Photo: Louis Freedberg/EdSource

Affiche of George Floyd on boarded up Chase Bank edifice in downtown Oakland on May 31. Floyd's killing past iv Minneapolis law officers sparked classroom discussion nearly race and police brutality in West Contra Costa Unified in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Photograph: Louis Freedberg/EdSource

Affiche of George Floyd on boarded upward Chase Banking concern edifice in downtown Oakland on May 31. Floyd's killing by four Minneapolis constabulary officers sparked classroom discussion about race and police brutality in W Contra Costa Unified in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The shock and acrimony that is rippling throughout the country over the police killing of George Floyd hits home for West Contra Costa Unified — a majority Latino and African American commune in the San Francisco Bay Area.

As the district ends instruction this week, teachers described their efforts to give students the opportunity to talk — fifty-fifty if information technology is only virtually — about their concerns.

Superintendent Matthew Duffy, in a message to the school community Sun, said Floyd's expiry and the killing of other African Americans at the hands of police makes him fearfulness for the district's students, specially those who are blackness and brown.

" Our chore at present — more than ever as educators, mentors, friends and community — is to listen, brand space for anger and grief, and ensure that every i of our interactions with our immature black people is built on dearest, humanity, patience and understanding," Duffy said.

Stege Elementary chief Nicole Ruiz described the situation equally "deep, hard and heavy." She described the personal impact of being a blackness woman with black family members in local law enforcement, ane of whom was assigned to aid control a protestation in Walnut Creek on Sunday dark.

She sent ii letters to her students and their families. The commencement, a quote by Angela Davis: "In a racist society, information technology is not plenty to exist not-racist, we must be anti-racist." And the 2d bulletin: "I told them we pray you be condom, be part of the alter and agree each other tighter and dearest one some other," she said. "And at the end, I put, '#StegeStrong.'"

Stege, located in southeast Richmond nearly the edge with El Cerrito, has a student population that is 51% black and nigh thirty% Latino, most depression-income.

Ruiz said she feels fortunate to take teachers on her staff who are "relatively like-minded individuals who want to exist a part of the change and who are interested in making sure our students understand that they take a voice."

She's also relieved that school is not in-person now. That's because conversations virtually racism and police brutality can be hard, she said, and she finds it hard not to share her personal feelings with students and create teachable moments for them out of the incidents.

Pinole Valley High School English instructor Dana Schurr posted a video message to her students on Monday addressing Floyd's expiry and the protests that have followed. In an interview, Schurr said if she was able to be in the classroom with her students right now, they would be having grade-wide discussions about racism every bit an do in critical thinking. She said her Wi-Fi connection isn't strong enough to conduct a full class with all of her students , so instead she fielded responses from students.

Teachers from Pinole Valley Loftier School hold up "Black Lives Matter" signs to protestation the killing of George Floyd during a staff coming together Monday. (Courtesy of primary Kibby Kleiman)

Schurr urged her students to "push back" against racism even so they tin, including speaking up if they hear a family fellow member making racist remarks.

"People are tired of black people getting killed in the streets. That'southward the bottom line," Schurr said in the video. "Don't let us be more divided by this, please think nearly what you can do in your own personal life."

Schurr's students shared their feelings with her about the killing of Floyd , an unarmed blackness man who died while a police officeholder restrained him by kneeling on his neck for more than eight minutes, and of the protests that accept ensued. They expressed anger over the incident and the racism that still exists.

In their responses, students distinguished betwixt protesters and looters.

" I'll merely say that the vehement looters aren't a part of the movement," pupil Nix Tiger sent to Schurr . " There are many videos of not-black people breaking windows while the black protestors beg for them to end."

Students were also angered by videos circulating the internet of police force moving forcefully against protesters.

" All of these protests have been peaceful right up until the cops showed up. The cops are instigating the violence," said Sadye Loza Cottle. "I have seen too many videos of protesters, kneeling in silence, literally simply sitting and a cop comes upwards and forcefully tries to walk over them, button them and very aggressively grab them and arrest them for literally no reason."

Schurr's grade had an essay due this past Tuesday that was assigned earlier in the calendar month. One of her students, inferior Camila Cruzavo, got the OK from Schurr on Monday to write about Floyd's killing. Cruzavo, in an interview, said she appreciated having the space to express her feelings nearly the upshot, and the essay felt cathartic.

"It made me feel like if you tell your teachers how you feel, they volition give you a chance to cry information technology out instead of feeling like you take nobody to talk to," Cruzavo said.

In her essay, she talked about how it was "unbelievable that nosotros're in 2022 and these things are still happening," she said. "Information technology'southward non a land of freedom when things like this are all the same going on."

Alondra Ramirez, a senior at Richmond High School, said some of her teachers have discussed the Floyd killing and the protests during their virtual classes. In her Ethnic Studies form, her teacher Luis Chacon sent video lectures on the history of police brutality and racism in America, s he said, as well as critiques on the media coverage of the protests. Ramirez said she has also been given some reflective assignments, where students were questioned about how they can "support their black brothers and sist ers" as well as realize their own biases, she said.

"African Americans deserve to live their lives merely like everyone else," Ramirez said. "They are the backbone of this land, and without them nosotros would take null. Black lives take ever mattered. They matter today, and they volition proceed to matter forever."

During a stop last Friday at a student'due south domicile to drop off homework assignments, Stege special education teacher Hannah Geitner answered questions from i of her students about po lice brutality and the protests. She was expecting to accept like conversations all week with her students.

"I was with him for perchance 10 minutes, and it came up because he'southward thinking about it, and he'south really scared," she said of the 12-twelvemonth-old. "I think information technology's pretty naive to assume my students practice not see the images and the news because they all accept social media."

Geitner, who participated in the Oakland protests final weekend, said she understands how scared and fearful her blackness and Latino students must experience. With her students, Geitner said she tries to help them dissect the different narratives most the protests because they're inundated with misinformation, peculiarly on social media.

"For me, it was important for him to know that white people cannot tell him, as a black boy, how he tin bear witness his anger and rage," Geitner said r eferring to images and videos of police against protestors. " He's actually scared, but he's mad."

One reason her students may feel more than comfortable with discussing racism and constabulary brutality with her is that their give-and-take is not new and lessons oft include social justice information. She talked with her students at the start of the school year almost why former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick chose to kneel in silent protest of police force brutality and racial injustice. The gesture past some police officers has get a symbol of solidarity with the protesters.

Geitner said the more difficult question to answer for her elementary-historic period students, is how they can protest and vocalism their outrage and solutions. She offered to have 1 student to a protest but was relieved when he turned her down.

"I've seen how peaceful people are being and how vehement the police force are reacting to the peaceful protesting, and so that would be scary to him," she said.

Geitner said these are tough conversations for teachers, specially when they're also pain or struggling with the racism happening effectually or to them.

"I'm struggling with what to tell kids because I know even I'chiliad having a hard time processing this," she said.

Valeria Echeverria ,  a pupil at Richmond Loftier and a staff writer of the W Contra Costa Student Reporting Projection, contributed to this report.

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