Dear NAPS Community: We write today to express our concern, sadness, and anger regarding the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. We are sure you have heard about the protests across the country. As educators and community leaders, we share in the responsibility of raising North Andover’s young people to be kind, thoughtful, and caring individuals. We strive to prepare our students to meet the challenges of life, challenges that include standing against acts of hate, discrimination, and injustice. We want our students to be contributing community members and stand up against racism. We must continue to promote our RAISE values and explore ways to have conversations about racism in our schools and with our students. We realize that, if we are going to support the diverse community of learners in North Andover, we must start by understanding our own bias and privilege. We must be open to examining our own complicity in the continuation of systemic racism and have honest and difficult conversations about this truth. The pain we have witnessed recently has highlighted that we must all do our part to root out racism, which for all of us, begins by acknowledging that racism is a reality. We are committed to this work. We call upon the North Andover school community to join us in caring for each other, engaging in courageous conversations, and reflecting on racism and systemic discrimination to move forward together, so we can continue to build an inclusive community that shows all of our students how to play a role in creating a future that is just. |
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