Dear Grace Community,
In the past weeks, our Black students and alumni and other students and alumni of color have bravely shared their experiences of having endured injustice, inequity, microaggressions, and overt racism while at Grace. Faculty have spoken out too, describing incidents of racism that, when reported, were too often inadequately addressed. The pain is real, and it calls us to wake up to the persistence of bias in our community and to do something about it.
We can begin by asking some necessary questions. Why has Grace been unable to create a process for reporting racism and harm that feels trustworthy to all Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in the school? Why have some white students continued to use language that our community guidelines prohibit? Why is there no apparent accountability for white teachers who continually mix up the names of students of color? When Black faculty members have raised specific concerns with the administration about ways racism has impacted them at Grace, why have the responses been ineffective? Why are there not more Black teachers, administrators, students, and trustees in leadership positions at Grace?
Through Grace’s long evolution, the school’s Episcopal identity has ensured that diversity and inclusion have been core values. In recent years we have explicitly aspired to become an anti-racist institution. And yet we have fallen short. Alumni, faculty, parents, and students have been speaking out since mid-June in forums, on Instagram, in emails, letters and phone calls. We thank them. Their sense of urgency is palpable, and it calls us to action.
Any genuine and effective response must do more than present a new list of promises. It must examine the divide between the values of the school and the experiences of our students, families, faculty and staff of color. It must establish structures that are equipped to advance this work and demand accountability. And it must engage the entire school in feeling ownership for this work and investment in a better future.
Today, at the outset of our response, we wish to outline the major aspects of the urgent work that lies ahead.
Provide a Comprehensive Response to the Student Demands: In Spring 2019, a group of students crafted demands and shared them with the administration. Those students never received the thorough communication they deserved as we developed responses to their requests. A revised and more detailed
response to their demands can be found here. Starting in September 2020, the Office of Community Engagement (OCE) will issue quarterly reports to the community about the school’s progress in addressing these demands.
Strengthen the Vital Work of the Office of Community Engagement: Our Office of Community Engagement has been in operation for two years, and we are grateful for the good work Jean-Robert André and Kim Chaloner have so ably led. They are assisted by volunteers from every division, who generously give their time as affinity group leaders and who engage in student support and training. We need to examine the staffing and delivery models of these programs, make better use of current resources, add to them as necessary, and ensure that the OCE is equipped to take on these school-wide initiatives.
Host a Community-Wide Town Hall: The School will hold a Town Hall over Zoom on the topic of the School’s response to racism in our community. This forum will be open to all, including students, and will be hosted jointly by the OCE and the Board’s new Institutional Culture Committee (see below). We hope for a candid and robust discussion. The Town Hall is scheduled for Monday, August 24 at 6 p.m.
Please RSVP here.
Launch the Institutional Culture Committee (ICC):
The Institutional Culture Committee (ICC) of the Board of Trustees will add—at the highest level of Grace's governance—a new layer of accountability for the school's work of anti-racism, equity, and belonging. At our meeting on June 16 the Board approved the creation of the ICC as the first standing committee to be added at the board level since Grace became independent of Grace Church in 2007. The ICC comprises members drawn from the many constituencies of the school and, starting in the fall, it will include two students from the High School Division.
Conduct an Independent Review: This fall, as its first major initiative, the ICC will launch an independent review into the ways that racism persists at Grace, examining the school’s culture and environment from the perspective of students, families, faculty, and staff of color. The ICC will engage and directly manage an outside consultant to conduct this work with participation by the community. The internal review will look at the prevalence and handling of microaggressions, at specific racist statements and actions that have been reported directly and at those that have been shared on @blackatgrace. It will have a broad reach, including the process by which the administration evaluates and responds to complaints. In addition, the review will look at admissions, recruitment, hiring practices, and board operations--all with the goal of attracting and supporting more students, faculty, administration and trustees of color. The ICC will issue quarterly progress updates. A final report of findings, with actionable recommendations, is expected to be shared with the community in the summer of 2021.
Clarify Reporting Procedures: More immediately, we plan to increase accountability in the near term by clarifying and strengthening the procedures in place for addressing incidents of bias, discrimination, and racism. Having clear, effective, mission-consistent procedures for resolving conflicts among school constituents is critical to fostering trust and cohesion. Feedback from recent forums reminds us that this effort must include our youngest students and families.
Create a Comprehensive Parent Orientation: Racism places a heavy burden on Black, Indigenous, and people of color in any predominantly white institution, and it has clearly done so at Grace. The work of anti-racism must not likewise fall solely to BIPOC, but must be embraced by white members of our community with intention, persistence, candor, and hope. We are exploring the best way to provide every parent with a more comprehensive orientation to the mission and ethos of the school. The goal will be to deepen parents’ understanding of the values of care, respect, and belonging that are at the heart of our community, so they can support the commitments made by Grace students and understand the process that occurs when those commitments are broken.
Expand Spaces for all Community Members to Engage in Anti-Racism Work: We seek to more deeply support affinity group work for students, faculty and parents of color, but critically, we also need to provide opportunities for white community members to engage in this way. The Faculty White Antiracist Affinity Group (“WAAG”) has been running for five years and has grown in membership and commitment. This space works alongside other racial and identity-based affinity groups and allows white faculty to gain racial awareness to safely explore their own biases with professional guidance and support. Similar WAAG spaces for parents and High School students have already planned their agendas for fall 2020, and programming is in the works for Middle School students as well. These affinity spaces are not meant to further segregate us, but rather to meet us where we are individually and equip us with the skills we need, strengthening the community as a whole.
The worth of any statement of values—like Grace’s Commitment to Anti-Racism, Equity, and Belonging—comes not from the quality of its prose but from the efficacy of the action it inspires. Now is a time for action. Grace’s strength has always been in its people and in the human connections they form. Those bonds have been tested, and there is healing to be done, amends to be made, and a community to re-form. Our plans will fail if they do not engage our hearts and minds. We have difficult work ahead. It will take strength, endurance, compassion, wisdom, and a hunger for justice—qualities of the “active ethical consciousness” we seek to promote in our students and now must better cultivate in our institution and ourselves.
The voices that have spoken up in recent weeks and well before have done so with a fierce belief that Grace can become a more just and equitable school. We must prove worthy of their faith.
George P. Davison Olivia Douglas
Head of School Chair, Board of Trustees