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Hundreds sign petition demanding racial education class in Arlington Public Schools

Arlington County students are calling for racial justice reforms within their school system.

ARLINGTON, Va. — More than 900 people have signed a petition calling for Arlington Public Schools to add a racial education elective class to its high school curriculum.

In light of protests surrounding racial injustice, police brutality, the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other black people in police custody, the Change.org petition hopes to spread knowledge about race to students in the county.

The racial education class will be discussion-based and focus on issues surrounding systemic racism such as Jim Crow, segregation, burning of Black Wall Street, housing and property redlining, racial pay gaps, generational wealth accumulation, and more.

Another Change.org petition with more than 450 signatures is circulating in Arlington County demanding that the school system address education inequities.

Upon review of the data from Arlington’s 2019 Community Report, the facilitators of the petition are demanding that Arlington County Schools: 

  1. Make meaningful implicit bias and cultural competency training for APS staff and students
  2. Have a zero-tolerance policy for white supremacy
  3. Have a transparent disciplinary policy that collects and reports disciplinary actions based on age, race, and gender, and limit the types out-of-school suspension
  4. Have a disciplinary policy that includes student participation and oversight
  5. Start a "Restorative Justice program" for APS that will address the school-to-prison pipeline and give students the skills they need to properly address conflict
  6. And to eliminate the police department’s School Resource Officer program and redirect resources to fund more school social workers and school psychologists

"We have seen both petitions and applaud students for seeking change. We acknowledge the anger and hurt that our APS community and the nation are experiencing, especially our African American community. APS strives to celebrate the differences of all our students and strongly condemns violence and racism. As Superintendent Dr. Francisco Durán and School Board Chair Tannia Talento stated in their June 2 letter to the community, APS pledges to continue the work started prior to the school closures to better educate and train our leaders and staff to tackle systemic bias and inequities, that have led to opportunity gaps and disproportionality in discipline," the school system said in a statement.

School leaders are set to have several community discussions regarding the petitions starting with an online conversation on June 22.

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