Looking forward

In a Canvas survey, several anonymous students said that efforts to combat racism should be centered around the elementary and middle schools.

In particular, one student said that their elementary school teacher threatened to call child services when a girl of color was caught sleeping in class. However, their white classmates faced no repercussions for throwing objects in class and talking out of turn.

“Most of the kids of color from my elementary school came from [low-income] housing and had a rough time in school. Teachers didn’t seem to have any sympathy and were always annoyed at them for misbehaving,” the student wrote. “It could be really terrible for a child’s self-esteem to be treated as lesser, or as someone who is always in the wrong.”

Mims said that, moving forward, the district should use parents as valuable allies in the battle against discrimination in the classroom, even after the COVID-19 pandemic ends.

“There still is a lot of work to be done. If you go to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website and you look at MCAS scores and SAT scores, you still see too many gaps there,” Mims said. “I think what needs to be done at Brookline is enlisting the parents as allies. I always look at excellent education as involving three major stakeholder groups: the students, the parents and the educators.”

According to Cawthorne, the district should prioritize the needs of their most vulnerable students when making decisions.

“We should start by ensuring that all of our most vulnerable students are okay. If conditions are alright for them, then it’s fair to say that every other kid will be okay,” Cawthorne said. “What that’s meant for me is making sure that, for METCO, I or someone else who represents METCO is included.”

Mims said that it is worth acknowledging the progress Brookline has already made in establishing racial equity in education.

“I think everyone is working hard in Brookline, and I think you are trying to deal with so many issues with the pandemic piled on top of all the other challenges,” Mims said. “We all know these are very complicated times, and there is still a lot of work to be done. But I believe that educators in the community are doing the right things and solving these problems.”