With Acceptance Comes Change

On the subject of the death of George Floyd, who died in police custody on May 25 -

it really hits close to home because he is a native Texan. All of us - we are Texans.

It’s eye-opening that these kinds of unfortunate events are still happening in 2020. It’s the sad reality in which we live, but it forces us to identify our beliefs on equality, justice and social injustice.

What is our stance as a community and a school district?

Right now, I’m not sure if we have a collective vision, but it’s going to have to be rooted in treating everyone with respect and dignity. 

I spoke on this during my opening statement to the community: “You have to treat everybody right.”

I remember my grandmother playing and singing the old gospel hymn, “I Will Trust in the Lord,”

I'm gonna treat everybody right,

I'm gonna treat everybody right,

I'm gonna treat everybody right till I die.

It’s just that simple. 

The simplicity of life gets complicated with social pressures and/or learned biases, but as a school district, we have a few obligations. We have to educate and promote all of our students, faculty, and staff on fairness, equity, and tolerance. 

The big word here is tolerance - tolerance for one another and for the differences that we have in personality, upbringing, and ethnicity. Being able to tolerate differences is something that definitely has to be taught. 

I believe that a great education might not be able to conquer all, but it can conquer a lot.

We’re going to approach this year with even more tenacity and focus to provide all of our students with the social skills of acceptance, along with the academic skills and knowledge, to make them competent citizens. 

Even right now - at age nine, age 13, age 17 - to truly just make them competent to be able to survive in our current world. We have to provide them with a mindset and a lense that stretches far beyond a textbook and goes into dealing with society and how to navigate through life. 

We have to be deliberate in teaching social acceptance. Social unacceptance is taught, but now we have to combat that through teaching and modeling how to truly love, respect, and accept one another.