School District of Philadelphia Speaks up for Immigrants, Refugees, LGBTQ individuals
Families, school staff, students, administrators, public representatives, non-profit partners, and community members packed the atrium of 440 N. Broad on the evening of Tuesday, January 17. The group—diverse in profession, language, nationality, religion, and sexual orientation—sat or stood unified in their concern for the future of Philadelphia school children and families who may be negatively affected by the new presidential administration.
In French: Refugees are welcome here.
The community forum was organized by Executive Director of Family and Community Engagement Jenna Monley and Director of Multilingual Family Support Ludy Soderman, and many partner organizations attended to lend their expertise and support as well. Forum attendees were able to browse resource tables offering information about refugee and immigrant services, LGBTQ programs for students, language services, and more before and after the forum itself.
With the support of live interpreters and interpretation devices for non-English speaking attendees, Superintendent Dr. William Hite addressed the crowd first:
“Sustaining conversations about diversity, equity, and inclusion is a way to help us improve learning environments for all of our young people, our staff members, and their families. We’re going to do that by listening to and learning from a panel of highly respected practitioners who work with refugees, LGBTQ, Muslims, undocumented individuals, and unaccompanied minors.”
We will then invite the community to engage in discussion to hopefully receive answers to many of your questions.
I want to emphasize that the District—the School District of Philadelphia—strives to ensure that differences among our students do not impede their participation in school or their mastery of learning skills. As superintendent, I am committed to ensuring that the School District of Philadelphia is a learning community where everyone is valued, appreciated, and respected, and where everyone receives quality education in a safe learning environment.
We are investing in initiatives that empower our students, our school staff, and our community partners to drive change that will ensure the District maintains conditions that foster success for all students, is welcoming to all families, and that promotes fair and equitable treatment for all. The District is also establishing an infrastructure to support and cultivate a stronger climate of diversity and inclusion.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion matter. These values are woven into the fabric of our District. And, while we’re about to begin the conversation tonight, the goal is to keep the conversation going.”
Dr. Hite addresses the group and reaffirms the School District's commitment to diversity and equality.
Ms. Soderman then introduced the night’s panelists and facilitated a discussion that focused on the existing District policies that support diversity and inclusion as well as concerns about how schools and the District alike will continue to carry out and bolster these policies.
“When we talk about policy and procedure, I think it’s really important to leap off the page and really get into action,” Chief of Student Support Services Karyn Lynch said. “We spend a good deal of time recruiting to find people who look like our students, who come from the countries that our students come from, and I think that it’s incredibly important that we are more successful in this regard. And we turn to you, members of the community, to help us with this…We need more people standing in front of our children who look like our children everyday so that our children recognize where they can go, what they can be, and feel a sense of pride, and really a sense of belonging.”
A panelist from the LGBTQ youth organization The Attic chimed in, “We’re all here very much for similar reasons—to embrace, and to support, and to affirm the young people in our lives for who they are, and allowing them to be themselves…What unifies us is what we want to bring to the young people in our community.”
LGBTQ youth face many barriers to inclusion and continue to struggle with being bullied and harassed at school, experiencing homelessness, and feeling ousted by their religious communities.
“So there’s many obstacles for LGBTQ youth to feeling welcomed and affirmed in the community,” the panelist from The Attic said, and other vulnerable groups like immigrants, refugees, and students with disabilities similarly struggle to feel comfortable in school spaces.
Samol Heng of the Translation & Interpretation Office welcomes the crowd in Khmer.
Ms. Soderman then asked the panelist from Nationalities Service Center, Juliane Ramic, to explain the difference between a refugee and an immigrant.
“Refugees enter the United States through a formal program, the U.S. Resettlement Program,” Ms. Ramic explained. “It is a highly regulated, a highly controlled program, and it is controlled by the executive branch.”
In other words, the United States President determines the number of refugees that enter the country. Philadelphia is an especially welcoming city—it receives refugees from over 20 different nations, which is double the national average. That’s sure to change under the Trump administration.
Ms. Ramic spoke about how a narrative exists—and is perpetuated by fearmongering rhetoric from the Trump administration—that refugees are dangerous.
“The only way for us to break down that fear—of refugee children in our schools, of refugees in our communities—is to tell stories,” she said. “So if you were a refugee, if you are a teacher who teaches refugees, we ask that you tell their story and begin to break that cycle of fear.”
After the first panel concluded, audience members were encouraged to ask questions or make comments. The first question was about whether District schools will become “sanctuary schools.”
Ms. Lynch ensured the audience that the School District of Philadelphia will always be a safe space for all children. The District strives to provide the resources for and address the needs of all children. Moreover, the District prioritizes the safety of its children; people who threaten the safety of children—including immigration officials seeking to deport undocumented immigrant children—are not welcome in District schools.
In response, one audience member commented, “What I’ve been hearing from people in the community is that they want to know that their school is going to stand with them.” Since Donald Trump won the presidential election, many immigrant families have worried about federal immigration officials taking their children away.
“For many people, the schools are a safe haven,” the audience member continued. “This is where they get their information, this is where they enter the community.”
The District pledges that its schools are a safe haven for all students, Ms. Lynch reiterated. If students or families do not feel welcome or safe, the District aims to address those concerns.
An interpreter then asked a similar question for parent. “Her son is undocumented,” the interpreter said. “How can she feel protected from immigration officials coming into the school to get her son?”
Anh Brown, principal at George Nebinger School in South Philadelphia, was quick to respond, echoing Ms. Lynch’s answer.
“So, number one, we have a strict policy in the School District of Philadelphia. We screen everyone who walks through the door, so they have to go to the main office anyway,” she said with certainty. “Number two: no one comes into our building who is going to take one of our kids.”
The community forum was the first of many steps that the District will be taking to ensure that its values of diversity, equity, and inclusion remain solidly in place despite the xenophobic and intolerant rhetoric and policies that the new presidential administration has already begun to roll out. All children—regardless of nationality, language, religion, sexual orientation, documentation status, or any other background—are welcome in the School District of Philadelphia.
