Updates 2022:

• Student Focused:

We address the needs of the whole child, including their social and emotional needs, offering an enriched learning environment and a comprehensive system of supports.

• High Academic Expectations:

We offer a variety of instruction to maximize growth, life skills, academic excellence, and to cultivate a passion for lifelong learning.

• Diversity & Inclusion:

We value differences and the contributions of diverse students and staff. Diversity builds strength. We create an environment where all students and staff feel valued and included.

• Equitable Opportunity:

We offer varied instruction and multi-tiered systems of support to engage students and facilitate individual student learning in order to close any achievement gaps.

• Continuous Growth:

We believe staff must engage in ongoing relevant and evidence- based professional development in order to continue to improve teaching and learning.

• Volunteerism:

We promote and encourage service among our stakeholders. We recognize and value the positive accomplishments that volunteers achieve by working together.

School EDI Plans

Ashland School District has formed an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Steering Committee that will provide a strategic approach to the challenges of equity and inclusion in our schools.  The work of the Steering Committee will support the vision of the District’s equity policy and promote the Black Lives Matter resolution.  The Steering Committee will work with schools to promote effective practices and evaluate progress using student measures.  The committee is chaired by Andrea Townsend, Director of Equity and Inclusion, and has members from each school.
 
On December 16, 2020, the Ashland School Board is set to enact the All Students Belong policy that will address consequences for the use of specific hate symbols and establish a process for student-on-student bias incidents in accordance with Oregon Administrative Regulation OAR 581-022-2312.  The Ashland bias incident process will promote education and restorative justice wherever feasible. 
 
The recent shooting of a former Ashland High School student, Aidan Ellison, a young Black man, on November 23, 2020, is a reminder of the importance of working for a more equitable and just community through education.
 
In October, the Oregon Department of Education released two important documents, a Black Lives Matter Resolution and a Joint Letter of Support for Black Lives Matter that support schools throughout Oregon in addressing issues of systemic racism and injustice.

Guidance for Families and Educators When Responding to Racial Incidents

Click here for a printable PDF version of this text.

1. Be mindful of or limit media exposure, and encourage older students to do so as well.

• Graphic images depicted through news and social media are especially upsetting to children and teens.

• Be mindful of what you and other adults discuss and model in front children. Children are much more aware than we think.

• The more graphic visual coverage children are exposed to, the more likely they are to experience anxiety, fear, and trauma.

2. Talk with kids about racism, white supremacy, and the really hard things.

• You don’t have to have all the answers or be an expert to have a conversation.

• Ask children and teens about their thoughts, feelings, fears, concerns, and perspectives on what they have seen or heard.

• Be concrete. Don't give more information than they can handle. Correct any misunderstandings or confusion.

• Be available to reassure them of their safety and of plans to keep them safe.

• Focus on the unfairness. Highlight examples of resistance and of allies and accomplices.

• Emphasize the agency of the people who are oppressed. This gives kids hope and examples.

3. Educate Yourself

• In order to best guide your children and teens, you must engage and take responsibility for your own learning.

• There is no checklist for addressing systemic racism and oppression. There is no “one size fits all” remedy or handbook to become more racially informed and aware.

• Seek out and read BIPOC-authored articles and books.

4. Support your BIPOC community

• Listen to BIPOC voices. Believe their experiences.

• Educate yourself on white privilege, white fragility, and white savior complex.

• Do not rely on your BIPOC friends or family to educate you. Equity work takes emotional and mental labor. It is not the responsibility of the oppressed to educate the oppressor or privileged.

• Ally is a verb. Leave it to BIPOC to refer to your actions as those of an ally or an accomplice. If you want to be an ally, get to work!

Further Resources:

• ​Talking to children after racial incidents

• Social justice resources

• Teaching about race, racism, and police violence

• Resources for talking about race, racism, and racialized violence with kids

• Anti-racism resources for white people

• Your Kids Aren't Too Young to Talk About Race: Resource Roundup

• 103 things people of whiteness can do for social justice

• Why it hurts when people say "all lives matter"

• Video explaining Black Lives Matter

Developed May 2020 Becca Laroi and Tiffany Burns, utilizing these resources:

• Tips for parents on media coverage National Child Traumatic Stress Network

• Talking Race with Young Children NPR, Sesame Workshop, & author Beverly Daniel Tatum