We just arrived in North Carolina following a powerful lecture that we attended this afternoon from Dr. Crystal Kuykendall, author of “From Rage to Hope: Strategies for Reclaiming Black and Hispanic Children”.
Dr. Kuykedall’s words were inspiring, motivating, reviving, and validating for those of us that are fully engaged in the struggle, not just for the minds of our children, but for their souls, spirits, and bodies.
As we spend the weekend advocating and organizing in North Carolina with our parents there, we will definitely share her energy and passion as motivators for our them. We are expecting our support groups from North Carolina, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, and many other places to join us, along with the NAACP, at Henrico’s April 24 school board meeting.
Today, we also received confirmation that Congressman Bobby Scott, whom we met with two weeks ago, is working with the Virginia Department of Education officials, and Secretary of Education for Virginia regarding the horrifically unethical, retalitatory, and discriminatory actions that are being committed by district officials and school administrators with no consequence.
It’s like we tell our children, if you do not monitor your OWN behavior, I will have to monitor it for you and give consequences for inappropriate behaviors. Well, that is what is going to happen to Fred Morton and his cronies. Their reign of terror is coming to an end. Unfortunately, it looks as though the school board that promised to be different, about change, fight for us, not to operate as business as usual, and to promote equity; is not going to do their part in cleaning Henrico up for our children, which is probably going to result in each of their removal after the petition has been completed and submitted to the civil courts.
Thank you to our legal eagles for sharing that process with us during last week’s meeting, and a special thanks to our parents of CCIE that are going door to door to get the petition signed. If board members could go door to door to get elected, parents can go door to door to get them unelected. As one parent stated, “my child’s life is too important for them to keep delaying doing what they know is right by getting rid of all of these horrible people that don’t care about him. What was the purpose of electing them if they do not work for our best interests? They have had enough time to get it together, it is time for them to go so that we can have a board that will not back down from putting our children first here and now, not delayed and later.”
We will be meeting Sunday evening with the other community groups and parents once we return from North Carolina, to plan for next week’s visit of the Office of Civil Rights to Henrico County Public Schools. While we cannot disclose a great deal, as we love the element of surprise, we can tell you to watch the news carefully next week!
Justice for our children is NOT an option!
KEEP UP THE NERVE!
