Deborah Ball and Alyssa Brandon publish op-ed in the Detroit Free Press: "Why school isn't a safe place for every child"

Ball and Brandon point to racialized patterns in discipline, school suspension, and evaluation, in addition to harmful curricula that " re-inscribe whiteness, heteronormativity, and English as normal and desirable." The authors write, "These patterns of unsafety in schools are harmful for everyone. When Black children are disproportionately the ones being sent out of class and punished in school, all children see this and develop assumptions about who breaks rules and acts out. When the curriculum misrepresents and distorts knowledge and curates what is normal, everyone is miseducated. As white supremacy is successfully reinforced through schooling, we fail to use the powerful opportunities to build a society for justice."

The authors share their vision for how educators, policymakers, and leaders can use this moment to fight for educational, social, and racial justice. Ball and Brandon write, "As districts emerge from the quarantine of the last year, the plans for a safe return to school must take a fuller view of the safety needed to dismantle anti-Blackness and white supremacy in our educational systems. Taking a fuller view of safety requires refusing crisis language about Black and Brown children. It requires instead planning for the return to in-person schooling in ways that build from where children are and what they know and can do, rather than constructed imaginings of where they ought to be. It centers on deliberately welcoming children and lifting up their strengths, not assaulting them with a barrage of tests aimed at signaling the urgency of their so-called inadequacies. It means that educators need to commit to creating classrooms in which all children are cared for and nourished, not controlled. It means creating schools where all children’s capacities are seen and valued, and their freedom and right to learn are supported, not obstructed."