Dear Superintendent Michael Martirano, Assistant Superintendent

Dear Superintendent Michael Martirano, Assistant Superintendent Karalee Turner-Little, Board of Education Chair Mavis Ellis, Board of Education Vice Chair Vicky Cutroneo, Board of Education Member Kirsten Coombs, Board of Education Member Christina Delmont-Small, Board of Education Member Jennifer Mallo, Board of Education Member Sabina Taj, Board of Education Member Chao Wu, And all Principals of Howard County Schools, We are reaching out to you on behalf of current and former students of the Howard County Public School System, regarding racism within our community. Given the recent senseless murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, George Floyd, and countless other Black people, it is important to address how the Howard County Public School System has upheld structural and institutional racism in its schools. We must ensure that People of Color in the HCPSS community are heard and advocated for. HCPSS has a duty to provide their students with safe learning environments, where they receive equal education and adequate representation within that environment. The actions we have seen from HCPSS thus far are inadequate in addressing racism within the community and ensuring that Black students feel safe and represented in their communities. Regarding the June 4th statement from the superintendent regarding hateful incidences, we believe that simply addressing reported incidences of racial biases is not sufficient. Not all students who experience discrimination in the HCPSS school system feel comfortable reporting incidents of racism, so there are undoubtedly countless cases that go unnoticed and unaddressed. Punishing reported instances of racism is not enough. We need to dismantle the White supremacist notions that fuel these incidences. Based on the responses of community members, we have compiled several necessary action items. These action items must be addressed in order to limit the racial biases found in and perpetuated by our schools. We demand that HCPSS takes action on the following items: 1) HCPSS must change the curriculum and institute a required Black history course. The HCPSS curriculum must be adapted to include a variety of non-Eurocentric narratives in all classes. This may include but is not limited to: increasing the time spent on Black history and increasing the number of books/film/art by Black individuals included in the curriculum. In STEM classes, the contributions of People of Color to these fields needs to be discussed directly and heavily. HCPSS needs to institute a mandatory history class that explicitly addresses the history of Black people, along with emphasizing histories of other marginalized groups. In addition, the curriculum must include discussions of racial biases, how they are reinforced, and how to correct for them. The curriculum needs to also include anti-racist literature, such as “So You Want to Talk About Race” by Ijoma Oluo. The curriculum must address how racism continues to be perpetuated in our society by the criminal justice system, the education system, and the housing market. “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander addresses many of these topics and should be introduced in High School English classes as a required reading. In addition, race and bias needs to be addressed in regards to all extracurricular activities. 2) HCPSS must identify and correct for racial bias in the HCPSS hiring process. In the testimonials below, many students have highlighted the lack of diversity in HCPSS staff. In addition, your website suggests that in 2018, only 40% of high school students were White, yet over 80% of your teachers are White. There are similar patterns in your middle and elementary schools. Your staffing currently vastly underrepresented People of Color, and that must be rectified immediately by increasing your efforts to hire People of Color. 3) HCPSS must require all staff to undergo comprehensive diversity & inclusion, cultural proficiency, bystander intervention and conflict mediation training. Cultural proficiency training is currently optional for HCPSS staff. The training mentioned above must be mandatory and conducted by an expert. The training must occur on at least a yearly basis (if not much more often). Training needs to include discussions of unconscious and implicit bias and how these biases affect interactions both within and outside the classroom. These classes shall be held in-person to ensure engagement with the material. Students need have discussions of cultural proficiency and bystander intervention in their core classes. We note that our teachers should not bear undue burden and thus they should be compensated for this training. 4) HCPSS must hire more DEILS and increase the number of opportunities for students/ faculty / staff to discuss race. HCPSS must promote culturally minded, equitable practices both inside and outside of the classroom. Speakers and assemblies need to be utilized to highlight the experiences of non-White individuals. Classroom discussions must emphasize diverse voices. HCPSS needs to hire more specific and generalized diversity, equity, and inclusion liaisons (DEILs), including black student and family liaisons, in all schools and increase the compensation they receive for their work. Liaisons will be responsible for increasing opportunities to discuss race and better utilizing existing venues (such as assemblies and field trips) to address race. 5) HCPSS must provide the public with regular updates and easily accessible deliverables, showing that progress has been made towards accomplishing these and other goals, such as the ones voted on by the Committee for Diversity and Inclusion in the school year 2016-2017 (included on the HCPSS website). It is unacceptable that the most recent information regarding diversity and inclusion on your website is nearly three years old. Additionally, the most recent information regarding staff diversity is two years old. Information on your website must be updated each year and the Committee for Diversity and Inclusion needs to meet regularly. 6) HCPSS must implement an anonymous reporting system for instances of discrimination. This system would allow students, faculty and staff to submit any complaints about discrimination, microaggressions or blatant racism. All complaints submitted to the system must be investigated. This system would allow for an additional level of accountability from all members of the school system. This would also protect students who do not feel comfortable reporting instances of discrimination. Findings of the investigation must be made public (but conceal names and identifying information). Information on action taken after the incident must be recorded in the report. 7) HCPSS must examine how the presence of School Resource Officers perpetuates discrimination and violence against Students of Color. The presence of School Resource Officers is often threatening to Students of Color. Having Resource Officers in our schools subjects Black and other marginalized individuals to the devastating effects of racial profiling at an incredibly young age, which further perpetuates the school-to- prison pipeline for Students of Color. HCPSS should remove School Resource Officers and redistribute the money towards other initiatives, such as hiring additional school counselors and psychologists, behavior specialists, and support professionals and providing conflict mediation training for all faculty and staff. We want to address the possibility that the Board of Education for HCPSS may already be making progress on some of the action items highlighted above. However, the information on the HCPSS website is outdated and thus it is hard to tell what, if any, progress is being made regarding reducing racism in our community. Moving forward, HCPSS needs to improve transparency and accountability by maintaining updated information about diversity initiatives on your website, in addition to providing information on how actions taken by HCPSS impact reported cases of racism in our schools. The HCPSS website states “HCPSS is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all students and ensuring that all backgrounds and interests equally represent the voice of the student body. Students have the opportunity to share their experiences both inside and outside of school and to contribute to programs that promote positive behavior in their school community and foster respect for all cultures and diversity throughout the system.” Many students feel that the environment is neither inclusive or safe for them if they are non-White. HCPSS states its commitment to diversity and inclusion, yet many deliverables on these initiatives are yet to be seen. Included with this letter, you will find testimonies, experiences and suggestions of current and former students of HCPSS. These testimonies are unedited, other than removing specific names or identifiers of the people who wrote or were mentioned in these testimonies and fixing spelling errors. The names of some of the individuals below have not been included upon their request. Many students shared stories with me that they do not wish to share with the public. I implore you to read the stories and suggestions of these current and former students. Many describe horrific incidents of racism, some of which were never dealt with. Action must be taken to protect Students of Color and to better our schools and students. If you do not take action, you are complicit. Sincerely, Current and Former students, faculty and staff of the HCPSS community

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