Dear AUSD Community,

 

Prior to the start of the school year, in late July, we reaffirmed our commitment to always improving conditions in our schools for students in terms of culture and climate, and particularly where things like racialized slurs and hate speech are concerned. We wanted to update the community on some ongoing efforts in this area and again ask our community to support our efforts with periodic conversations with students.  

 

Recent actions toward this goal included the revision last year of our disciplinary matrix, which now includes exclusionary discipline in cases where students use slurs irrespective of intent.  

 

At the beginning of the year, a newly created community compact was created and students and parents were required to review and sign it prior to the start of the year. We still think it is critical for families to regularly reaffirm the importance of extending respect to all, and certainly refraining from harmful, biased, or stereotypical speech toward anyone regardless of intent. “I didn’t mean anything,” or “I was just kidding,” are insufficient responses to actions or words that mock, bully, or attempt to belittle someone based on their personal or ancestral characteristics.  

 

Our school staff are asked to tag any incidents in our student database that involve hate speech or slurs and those incidents are reviewed quarterly by our executive team. In addition, a bias tracking form allows us to also review quarterly incidents that may occur on campuses that we are unable to connect to specific actors; things like vandalism, some unattributed social media postings, and other incidents. Those incidents are also reviewed regularly by the executive team and are always reported to law enforcement where appropriate. 

 

On the educational side, we have asked each of our school leaders to facilitate a minimum of 3 meetings this year focusing on topics of bias and cultural responsiveness as a proactive, and hopefully preemptive effort to support teachers and staff in countering and addressing slurs or hateful speech.  

 

Our principals are also engaged in a “community of practice”, a recurring meeting of our school leaders that is collectively planning and facilitating those site-based professional learning sessions focused on addressing hate speech/racialized language, implicit bias, and using data to deepen our understanding. 

 

Whether it is slurs against racial groups, immigrant groups, religious groups, members of our LGBTQ+ community, or any other form of biased or discriminatory actions, AUSD is not the place for such actions. We are committed to improving our overall climate and culture by both walking the walk and, literally, talking the talk when it comes to inclusion and mutual respect.