PRESS RELEASE

Latino/a/x families to hold a town hall to discuss experiences in North Kitsap schools and to challenge systemic racism and advance racial equity in schools countywide

Latino/a/x families build on a November 2022 meeting to create a safe space to share, partner, and make plans to address racial inequities in education in Kitsap County.

Poulsbo, Washington — Latino/a/x families announced today an intention to follow up on a November 2022 meeting with North Kitsap School District to address racism, discrimination, and lack of resources. On February 7th, 2023, at 6:30 p.m. The Latino/a/x community will gather with other Kitsap communities of Color and supporters to address systemic barriers to opportunity and combat injustices faced by communities of Color in the Kitsap school system. The Town Hall will center the experiences of Latinx students and families, and set the stage for a communitywide commitment to change.

The Kitsap Sun documented the November 2022 meeting in the article, “Latino parents, students say they face racism, discrimination at North Kitsap High.” Upwards of 40 people attended the meeting, which lasted nearly 3 hours. Latino/a/x parents shared stories of racial bullying by teachers, discrimination by teachers, lack of access to translation materials, bullying on public school buses, and more.

In one example, Latino students from Kingston High School were told by teachers, “Go back across the border.” In North Kitsap High School, a parent reported that her son’s teacher told him his difficulty studying was because he “ate too many burritos.” A father reported that his daughter has been called a “Beaner” and told to “Go back to Mexico.” And multiple parents shared that at elementary schools there are inadequate language acquisition resources, often leaving peers to tutor fellow students.

Latino/a/x families report not being given critical communications from the district and school in an accessible format or in Spanish. At the meeting, they requested to receive these critical communications. Families were asked to contact the EL Coordinator directly, but when they left messages,their calls were not returned. The Latino/a/x families at the November meeting expressed a desire to support the education of not only their students in North Kitsap School District, but also the many other under-represented groups and ethnicities in Kitsap County. The families also expressed a desire for actionable change.

An informal network of Latino/a/x families has formed to respond to racism in the North Kitsap School District. This group is organizing the February 7th Town Hall,, and has requested that Kitsap school systems:

• Comply with Policy 4218 & 4218P Language Access Program, which describes procedures intended to implement and establish meaningful, two-way communication between the District and parents with limited English proficiency (LEP), and promote access for such parents to the programs, services, and activities of the District.

• Per district/state regulations, provide English language learners with more than 20 minutes of services once or twice a week.

• Offer services designed and supported for language acquisition, instead of reading/literacy development, which is what they get now.

• Provide equal access to the content of our students’ classes in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools.

• Per state/district regulations, provide immediate access to interpretation services for back-to-school night, meetings about discipline problems, parent-teacher conferences, and essential school services.

• Provide access to Dr. Evans’ report on the “strategic plan” that exists to address the aforementioned issues.

• Provide equal access, support, and opportunity regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation for every child, middle schooler, and high school student.

Latino/a/x families want to give our children a chance to live in a society of more inclusion and unity. For too long, Kitsap County’s children and youth of color have faced injustices and systemic barriers in their pursuit of education. Cesar Chavez said, “We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community…. Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.” Empowering our Latino/a/x community and the other communities of Color that have borne the impact of racism and discrimination, builds bridges and creates movement toward truth, healing, and reconciliation.

In 2020, there was a nationwide response in the form of protests following the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and many others. Kitsap County joined the nation and world in a renewed call for justice, truth, and healing.

The problems the Latino/a/x community face are problems deeply rooted in Kitsap County’s historical and repetitive harm and discrimination. Latino/a/x families are guests on Suquamish and Port Gamble S’Klallam tribal lands. We share an important connection in our indigeneity. During colonization, Indigenous peoples of Jalisco, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Michoacan, along with other states of Mexico, allied together to fight the Spanish conquest, and for continued freedom of their peoples. We deeply respect the Suquamish Tribe and Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe’s work towards justice, advocacy, and healing, not only on behalf of themselves, but on behalf of many other communities in Kitsap County.

The result of unaddressed racial trauma in our schools creates barriers to education, work, mental health, physical health issues, and increase in overall stress. Our youth search for ways to cope with the effects of racism, pandemic, and violence. Lillian Comas-Díaz, in “Racial Trauma: Theory, Research, and Healing,” states, “Results indicated that racism emerged as a theme both as a precipitant to substance use and as a barrier to recovery. Racial trauma erodes cultural identity” (2019).

Resma Menakem states, “...One of the best things each of us can do—not only for ourselves, but also for our children and grandchildren—is to metabolize our pain and heal our trauma. In contrast, when we don’t address our trauma, we may pass it on to future generations, along with some of our fear, constriction and pain.”

NKSD stated, “ Students and families should feel welcome and have a sense of belonging in our schools. When there are barriers to this, it is on us to have the courageous conversations to make meaningful changes.”

The Latino/a/x community of Kitsap County is proud to join hands with our community, and lend our voices and resources to empower, inspire, and create spaces in our education system for meaningful change.

Let us have this courageous conversation.