“Like any parent I want my children to live with more love than fear. I want their childhood to be filled with memories of feeling safe and valued. I want them to know that they belong freely unapologetically and with the power to create change that will make this world better for themselves and others.”
—Dr. Tracy Baxley, author of Social Justice Parenting
Dr. Baxley further maintains “that motherhood (parenthood) is a form of activism, where we give our children the power to know that they can create positive change in this world.”
Why You Might Need Us
For Diversity – Your child begins to wonder why the school is always closed in observance of their friend’s religious holidays, but never their own.
For Equity – Your teen and their friend group got in trouble for coming back late from off-campus lunch. Now you wonder why your child is the only one doing detention.
For Inclusion – Your middle schooler is attending another pep rally, cheering the sports kids on. Yet they wonder, is any adult in this school ever going to mention the science award that they won?
For Belonging – Your elementary school child is excited to be a peewee cheerleader. They are told that they must wear their hair in a high ponytail with a bow. But what if this is not possible with your daughter’s type of hair? Or what if the student who wants to do the cheering is a boy?
For some, these scenarios may seem like nothing much. Moments of random thoughtlessness, some unfairness but nothing all that dire, and certainly surmountable with a little determination and grit. But over time, in the aggregate, small indignities can compound and hold larger meaning. They send indelible messages to students (children with developing minds) that some of us don’t matter overall, or nearly as much as others.
Children are fairly smart about reading between the lines. When allowed to stand, inequity becomes part of the fabric of who we are and what we value: Actions and inactions alike, however small, inform school culture and have a large impact on all students.
When You Might Need Us
Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying (HIB) – Anytime that any one is singled out, ridiculed, treated unfairly, picked-on for difference, targeted, subjected to slurs or hate speech, spoken directly or indirectly. Anytime a student is subjected to all forms of hate: whether in speech, bullying, threatening behavior or violence. When it happens to one child, it is happening to all. Ignoring these issues only sends the message that we somehow accept this behavior. We do not accept this behavior. We stand together for each and every student and together we stand strong.