FGCU School Counseling Graduate Program: Respect and inclusion call to action

Monday, November 21, 2016

Respect and inclusion call to action

Today, nine of the leading national education organizations, brought together by GLSEN, announce a national call to action to affirm the right of all students to attend school in an environment free from fear, violence, and intimidation, including those who are black, brown, undocumented, LGBTQ, Muslim, and/or living with disabilities.

We have been horrified by recent reports of hate incidents in K-12 schools across the country, part of an unsettling wave of violence nationally. It is time to act.

Let’s make sure that this call to action makes it into the hands of every principal, superintendent, and school board member in the country. In the face of violence and bias incidents among children and youth, it is imperative that adult leaders in school communities make their values known and act to end this unacceptable rash of harassment and bullying.

Today, we urge school leaders – including principals, superintendents, and school boards – to take action immediately to stop the violence and make the core values of respect and inclusion abundantly clear to all in their school communities. Specifically, we and our partners call upon school leadership to:

Publicly reaffirm the inclusive values that are the foundation of healthy learning cultures,
Lead a conversation with their school community on the core values of respect and inclusion at the heart of all learning, and
Consider posting a statement regarding these core values throughout their schools and/or all the schools within their district.

It is heartening that we can rally such a powerful group of organizations, representing all of the top levels of school district leadership, including the National School Boards Association and AASA, the school superintendents association, alongside both the elementary school and secondary school principals’ associations and the National Association of Independent Schools.

Now, we’re asking for your help.

The full text of the call to action is provided in a printable and sharable PDF, with the logos of all of the organizations who joined together to issue it, and GLSEN is providing this resource to support school communities in discussing, creating, and promoting their value statements.

Please get this document into the hands of a school leader in a school or district that you’re connected to. Ask them to bring their community together to reaffirm the values that are the foundation of healthy learning cultures.

Please let us know when you do, and let us know what they say. Together, we can help to stem the current tide of violence and erect a firewall of common values to prevent future incidents. Let’s act together to lift up our shared values of respect, inclusion, and affirmation for all students, and make crystal clear that respect for all means respect for ALL.

In solidarity,