain't tryin' to; Veteran educators like Monica Boudin at Kipp Believe or Dr. Latasha Labostrie at Xavier Prep--although not a charter, she's a New Orleanian who attended both public and parochial schools, HBCU in New Orleans, went through the ranks and taught in New Orleans schools prior to and after the 2005 storms before being blackballed).
8) We need elementary schools to have 1 full-time child psychologist/psychiatrist, 2 full-time counselors, 1 full-time social worker;
middle schools to have 2 full-time child psychologists/psychiatrists, 3 full-time counselors, 2 full-time social workers; high schools to have 2 full-time child psychologists/psychiatrists, 4 full-time counselors, 3 full-time social workers; they all do very different jobs that align if you allow them to. Please respect that so we as parents, educators, stakeholders, and tax-paying citizens who pay an education tax can get more from them. And, the aforementioned licensed professionals should look like the students in the school as well or at the very least be trained by those who do (e.g., Ayanna Molina, LPC at True Love Movement, Shayiotta Winters, LPC, Dr. Mithra Butler, Dr. Monique Lewis, Maya Galathe, LPC, Victor Onuoha, LPC, Dr. Jeff Rocker, and more!).
Why is this important?
Our youth are up next. There is no if, ands, or buts about it. And if they are to be the future, we have to ensure their present which means society's views of them have to change and the only way that happens is if we 1) traumatizing them, 2) stop automatically criminalizing them, 3) traumatizing them, again 4) getting them so call help for the trauma that we've caused 5) getting them so-called help from people who don't look like them and have no sense of their culture at all
They need to know that they are not seen as criminals or someone that we deem will do wrong. We all have bad days, but law enforcement shouldn't be the ones stepping in with weapons when we have teachers who can step in with love. As of now, 99% of the children incarcerated at the Youth Study Center are Black, and historically, since 2022, it has been 100%.
Police in our schools started during the Civil Rights era as a disguise to protect black children as a guise really to instill fear in them. Making schools, property safe is not the priority, or it shouldn't be. Making children feel safe should be. Schools have always been a place of refuge for young people. Teaching them how to keep each other safe and why is how community is maintained, not protecting the building and vilifying children. Especially Black children and making their consequences be as severe as prison.
Terminology like "informed trauma" is used often and very loosely to describe "urban" or Black children/students by so-called professionals surveying and/or observing them in order to claim the "understand" what they are experiencing and are prepared to "fix" them. Them being US. Us being WE. We being ME.
I am a Black mama proudly born in the 7th ward and raised in the upper 9th ward of New Orleans to a 2-parent household on most days. Educated at the historic William Frantz Elementary School, St. Mary of the Angels, McDonogh #35, Francis T. Nicholls, Dillard University, and Southern University At New Orleans. I AM NEW ORLEANS! NOT NOLA!
I have had to physically fight the police on my front lawn at the age of 15 for coming to my home which was a traumatizing experience while having police in my family. I have spoken out in protest against the police for years and celebrated and honored good police--those who did go against the grain and call out bad police. I lived in the city during a time when we had 2 police unions-- a Black one and a white one. What does that tell you??? REFORM DOES NOT WORK! You are killing us and you are using us to do it. Law enforcement in the schools has never been placed for our protection. The impact of criminalization on black youth causes a psychological effect. It causes higher rates of stress, depression, substance abuse, becoming hyper-vigilant, distrust of police, hyper-arousal, and even numbness. Children who live in heavy police areas, start to affect how much sleep they receive causing sleep deprivation and low sleep quality, this may cause them to come to school, not at their highest potential. We have to treat our children like children. Creating relationships to rebuild their sense of self. Why not give love a try? Why not allow them to know who they are and whose they are first? What's the harm in that? Why are white people so threatened by Black people knowing who they are? Why is it that they feel a need to be prepared to always contain a beast but not to open their arms to show love first?
They need to know that they are not seen as criminals or someone that we deem will do wrong. We all have bad days, but law enforcement shouldn't be the ones stepping in with weapons when we have teachers who can step in with love. As of now, 99% of the children incarcerated at the Youth Study Center are Black, and historically, since 2022, it has been 100%.
Police in our schools started during the Civil Rights era as a disguise to protect black children as a guise really to instill fear in them. Making schools, property safe is not the priority, or it shouldn't be. Making children feel safe should be. Schools have always been a place of refuge for young people. Teaching them how to keep each other safe and why is how community is maintained, not protecting the building and vilifying children. Especially Black children and making their consequences be as severe as prison.
Terminology like "informed trauma" is used often and very loosely to describe "urban" or Black children/students by so-called professionals surveying and/or observing them in order to claim the "understand" what they are experiencing and are prepared to "fix" them. Them being US. Us being WE. We being ME.
I am a Black mama proudly born in the 7th ward and raised in the upper 9th ward of New Orleans to a 2-parent household on most days. Educated at the historic William Frantz Elementary School, St. Mary of the Angels, McDonogh #35, Francis T. Nicholls, Dillard University, and Southern University At New Orleans. I AM NEW ORLEANS! NOT NOLA!
I have had to physically fight the police on my front lawn at the age of 15 for coming to my home which was a traumatizing experience while having police in my family. I have spoken out in protest against the police for years and celebrated and honored good police--those who did go against the grain and call out bad police. I lived in the city during a time when we had 2 police unions-- a Black one and a white one. What does that tell you??? REFORM DOES NOT WORK! You are killing us and you are using us to do it. Law enforcement in the schools has never been placed for our protection. The impact of criminalization on black youth causes a psychological effect. It causes higher rates of stress, depression, substance abuse, becoming hyper-vigilant, distrust of police, hyper-arousal, and even numbness. Children who live in heavy police areas, start to affect how much sleep they receive causing sleep deprivation and low sleep quality, this may cause them to come to school, not at their highest potential. We have to treat our children like children. Creating relationships to rebuild their sense of self. Why not give love a try? Why not allow them to know who they are and whose they are first? What's the harm in that? Why are white people so threatened by Black people knowing who they are? Why is it that they feel a need to be prepared to always contain a beast but not to open their arms to show love first?
How it will be delivered
We would like this to go viral via Color of Change as well as all of our social media handles. We plan to tag all of those that we are petitioning so they are clear of the people's voices that have been laid out here for them and we will continue to do so through different mediums.
We also intend to speak in front of City Council and Orleans Parish School Board about this very issue. We refuse to accept what has continued to be given to us post the 2005 storms.
