Feature image from KUOW
Recently, KUOW published information about the practice of putting children, mostly Black and Brown special education students, in cages. More distressing than the practice is the fact that the practice, itself, is approved by policy in Seattle Public Schools.
The educator who blew the whistle, named in the KUOW piece, is Jackie Flaherty. Jackie is a veteran kindergarten educator and a Black woman. The Executive Director of WAESN, Tracy Castro-Gill, spoke with Jackie recently. Jackie explained that she has always received negative treatment from the principal who resided over this practice, Ed Roos, but that negative treatment and retaliation intensified when she started to push back against harmful student discipline practices, like locking children in cages.
Many in our community are offering support to the families and students being impacted by this practice – and rightly so. For that reason, WAESN, whose members are overwhelmingly educators, is working to provide support for Jackie and other BIPOC whistleblowers. Without them, justice can never be met, and SPS has a horrible track record when it comes to anti-racist educators who blow the whistle on their harmful practices.
Please join WAESN in supporting Jackie and demanding that, in addition to dismantling abusive, racist discipline policies, SPS protect Jackie and other BIPOC educators, who will no longer be silent witnesses to racial trauma in our schools, from retaliation.
Signing the petition below will send a message to all of the school board directors letting them know you demand they change their discipline policy and protect Jackie and other BIPOC whistleblowers from retaliation.