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Staff Pledge: Black Lives Matter

To the students and families of Shortridge High School:

We bear witness to the recent tragedies where law enforcement officers have taken the lives of Black people in this city and our nation, and we acknowledge the generational trauma, systemic racism, and racial violence our nation inherits and which pervades our society. A pdf version can be found here.

As a school community, the administrators, teachers, and staff of Shortridge pledge to do the following:

  1. We pledge to listen and to grow as educators, learning from people of color and all oppressed people throughout the world, as our IB curriculum also calls us to do.

  2. We pledge to address our role in discipline and academic disparities for Black students by refraining from policies and procedures that disproportionately remove them from their right to an education.

  3. We pledge to create a more diverse and inclusive community, emphasizing the recruitment, support, and retention of teachers of color, especially Black teachers.

  4. We pledge to build a school climate that is restorative and culturally responsive.

  5. We pledge to incorporate trauma-informed and anti-racist pedagogies and to support all who work at Shortridge in anti-bias and de-escalation strategies.

  6. We pledge to prioritize diverse voices in our curriculum and to uplift stories of marginalized peoples and their pursuits of justice around the world.

  7. We pledge to make all voices heard in the classroom and school, to be receptive to feedback from students and families, and to seek advice and collaborations from the community.

  8. We pledge to educate students of all backgrounds, to foster a love of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and to support students in making the world a more just place.

  9. We pledge to fight alongside our students for equity in our community through service-learning, political and civic advocacy, and peaceful protest.

  10. We pledge to listen and be held accountable to these statements.

We see you. We love you. We stand with you. Black Lives Matter.

Please be safe this summer and always.

Shortridge High School

Teachers and Staff

2019-2020 and 2020-2021

posted online June 1, 2020

District Policy 1619 here

District Resolution 7861 here