Quotes by Superintendent Freeman
5/5/21 Zip06: "The District is committed to incorporating awareness of systemic racism into both how it functions and how it teaches".
6/3/21 Focused on Learning Letter: "Before the coronavirus closed our schools and community, we were beginning a student dialogue about systemic racism and developing plans to engage our faculty, students, and greater community in conversations around issues of race and ethnicity ... Words are not enough … We must take purposeful action to address systemic injustice".
2/3/21 UConn interview: "I think we have a real opportunity ... to discuss issues of social justice and real equity in our schools ... we need to keep talking about race and racism and privilege ... the real danger lies in silence".
October 2020 meeting with a concerned parent: "My goal is to elevate Guilford on its Whiteness".
3/17/21 Library zoom discussion: " Being colorblind won't solve the problems that are inherent in structures or societies or communities or schools or personal relationships if you are concerned about systemic racism ... I have wholeheartedly embraced the idea that we have recognized the need to address race and equity" ... We must take purposeful action to address systemic injustice ... That is our goal; that will be our plan.
6/30/20 GPS Focused on Learning letter: "Striving not to be racist is not good enough. To make our community better and more just, we must take actions that are actively antiracist ... We are committed to being more intentionally antiracist".
8/27/20 email to a concerned citizen: "While we do not directly reference either the 1619 Project or Critical Race Theory in our curriculum, they are both valuable approaches to historical instruction".
8/27/20 email to a concerned citizen: "I have read both "White Fragility" and ''Waking Up White" with our leadership team ... I provided a copy of "How To Be An Anti-racist" to all teachers in our District ... In a system where most of our teaching staff and leaders are white themselves, these are important texts".
10/2019 GPS 'Our Direction' letter: "Our concerns are not limited to issues involving such overt acts of racism as blackface … we are also cognizant of and concerned about the more subtle, and at times even unintentional, acts of microaggression and elements of systemic racism".
3/1/21 New Haven Register article by Christine DeRosa entitled "Is CRT being taught in Guilford Schools?" "Students are learning that institutional racism is part of American History".
3/21/21 my.aasa.org SA Mag: Superintendent Freeman belongs to AASA (School Superintendents Association _ a small group of White superintendents of predominantly White districts focusing on race, racism, and equity. They have 'been able to reach common agreement in the use of terminology about anti-racism, equity, and social justice …they recognize that racism is a White problem and should be addressed by Whites … they want to break the cycle of perpetuating systemic racism'.
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