Malden HAVE A SAFE & HAPPY LABOR DAY WEEKEND! ADVOCATE Vol. 28, No. 35 -FREEwww.advocatenews.net Published Every Friday 617-387-2200 Friday, August 30 , 2019 Malden rallies for reforms to end racism in city schools C By Barbara Taormina alls for racial equity in the city’s school district continued this week with a rally early Monday morning in front of Malden High. Malden Community Organizing for Racial Equity (MaldenCORE), with support from the NAACP Mystic Valley Branch, planned the rally to coincide with a meeting of teachers and administrators who were at the high school at 7 a.m. for their first meeting of the new school year. MaldenCORE members and others who spoke at the rally focused on a slate of reforms aimed at ending systemic racism within city schools and providing support to students and teachers of color. MaldenCORE is demanding that the district hire more teachers and staff of color to reflect the diversity of the city’s students. The group has continually highlighted the disparity between the district’s teachers, nearly 90 percent of whom are white, and the students, 67 percent of whom are Asian, African American or Hispanic. “Teachers are meant to be role models, but I never had ger or a click of a mouse, but it takes time,” said Councillor-at-Large Stephen Winslow, who spoke at Monday’s rally. Winslow said the problem is that the pool of educators of color is smaller than the demand for them. “We need to inspire more people of color to go into education,” he said, inviting those at the rally to think about what they could do to help. MaldenCORE is also calling A crowd of students, teachers and members of the community joined MaldenCORE outside of Malden High on Monday for a rally – calling for reforms to end systemic racism and establish racial equity in Malden schools. (Advocate Photos by Barbara Taormina) a role model who looked like me,” said one Malden student who spoke at Monday’s rally. Over and over, students have described going through the Malden school system without ever once having a class with a Black, Asian or Hispanic teacher. Many said their education in city schools would have been dramatically different if there had been teachers who understood them on a linguistic, cultural and social level. 5th Annual Fairy House Festival at Pine Banks Park a great success Last year, Lorna Closeil, a member of Malden High’s Class of 2010, attended a school committee meeting and shared her story about how her life was changed by her relationship with Jennifer Hedrington, a Haitian American math teacher at Salemwood School. Closeil said she was struggling academically and constantly in and out of in-house suspension, but connecting with a teacher from a similar background who understood her experiences helped her change track. “I was able to shift my self-concept as a troubled student to one that reaffirmed my ability to be a leader in and out of the classroom,” she said, adding that diversity without inclusion is not only ineffective, it’s damaging. MaldenCORE members acknowledged school administrators have made some progress in diversifying the district’s staff, particularly among the district’s administrators, but they want more teachers of color to be recruited, hired and retained. “We want to solve this problem with a swipe of our finJAG welcomes two more businesses to downtown Malden By Barbara Taormina T he Jefferson Apartment Group (JAG) has officially FAIRIES’ TALE: Helena Ribado (left) and Charlie Catherine Murphy are shown enjoying the 5th Annual Fairy House Festival at Pine Banks Park. The fairies are the grandniece and granddaughter of Fairy Godmother/Ward 5 Councillor Barbara Murphy. See page 16 for photo highlights. (Photo Courtesy of Sarah Dawe) announced that Malden Center Fine Wines and Bit Bar will be joining the lineup of retail tenants at the company’s J Malden Center development. The two new businesses will join Landsmith – a gourmet coffee shop – and Soul City Yoga in the retail section of the large mixed-used development that advocates say will revitalize downtown Malden. JAG has also announced that the first tenants who have leased some of the finished units of J Malden Center’s 320 luxury apartments will be moving in at the end of the month. “We are thrilled to welcome Malden Center Fine Wines and JAG | SEE PAGE 15 for mandatory and ongoing anti-racism training for teachers and staff. “People don’t feel safe and this is an education system,” said MaldenCORE Cofounder Erga Pierrette during Monday’s rally. At community discussions and a meeting with the School Committee, students have shared their personal stories of being bullied by stereotypes and taunted with racial and ethnic slurs by classmates. Middle school girls who wear hijabs told of being called terrorists while Black students told of being targeted with SCHOOLS | SEE PAGE 2 $3.39 $2.40 GALLON GALLON Bit Bar to J Malden Center,” said JAG Senior Vice President, Development Partner Sandi Silk. She said the two new businesses will add significantly to the conWe accept: MasterCard * Visa * & Discover Price Subject to Change without notice 100 Gal. Min. 24 Hr. Service 781-286-2602
2 Publizr Home