MANY RESOURCES ARE available to educators who wish to assess and address equity and safety in their schools. I have selected a sample of those most recent, accessible, and useful, and included my own assessment for those building feminist schools.
Is your school a gender-equitable institution? Assess your school’s policies and practices using this checklist. If you find that you are saying “no” to some of these, then your school may be engaging in biased gender practices. Work with your students to become a feminist school!
Physical Environment
Classroom Instruction
School Policies
Research and Data
Let’s continue to build this assessment together. Send your ideas to howgirlsachieve@gmail.com.
Advocating for Change for Adolescents! A Practical Toolkit for Young People to Advocate for Improved Adolescent Health and Well-Being. Women Deliver: The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health, May 2017, http://www.who.int/pmnch/knowledge/publications/advocacy_toolkit.pdf?ua=1
Bever, S. Creating Supportive Learning Environments for Girls and Boys: A Guide for Educators. IREX, n.d., https://
Let Her Learn: A Tool Kit to Stop School Pushout for Girls of Color. Washington, DC: National Women’s Law Center, n.d., https://
Morris, M. W., R. Epstein, and A. Yusuf. Be Her Resource: A Toolkit about School Resource Officers and Girls of Color. Washington, DC: National Black Women’s Justice Institute and the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, https://
Smith, J., M. Huppuch, M. Van Deven, and Girls for Gender Equity. Hey! Shorty: A Guide to Combating Sexual Violence and Harassment in Schools and on the Streets. New York: Feminist Press, 2011.
Watson, D., J. Hagopian, and W. Au. Teaching for Black Lives. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools, 2018. Available at: https://
Today, students are as exposed to issues across the globe as their parents. Thus, schools are increasingly forced to help students process the news around them rather than ignore it. One such issue includes the increasing public awareness of unarmed black adults and youth killed by police. African Americans, specifically, respond to these public incidents by reporting more stress, trauma, and overall lower mental well-being (see Jacob Bor et al., “Police Killings and Their Spillover Effects on the Mental Health of Black Americans,” Lancet 392, 10144 [2018]: 302–310). Feminist schools, therefore, have a responsibility to help students contend with these negative experiences. This can be accomplished in many ways. Teele Elementary, the school featured in Chapter 2, encourages students to write letters to the victims of the police shootings. The letters help young people feel that they are taking action toward the issue of police violence. Writing activities cultivate empathy and provide an outlet for students to express how they feel. Below are samples of two writing projects from girl students at Teele Elementary. Try this type of activity with your students as well.
Letters to the Deceased
Dear Freddie Gray,
Your story impact my life because you were too young to die and it opened my eyes to see that black people are treated like this. And you also impact my life by making me notice that black people should be treated with respect and fairness. Last thing I want to say is don’t regret being black. Love your race and be proud of who you are. Love,
Dear Tamir Rice,
I know this letter will never reach you but I wanted to say this was really unfair. It was just a toy or nerf gun or a watergun. You did not do anything wrong, innocent! And the police did not get charged. This means a lot to me because I have 12 toy guns and me and my friends play with them every day. Let god bless you and I hope you made it heaven.
Dear Kendra James,
You inspire me but you wasn’t armed and you should not get arrested and a police officer fired by self-defense by struggling with James and you is so innocent to other people and you got shot in the head and got pulled over. And he arrested when he is in the driver seat. James was shot in the head by a police officer in Portland, Oregon. On May 5th, 2003 after the car in which she was a passenger was pulled over. I am sorry for your incident.
Dear Rekia Boyd,
If you were alive, I’d wish you were my best friend. Your story was inspiring but sad. It makes me want to stick up for people who has gotten that done to them. You knew you couldn’t do much but you were strong. As strong as you can be. You are strong, powerful and brave. I’m sorry your killer wasn’t arrested, what a shame it is. But even though you died our strong. You’re still strong and you will always be strong. #BLACKLIVES MATTER
Sincerely,
BLACKS LOVE YOU.
Dear Tamir Rice,
I agree that 12 is still a kid and WHO WOULD KILL A KID? It just feels bad not to live a long life. So, I am here to say there is good news, people are protesting and trying to stand up or the people who were shot or no reason. Now you won’t have to feel bad. People care for you as a black so be proud that you have brothers and sisters standing up for you.
GOD BLESS YOU.
Girls Speak
What impact does Black Lives Matter have on your future?
I will not tolerate anyone being racist to another person in front of me because the racist problem will gain more throughout the world and then people of color will feel un-belonging and sad and they don’t matter. So, in the future everyone should know that their special in many ways!
I can walk outside my outside and not see a black person being searched or arrested or in fight because [they] created the black lives matter movement to help black people become the same as white people. They wanted to make, not just an equal community but an equal world. So now every time I walk out my house, I smile, because nothing bad is happening and I know why.
Because of the Black lives matter movement things are going a lot smoother than before and now with time to save others the movement and make it even better so there won’t be any racial profiling and everybody will get treated equally and the same and no one will raise the question: what race are you?
In the future blacks are going to be treated more fairly.
Because being a black girl of color, my opinions won’t always matter. even though no one is the same, I am still human, god just made me this way.
Being a young, Black woman, I might not be who people want me to be but this movement show no matter how much hate I get because of my skin color, I know that I matter so that’s all that matter. Even I may be different from the world I know that these women gave me the right to speak my mind and I matter and so do you.
Why are women’s rights important to you?
Dear Girls and Women,
You are not perfect but brilliant. You matter. You have something to say. You are smart. You are lucky to be a girl. You are brave and smart. You are beautiful.
I am brave, I am smart. I love myself. A woman’s work is very hard.
I am myself … and that is how a woman is.
63 million girls can’t go to school.
1 out of 3 women can’t read
Only 10 percent of government is female.
Girls are supposed to learn.
Girls are intelligent and matter.
Girls can work wherever they want.
Girls are incredible.
The end.