I am a 2000 graduate of Marysville-Pilchuck High School, a 2003 graduate of the University of Washington School of Social Work and am currently employed with the state Department of Social and Health Services. For the past few months, I have been watching the Marysville teachers’ strike and, like so many others, felt relieved when students returned to the classroom last month.
Yet one question has been nagging me: Why all this now? I had a wonderful time growing up since first grade in Marysville schools, but something occurred to me this weekend: I can’t count how many teachers of color I had during my 12 years of schooling. I couldn’t even get past zero. To refresh my memory, I flipped through my yearbooks and, lo and behold, I was right. Not one person of color taught in any of my schools. In fact, the first instructor I had who wasn’t white was at the University of Washington.
So why now? We have had numerous superintendents in the past few years, and we finally have one who has stayed for more than a year. Students actually know the name of the district’s superintendent, something that was uncommon when I was in high school. This superintendent has been leading a district with the largest high school in the state, the second highest paid teachers in the state, and low WASL scores. How is this one different from past superintendents? She is an African-American female in a district full of mostly white students and faculty.
Dr. Linda Whitehead should be seen as an asset for bringing her leadership, educational experience and diversity to the district, not for issues that were there when she came in as superintendent. If the city of Marysville thinks racism is an issue that only bigger cities deal with, the citizens need to look again at each other and themselves.
Edmonds
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