In support of antiracist education at DMPS

I made this statement at the Des Moines Public Schools’ school board meeting on July 6, 2021.

My name is Kate Lechtenberg, and I am a parent of two DMPS students and I just finished my first year as a staff member. Today, I want to speak in support of continuing and deeping the urgent work of antiracist education for both students and teachers in Des Moines Public Schools.

First, I want to say that I am proud to work and to send my children to school in a district that unabashedly uses the word antiracist to describe its committments to its students. Last year, I read we read Director Dwana Bradley’s “Why the words ‘Black Lives Matter’ Are Important at DMPS” blog post aloud to my own children and to my 8th grade students, and I want you to know how powerful it was to share that statement directly from our website with all our young people, but especially our Black, indigenous, and students of color. Official statements and the embrace of the BLM movement and antiracist pedagogy is the first important step in this journey, and I think you for leading that work.

My own two children are mixed race, bicultural, Muslim students who have had many positive experiences in Des Moines schools, but they have also have experienced painful acts of racism from their peers, as well as some painful silences in the curriculum or incomplete responses from staff members when that racism has occurred. However, after DMPS’s response following George Floyd’s murder last summer, including Director Bradley’s blog post and Dr. Ahart’s explicit statements supporting antiracist education, my kids have begun to see changes in their schooling. In my son’s school, for example, teachers and administrators have become more intentional and vocal about including diverse texts in their curriculum, in educating themselves about oppression, and in leading complex conversations about race, religion, class, gender, and all forms of difference with students. I see a direct link from the board and superintendent’s embrace of antiracist education and to my son’s stronger sense of his own identity and feeling of being visible in his school and curriculum. So thank you all, and his teachers, administrators, and his entire school community.

If last’s year’s challenge was about embracing the word antiracism and starting conversations, this year’s challenge is to continue those conversations despite the intense misinformation and racism that is circulating in the media and in our legislature as some people try to demonize antiracist educators’ work in DMPS and across the state. HF802 is a threat to my children and all children because it contains falsehoods and it focus on white people’s discomfort with considering complex perspectives instead of recognizing the discomfort and invisibility that students of color and students with many marginalized identities have felt for years. Now more than ever, teachers and students need loud and clear statements from school board members and administrators that say, “This work will continue. Critical, antiracist education is American and silencing the past and diverse perspectives is un-American.” Teachers need to be supported in this work, to be reminded that inquiry is not indoctrination, and to be affirmed as they pursue reading and discussing texts that ask us to consider new perspectives and parts of history that have been ignored.

I am also a teacher educator and researcher, and this summer I have heard from my graduate students—most of whom are practicing teachers—that silence is dangerous for teachers as well. Teachers need and deserve clear and honest discussions with district and building leaders so that they can understand what HF802 says, what misinformation they may hear from community members, and how HF802 conflicts with DMPS’s committment to antiracism. Most importantly, teachers need to know how the district will support them in continuing this essential work. They deserve honest, rigorous training and collaboration that focuses on how to make antiracist more than a slogan in our schools. In my first year with DMPS, I’ve learned that there are so many teachers in DMPS who are ready to step up as leaders to support others in making antiracist education a reality.

In closing, critical reading and questioning are not dangerous, silence is. Please continue to support teachers with antiracist commitments and help us put these committments into action.