An important part of our district’s mission is to make sure that our students are prepared to find success in college, career, and life. I am a strong advocate of this mission and firmly believe that all our students deserve the support, respect, and dignity in their educational experience today that directly correlate to success tomorrow.
Throughout the first semester of this school year, I have heard from many of our students, families, staff, and community members who believe, as do I, that the true strength in our district lies in its diversity. Unfortunately, we are not living out this belief. I recently learned that our efforts to provide support, respect, and dignity for all students have been tainted by the disheartening actions of a few. At some of our high schools, some students have posted information on social media and in other school environments that contain derogatory, racist and culturally insensitive comments about their own classmates and about entire racial communities. I find these actions offensive, insensitive, and completely out of alignment with our mission and expectations as a diverse and dynamic education community.
As an educator and the Superintendent of the Bellevue School District, part of my role is to ensure that our entire district supports our students in valuing individual opinions and perspectives. It is essential that we move beyond just tolerance, and create learning environments that are safe, equitable, inclusive, respectful, and promote justice for all students. When any of these items is not in place, we risk the safety and well-being of our students. Actions that are offensive, promote racism or stereotypes, and disparage any individual or group are not acceptable and will not be tolerated in our schools.
Our school district has invested a great amount of time, energy, and resources to promote racial equity and inclusion. We will continue this work every day. In Bellevue, we have a unique opportunity to be a leader and model of how a diverse community can come together in strength and pride. We strive to be a community that learns from each other, respects each other, promotes each other, and, most of all, protects each other.
We are in the process of revising our harassment, intimidation, and bullying (HIB) policies and procedures. We will continue to collect feedback from our community on these revisions. Our revised policy, together with enhanced training for the Bellevue School District’s central and school-based staff, will better support the victims of these incidents – both students and their families, reframe the process and approach to do more to prevent and address future incidents, and create an environment where all of our students are safe and feel supported in our schools.
I ask all of you to take another step forward with me to ensure that our students experience respect, dignity, and safety in their daily lives. Collectively, we must work together to make sure that every one of our students finds success today in the classroom and success tomorrow in the world.
In partnership,
Dr. Ivan Duran