Our community is grieving, angry and profoundly sad after the death of George Floyd. LDA Minnesota’s staff and board stand with our community against racism, oppression and injustice and hope that together we will find a path to ending the racial disparities plaguing our systems, schools and neighborhoods.
As an organization, one of our core values is “Creating an Inclusive and Equitable Community”. Our work at LDA has always been focused on inclusion for individuals with disabilities, but over our history we have intentionally focused our work on the intersection of race and disabilities and the disparities many students and families experience. Our commitment to racial justice has deepened as our students, clients, staff and board members living in Minneapolis and St. Paul has been impacted by the traumatic events of the past week.
We know as educators and teacher educators, our education system has some changes to make to build inclusive and equitable schools for all students. LDA’s board of directors and staff pledge to continue and intensify our own work as well as commit to our values of creating an inclusive and equitable community, where all students have the opportunity to achieve and where they are understood by their teachers and building leaders. We must do this work together and we invite others to join us. It will be in working together that change can happen.
“You don’t fight racism with racism, the best way to fight racism is with solidarity.”
– Bobby Seale