Follow up: Resources for Parents on topics of race and racism

Dear Lucas Elementary Community:

Lucas parents received an email from Kingsley Botchway II, ICCSD director of equity and engagement, on May 11, alerting us to recent racist comments made by students at Lucas Elementary. At the May 14 Lucas PTO meeting, we discussed the incidents and learned from Mr. Botchway and Principal Turnis the ICCSD processes for responding to racist expressions  in school. Today, we are writing to our school community to invite further discussion, and to provide some thoughts and resources as the school year nears the end.

The primary goal of Lucas PTO is “to provide Lucas students with the best educational experience possible” (https://www.iowacityschools.org/domain/922). Racism makes this goal unachievable. As Lucas parents and teachers, we are deeply concerned about the ways children of color and their families experience racism in their daily lives.

It is common for we as parents to feel overwhelmed or uncomfortable when talking to our kids about race and racism. Yet often, our greatest learning opportunities exist in discomfort. Parents present at the May PTO meeting discussed our desire to learn more and better understand racism so that we can begin taking action to eliminate it. We do not hold the naive belief that we can make all racism disappear; but if we can work to make Lucas Elementary a school where all children can get the best educational experience possible, we will be making a difference.

In this spirit, we invite the Lucas community to use the many resources at our fingertips to learn and to engage in ongoing dialogue about race and racism - especially with our children. As a starting point, we include below a list of links to “Resources for Parents” provided by our school district.

Please contact Rebekah Tilley at rtilley@gmail.com or text 319-512-9137 if you are interested in joining other Lucas parents in a PTO subcommittee to continue our discussion of race and racism, and begin identifying steps we can take as parents to improve the learning experience of all students in our school. We look forward to announcing additional learning opportunities in the coming weeks and months.  

Resources for Parents:

Raising Race Conscious Children http://www.raceconscious.org

Resources for Talking to Kids about Racism https://bouncebackparenting.com/resources-for-talking-to-kids-about-race-and-racism/

Talking to Kids About Racism and Justice: a list for parents, caregivers & educators https://docs.google.com/document/d/1s0lCA3FlulVhK6DFE2d3uYCipc6ApY8Gn2rMwm6fYqw/mobilebasic?pli=1

Race Conscious Kids http://www.theparentingjunkie.com/race-conscious-kids-some-ideas/

Families for Racial Justice and Collective Liberation http://www.creatingdemocracy.org/parenting-for-c

Tips for Raising “Woke” Children http://phddreams.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RaisingWokeChildren_TipsResources_TCruz-2.pdf

Children Are Not Colorblind: How Young Children Learn Race http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.621.9728&rep=rep1&type=pdf

How to Talk to Kids About Race: Books and Resources That Can Help http://www.readbrightly.com/how-to-talk-to-kids-about-race-books-and-resources-that-can-help/

Children’s Books to Support Conversations on Race, Racism & Resistance https://medium.com/embrace-race/26-childrens-books-to-support-conversations-on-raceracism-resistance-15b189c1bab9

Resources for Talking to Kids about Racism https://bouncebackparenting.com/resources-for-talking-to-kids-about-race-and-racism/