South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Retired Lindbergh teacher defends equity efforts made by past staff

Letters to the Editor

To the editor:

My husband and I retired recently after a combined total of 57 years in the Lindbergh School District. So, even though I no longer have a dog in this fight, I felt compelled to write on behalf of my many friends and former colleagues still at work there…

In the Dec. 10 article “Lindbergh emphasizes equity and diversity like never before, even during a pandemic,” the LEAD (Lindbergh Equity and Diversity) organization states, “Lindbergh has a history of silence and complacency. Black and brown students and families are experiencing harmful racism daily in our school district.”

This statement does not jive with what my husband and I experienced at our time with Lindbergh.

As part of the middle school staff at both Sperreng and Truman, my fellow teachers and I made many efforts to include and relate to our students of color, especially during the many years that we were part of the Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corporation, or VICC, program. We participated in immersion programs to better understand the neighborhoods from which our city students came. We trained in and led activities in our classrooms from the programs like A World of Difference.

I and other colleagues sometimes drove city students home after school hours so that they could participate in extracurricular programs even if they didn’t have transportation. We went into the city to hold special open house evening meetings for city parents who couldn’t make it into the county for these meetings. We sent cabs to bring the families of our city students to school for meetings and events.

Additionally, my husband (who is “brown”) worked as part of the Central Office staff for 27 years and never experienced “daily harmful racism” there.

While I applaud continuing efforts to help all Lindbergh students to be successful, I feel that it is a disservice to current and former Lindbergh personnel to ignore the many efforts that have taken place over the years towards the goal of racial and cultural equity.

Lisa Marin
Concord

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