Dear AFIA Community,

We write this with great sadness.  Across our nation, our communities are feeling anger, sadness, hurt, grief and frustration after the unnecessary deaths and mistreatment of Black community members. We know these are not new feelings and acknowledge that the recent events follow a historical pattern of injustice, mistreatment and oppression in our country.

At the core of our work at AFIA is intentional anti-racism and a focus on equity. We strive to create a respectful and inclusive school climate and are committed to improving our work as educators committed to social justice. To that end, we send this message today in declaration of our stand against racism. We stand in solidarity with our Black students, families, and community members. We stand by all who have and continue to be oppressed, marginalized and mistreated in our community and throughout the country. 

Systematic cycles of racism and oppression that exist in our nation are at the root cause of recent events. As educators, we recognize that, in our country, the institution of school actually recreates inequities. Nationwide, Black children are suspended more often than White students. Black students are also more likely to drop out of school because of the system’s failure to serve them justly, educate them with respect and provide opportunities for their voice to be heard. At AFIA, we are committed to working diligently to disrupt these unjust, systemic practices that are all too common in America’s public schools.

Let it be known that, at AFIA, we are committed to creating a school system that serves all children fairly, respectfully and with genuine care. AFIA is committed to educational equity, social justice and inclusivity. We do this by cultivating positive and responsive classroom communities and intentionally designing learning experiences that encourage children to ask critical, important questions and have difficult conversations about real and challenging issues. Our teachers don’t see it as the teacher’s role to answer these questions, but instead facilitate opportunities for students to read and learn about real world events, past and present, and engage in deep conversations about how they can use their voice, now and in their future, to impact their communities and pave the way for change in our world. 

For example, this past year our fifth graders engaged in an analytical reading of the New Colossus by Emma Lazarus. There is a line in the poem that references the Statue of Liberty’s torch as a symbolic “world-wide welcome.” Students engaged in sophisticated discussions about whether or not everyone receives a world-wide welcome in the United States. Drawing from their previous project on the Troost Divide, students came to the conclusion that our communities are not welcoming like the country depicted by the Statue of Liberty. To represent their learning, students created a sculpture of the Statue of Liberty, but instead of placing the torch in the statue’s hand, they carefully placed the torch at the base of the statue to symbolically represent their thoughts about today’s United States. 

Listening to students think about these challenging issues brings hope. Our children know we can and must do better as a community, city and country. We agree, but we know this is not an easy road. We are grateful that the educators, students and families in our community do not shy away from these difficult conversations and this challenging work. As a school community we are committed to engaging in hard conversations within our adult community and in our classrooms. 

In the weeks and months ahead, we will not only continue to be committed to issues related to diversity, equity and inclusion, but we desire to work together with you as our larger school community. We need your voices and desire to engage in necessary conversations with you that will lead to action at a deeper level. In the coming weeks, we will send out invitations for collaborative sessions in which we can hear your voices, respond to your questions and engage in deep conversations with you. 

We are committed to continuing our own self-reflection and working together with families, students and staff to provide a school community that celebrates each unique individual and is safe and affirming for all students. In this moment, we reaffirm our commitment to you and your family. We thank you for entrusting us with the education and safety of your children and we stand with each of you in solidarity.

With much appreciation to all of you, 

Karren Colbert, Principal                 Asha Moore, Dean of Students               Tricia DeGraff, Executive Director

5th graders read and discussed several texts including the poem “The New Colossus.” They represented their learning through this art piece. The torch is discarded on the ground, because the students felt that our country has not yet lit the way for all people to feel safe and welcome. She is waving an American flag handkerchief to show she is saying goodbye to prejudice.