To the Manhasset Union Free School District:

We write to you appalled by the lack of response and the lack of action by the Manhasset School District in the face of the murders of Black people in the U.S., including Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells, Riah Milton, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tony McDade, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Philando Castile and countless others around the nation. The Manhasset School District claims to “celebrate diversity, an inclusive learning environment, and respect for others as important components in developing global citizens” (MUFSD Mission Statement). Your silence loudly contradicts this mission and only empowers the systematic targeting, oppression, policing, and murdering of Black and Brown people in the United States, including here in Manhasset. This is not a political issue. This is a human rights issue. Your silence has made it clear that the Manhasset School District does not value its students and families of color, the same way it values its white counterparts. The time for change is now.

To truly “celebrate diversity, an inclusive learning environment, and respect for others” the Manhasset Union Free School District must acknowledge that systemic racism and white supremacy are part and parcel with the fabric of our nation as it stands today, and that the difficult work of dismantling these systems is necessary in order to ensure justice, equality, and protection for people of color. The Manhasset Union Free School District must acknowledge and grieve Manhasset’s long history of harmful racial division within its own community and within the walls of its own schools. The Manhasset Union Free School District must acknowledge that Manhasset is stolen land that once belonged to Native Americans, until European colonial settlers arrived and murdered Native Americans. Lastly, the District must also acknowledge and grieve the unjust segregation of its schools which divided white students from Black students in Manhasset through the 1960s. This was perpetuated by racist district zoning by the Board of Education, ensuring that Black students were separate from white students.

Still, today, we see the results of a segregated school system that did little to nothing to ensure that Black students, who were still years behind academically due to segregation, would be caught up to the same level of achievement as their wealthier white counterparts. State test scores of Munsey Park and Shelter Rock Elementary school from 2018 and 2019 reveal that our Black students continue to test nowhere near the level of our white students. The statistics of high school level state testing reveals much of the same pattern of Black students falling behind as their White counterparts excel. The truth is that students of color are neither inadequate nor incapable, but rather that they have historically and systemically been placed at a disadvantage. They were never given the appropriate accommodations, financial resources, educators, and institutions that truly understand their personhood, their culture, their experiences, to believe in them, and to fight to give them what they need to thrive and to succeed. These facts must be openly and explicitly acknowledged in order to create an opportunity for progress and change in Manhasset schools.

The school district has not done enough to make up for our segregated past and continues to create inequitable learning environments in the present. For years, the Manhasset School District has failed its students. It failed to teach students to comprehensively understand, analyze and confront racial injustices. It failed to teach students about gender, race and privilege and how they permeate and affect every aspect of our lives. It also failed to hold its students and faculty
accountable for racially charged language, hatred and discrimination towards students and families of color, making our community less safe.

We demand the Manhasset Union Free School District re-orient its missions and goals to confront systemic racism in the district, to redress harmful racial injustices in the education system, to actively build an anti-racist culture amongst students, faculty, administrators, staff and community members, and to serve justice by holding those individuals/entities accountable for any harm done against people of color in our community.

We call upon the Manhasset Union Free School District to meet the following demands:
1. Prioritize social justice and racial equity as part of the district's core values and
missions.
2. Release a detailed plan for recruiting, hiring, and retaining educators of color
throughout all Manhasset District schools: Research shows that having a Black teacher has great benefits for students, particularly for minority students. Black students who have one Black teacher by third grade are 7% more likely to graduate high school and 13% more likely to enroll in college. All students need to see themselves represented in their teachers and mentors.
3. Establish a leadership committee dedicated to racial equity and social change within our school district throughout all grade levels. This committee must be dedicated to upholding the district, the Manhasset community, and its constituents to the core value of social justice and racial equity.
4. Establish a strong partnership with the Economic Opportunity Council (EOC) that
works to bridge the gap between rising students of the Head Start Program entering
the Manhasset school system. The Head Start program at the EOC has followed a stellar Early Learning and Child Development curriculum. In the past, graduates from Head Start entering the Manhasset School system have been dismissed as “behind” compared to other students. The difference between Head Start alumni and other students has never been a difference in intelligence, but rather a difference in access to resources and wealth. MUFSD’s partnership with the EOC should close this gap by uplifting Head Start students, ensuring equity, and providing these students with resources they otherwise may not be able to afford, such as academic tutors, support groups, scholarships, and mental health counselors.
5. Plan and implement professional development for all staff, faculty and
administrators on implicit bias, racial equity and inclusive curricula: Cultural
sensitivity trainings enhance mutual understanding and bridge gaps between individuals of different ethnic, racial, religious, socioeconomic, and linguistic backgrounds, as well as fostering a sense of acceptance between differing values, beliefs, and cultural differences in the community. This ultimately leads to a healthier, safer, and more inclusive environment, and one which Manhasset currently lacks. These training sessions must be led by experts in the field, and they must be held in classrooms of no more than 25 participants, at least once per month. Separate monthly workshops and training can be held for faculty, administrators, and staff, also on a monthly basis.
6. Hire guidance counselors who identify as people of color and are trained to work
with students of color and students from socioeconomically disadvantaged
backgrounds. Minority students at all grade levels should have the opportunity to meet with a counselor who is culturally and racially conscious, and who understands the experiences of students of color. This person will also understand how to counsel and mentor students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, as well as students of color, thereby making Manhasset schools safer, more positive, and truly equitable spaces for all students.
7. Integrate Black history and the reality of systemic racism into existing curricula:
The existing Social Studies curriculum must be reviewed to ensure that it contains
accurate historical and contextualized teachings on social and racial injustices in our
country. The school district must mandate that any class that teaches students about United States history must be re-designed to be a confrontational, holistic and
comprehensive history of our nation that addresses events, people, and histories that are systematically removed from history books. This includes the Native American culture and history before colonization, the genocide of Native Americans, expansive histories of various African countries before slavery, etc. The first step to heal and move forward as a school district is to acknowledge and confront Manhasset’s racist history and the ongoing systems in place that oppress people of color and poor people.
8. Remove and replace the racist mascot that objectifies and glorifies Native American genocide. “The Indians” mascot is disrespectful and offensive to Native American people. Native Americans are people, not mascots. Such a mascot promotes intolerance and harm against Native Americans and perpetuates negative stereotypes that dehumanize them. According to the Department of Justice analysis, Native Americans are “more likely than people of other races to experience violence at the hands of someone of a different race.”
9. Re-examine punishment for students of color: Studies have shown that within one
school, Black students are six more times as likely to be suspended as white students. “Particularly for African American students...the unequal suspension rate is one of the most important factors hindering academic progress and maintaining the racial gap in achievement.”

In efforts to change the school system, the Manhasset Union Free School District’s commitment to partnering with students, families, and community members, especially those holding marginalized identities, is essential. People of color must be included in the conversation from start to finish, centering their voices and respecting that they are the experts of their own
experiences.

Sincerely,
Young Long Island for Justice of Manhasset