A letter of apology to Baltimore City students
Dear Baltimore City Public School System students,
Summer recess is over, and school is back in session. By now, you have discovered that some of your classmates are missing from your classrooms due to the ever-present, intractable street violence. You will likely discover that large numbers of other classmates are no longer enrolled in Baltimore City Public Schools because the schools failed them academically or maintained a culture and climate that contributed to increased levels of traumatic distress and anxiety.
You should know that many of the adults in this city and state care about you, your safety and your academic success. However, and unfortunately, far too many of us, myself included, are guilty of not leaning all the way in to value, respect, inspire and love you. Nor have we protected you from all the violence that you are confronted with every day as you travel back and forth from your homes to schools, playgrounds, recreation centers and after-school programs.
Equally regretful has been our inability to stop or refute the never-ending news stories that highlight how poorly many of you are doing in our public schools — especially in two essential academic areas: reading and math. You should know that numerous research studies have concluded that you can achieve at the highest levels of academic proficiency in all of your classes. Many renowned educators have proven that there is a special and innate genius in students like you, and that each of you can become exceptional when the expectations are high, the information being taught to you is culturally relevant and when you are loved and valued.
Sadly, too many adults in Baltimore and the state of Maryland, continue to minimize your academic potential. They have lowered their expectations of you, and they view Black and brown students, who make up the majority of students in our city schools, as “at-risk” or “low achievers.” These labels, given to you, are not life-affirming, and they can have a sinister effect of demonizing and minimizing your humanity, and devaluing your gifts, genius and talents.
So, I felt compelled to write this letter of apology to you — at the start of the school year — on behalf of the many caring and committed adults in Baltimore City and the entire state of Maryland. Even if you have been showered with back-to-school high fives, backpacks, chrome book tablets, new paint on some of the walls and new outdated textbooks, please know you are deserving of an “optimal learning experience.” And all of you deserve clean, safe, healthy, healing-centered and highly functioning schools that are just as spacious, attractive, secure and resource-rich as the city’s state-of-the-art sports stadiums.
Therefore, and even though it may be challenging, I hope you will show up at school every day this year to remind school administrators, teachers, support staff, elected officials, community leaders, parents, caregivers and other caring community adults that you have experienced deep emotional wounds from this lack of investment in you, as well as the consequences of the pandemic: online schooling, online bullying, isolation, sadness, lockdowns, social distancing requirements, mask wearing and other lifestyle changes, which, according to numerous studies has had significant negative impacts on your mental health and well-being.
Moreover, please remind all of the educators that they need to move from being simply trauma-informed toward becoming healing-centered. This would mean, according to a number of trauma psychologists, adopting new teaching approaches that detect trauma and focus on helping students recognize that they are more than the sum total of the adverse events they have observed and experienced.
Finally, please remind all of the community adults throughout Baltimore and the state of Maryland to insist that their tax dollars and school funding be used to hire more mental health professionals, provide more healing-centered engagement trainings, and to demand that every school hold and provide brave spaces for the grief, disappointment, rational anger and loss experienced by all of you — including your teachers and your administrators in every public school in Baltimore City, and other community-based centers.