https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bu_TJoz2EekMdgGMz-sB6n2nnjrJQY8e?usp=sharing

What you said is exactly what I feel this days.

There are no ESOL counselors that speak Korean anymore, only Chinese, Cantonese, and Vietnamese (hello from the Chinese speaking ESOL Counselor!)

Please visit this link for resources. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bu_TJoz2EekMdgGMz-sB6n2nnjrJQY8e?usp=sharing

Thank you Troy for speaking about our collaboration! Cixin Wang, Neel Saxena and Julie Yang also were co-creators of the training on AAPIs for MCPS staff.

I would like you all to discuss the role of educating students about different faiths thru dialogues by Interfaith groups so that students learn about others, learn to respect and assimilate with other culture as brothers and sisters and not hate them because they look different or have an accent and may not understand the slang

This could be done bu observing religious holidays at which time the students can be educated about different faiths as children of same GOD. Religious holidays can be used for teaching.

You know how much I value you all

Agree with Dr. Gupta. In order reduce the violence and hate crimes against people of different race, religion, ethnicity etc., the education needs to happen at different levels - education in schools and colleges, workplaces and public places. How can our County expand on all those activities? Do we have any specific efftrts? Thanks

I would also be interested in understanding whether there is a plan to incorporate into MCPS curriculum more formally discussions about anti-Asian discrimination/bias, from a historical perspective, so as to raise awareness about related issues.

MCPS Online Bullying Formo https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfg-gJMpCPdUV48TyLQ0_097SBOh3h20PImFHsU82-3fn0Hdw/viewform

MCPS Bullying, Harassment, Intimidation Reporting Procedureso https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/compliance/QUICK%20REFERENCE-%20FEB021121_Student%20Bullying%20Harassment%20and%20Intimidation(1).pdf

what is the outcome for a given incident investigation? is there some sort of summary report or follow up provided to the victim / victim's family about the final conclusion of the incident?

Parents told me that they are afraid: if they do report, their kids may get isolated by others in school. What should I tell them?

The building administrator that conducts the investigation will follow up with the family about the investigation.

Agree with other parents. I would also be interested in understanding whether there is a plan to incorporate into MCPS curriculum more formally discussions about anti-Asian discrimination/bias,

if families are afraid of reporting, they can report anonymously https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/security/hotlines.aspx

Thanks Dr. Conolly for those web links. Will go in and review them. Thanks

Hi everyone! I work with the Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County and we work with MCPS. We offer free mediation services for students, parents, and teachers. You can find more info on our website: crcmc.org

MD Safe Schools Tip line: https://schoolsafety.maryland.gov/Pages/Tipline.aspx

this tip line is anonymous and MCPS staff receive the tips and then will share the information to the school

Hi Everyone ,

I would also be interested in understanding whether there is a plan to incorporate into MCPS curriculum more about Asian American history in US.

What kind of crimes are considered hate crimes? Have to be violent?

As part of the Antiracism Audit we are working on better telling the stories of our diverse students

My name is Lee Bachu. President of Interfaith Council. We will be happy to help the school system in any way we can.

It seems that, as educators, it is important to consider what more we can do to help all of our kids at school grow up, during their formative years, with the right awareness about discrimination/bias generally, rather than just focusing on incident responses.

I want to bring you attention. This happened a couple of days ago in my ES. 1st grade kids talked about "China virus" during lunch and expressed that they don't like China because of it. It is just among 7 years old and never reached to hate crime level. The thing that bothers me is that I don't see anything has been talking at school level. I would suggest the teachers should educate the students to prevent the anti-Asian discrimination/bias from happening.

Thank you for this good suggestion

I think there is additional fear associated with reporting whether anonymous or not including what actions may be taken for the victim - classmates learning of the report, the child being removed from the classroom, repercussions, etc.

I have to get to another meeting but thank you all for being a part of this very important conversation. Please feel free to reach out to Yi or I if you have any additional questions or concerns.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LZmyDGI5tH4vIN8Mb5hE48Z1yKEiuhNO/view?usp=sharing

Resource for parents and students

Here are links to the State Police and MCP Hate Bias Reports https://mdsp.maryland.gov/Document%20Downloads/State%20of%20Maryland%202019%20Hate%20Bias%20Report.pdf and https://montgomerycountymd.gov/POL/Resources/Files/PDF/PDResources/MCPD%20Annual%20Report%20on%20Bias%20Incidents_2018.pdf

How does mcps handle the situation like above where the first grader was bullied above? I know of that situation and the response from the school staff seemed underwhelming.

County council has recently had a bill calling for an overhaul of SRO ( security resource officer who is a trained police officer) program in all Montgomery county public schools. One trained police officer has been assigned to each high school in Montgomery county for many years. The purpose of the program is to protect the safety of students and staff at schools. The program works very well in some schools while not working well in other schools. Each school has its unique situation, therefore each school is at the best position to decide for themselves what is best for the safety of their school. Wootton high school has a large Asian population and many of them support SRO program due to the current trends of anti-Asian bias. SRO program works very well in Wootton high school. Therefore please pass our message to MCPS leadership : When making a decision about SRO program, please don’t forget the safety concerns of Asian community. Thank you for coming out to listen to our community!

If a parent is not pleased with the school response they can always contact the performance director for that school and discuss the schools response

Shifting to prevention-- I would be interested in hearing more about MCPS's bullying prevention strategies to support safe, inclusive, environments for our children to thrive and grow through the system. If bullying rises in middle school, how can we be do better in elementary school for our youngest learners in their development?

Much of the discussion is of children bullying other children. What if the curriculum itself is reinforcing the racism again Asians? My 6th grader just went a school unit on the Chinese Cultural Revolution complete with the images of dead political dissidents and testimonies of rats feasting on the dead bodies of Chinese farmers who have starved to death. It was a very dehumanizing way of discussing a human tragedy. The book assigned was The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, a book so filled with sexual violence including marital rape, sexual slavery, and revenge raping until death. This is reinforcing the Asian women’s position as a disposable sexual commodity, a direct influence on the March 16 shootings. The Good Earth is a book written by a white woman for a white audience. I was told that I was taking the curriculum “too personally”. How can you report this when it’s not a fellow student that is the problem but the curriculum itself? The curriculum needs an update.

^^^

We need to educate children about how to live with diverse group of students. Education has to take priority

We are discussing a lot about if something bad happened, how to identify and what can be the remedy. How about prevention strategy? During the last year of quarantine, students receive lots of good and bad information from online from social media, what will be done to help students better understand the nature and impact of Covid and conquer fear based on misconceptions. That will truly help kids gain healthy mindset and build positive relationships as usual

We have been back for about three weeks and we have had an instance with a first grader in our ES. I am guessing this is not a reach to assume its happen elsewhere. What is the plan for the district to educate the student bodies to prevent this bias?

Our Montgomery County Police Officers receive specialized mental heat\zled

Additional information about mental health topics and discrimination in the asian community can be found in the MCPS Waymaking video series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkZwAghwrSyvIgVRCWXjpiI4iBWRK0Lwl

While it might feel like SROs provide safety, there is no data demonstrating that they can or have ever prevented anti-Asian violence or racism. In fact, SROs are complicit in anti-Black racism by having disproportionate arrests and racial profiling. SROs were also part of surveilling Muslim students, who are part of the AAPI community. Many Asian Americans actually support removing police from schools and support restorative justice & pro-active solutions that will build bridges between communities of color.

Sorry hit send to quick - MCP have officers trained as members of the Crisis Intervention Team to address community issues. SROs also receive this important training

Agree with Hsu. That book was written about 90 years ago. World have changed so much since then.

it is not wrong to talk about cultural revolution that brought disasters in China, but Asians are here I believe because they cherish freedom. Asians do not represent certain government or party.

Equity Matters Newsletter. https://spark.adobe.com/page/pYeoJqlltQHTc/

I'm not saying it's wrong but there was a sensitivity used to speak of the Holocaust or the Russian Revolution that was not used for the Chinese Revolution. The resources were not used to gawp at the dead when it comes to Europeans that died from their tragedies, but the Asian dead are fair game? It hurts the heart to see that much tragedy and it stings a little extra when that dead body looks like you.

It would be great to know among those AAPIs/APIDAs employed, how many are educated/trained in Asian American Studies/Issues?

There is a diversity of AAPI communities in MCPS, including many AAPI parents that support increased investments in counselors and mental health professionals etc, not SROs, to keep our children safe.

in my opinion this country need to learn from the tragic lessons that our parents or grandparents experienced. but make it clear that immigrants are here because we accept the values that this democratic country represents.

Each school has unique situation which is why each school is in best position to decide for themselves what is best for the safety of their school. Let each school make their choice about SRO program becasue they are the ones who are directly impacted by the program. SRO program works very well in Wootton High School. SRO has become a part of Wootton family over the years. Please listen to the voices of Wootton family.

Would it be possible to keep the SRO debate out of this? I think that has been covered at length in other venues.

Our school had no AAPI adults to speak to trained in AAPI issues/studies. No one able to help them put their feelings/emotions into words. Just plenty of adults who weren’t aware of AAPI issues/studies.

Safety is the most important thing!

I am agree with Hsu. To add, the type of curriculum is not suitable for ES student. When I happened in the class, i felt so uncomfortable.

Thank you Mr. Clarke for your explanation about SRO program!

I must be the lucky one because when I asked my kid, he doesn’t recall any incident of being discriminated because of his race. How about teaching kids love and respect each other in general, rather than focusing so much on “racial discrimination”

There are so many microagressions/implicit biases (Like what Troy had mentioned), that many are not aware they harbor. Part of learning how to respect others is also know what NOT to do.

Creating and Maintaining Safe Spaces in Schools: A Collaborative Model. https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/uploadedFiles/compliance/FY21_Hate%20Bias%20Incidents%20Procedures.pdf

a crime is a crime. law and order!

Asian American (NOT Asian) history/experience is not taught. My students put together a presentation and so many were not aware of so much of the information put through. Asian American history/experience is NOT to be confused with Asian history/experience.

the only thing we need to tell kids is not to associate Asians with certain government or party

Antiracist System Audit. https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/antiracist/

Asian history is not the same as Asian American history.

^^^^

American is also build on the back bone of Asian American, this should be taught in History

We need to move away from just using “Asian” as an identifier so we do not maintain the Perpetual Foreigner stereotype.

A number of questions have been posed about whether MCPS will explicitly address in a systemic way the issue of anti-AAPI bias with students in the younger grades in particular, and I'm not sure I've heard the answer yet (sorry if I missed it). My child's elementary school counselor visits all the classrooms weekly to discuss various mental health and other issues, including bullying. Can this topic be incorporated into that curriculum, or elsewhere in the regular teachers' curriculum? Of course, it's important to address with the older grades as well, but I agree with others' comments that it should be explicitly addressed with all students in the younger grades, as incidents are already happening there, and to try and prevent some of the incidents that tend to happen in the later grades.

During the 2018-2019 school year 2.9% of our administrators were Asian

Thank you, Mr. Boddy for that data. Is that a trend upward or pretty much same throughout the years?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXL4T7girYo

please share this

Additional information about mental health topics and discrimination in the asian community can be found in the MCPS Waymaking video series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkZwAghwrSyvIgVRCWXjpiI4iBWRK0Lwl

MD Safe Schools Tip line: https://schoolsafety.maryland.gov/Pages/Tipline.aspx

A group of my students put this together before spring break. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14efSBEDYxRl5Ju7fXMfmSRTIrw7F-4cZRbXoZ5KENlg/edit?usp=sharing

Exactly, asian american history should be taught. Asia history goes with world history only to appropriate ages of students

MCPS Student and Family Support and Engagement Website: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/studentservices/

I don't want to erase my Asian-ness. Being of Asian origin does not make me un-American. Being of European origin does not make someone un-American. We need to change what is considered the Perpetual Foreigner instead of trying to shoehorn ourselves to suit the European origin standard.

We'll be piloting an Asian American Studies Elective next year. Will be working on it this summer in mcps!

MCPS Be Well 365 website: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/studentservices/wellbeing/index-new.aspx?fbclid=IwAR0PZuVTDojkqEAwd0Rlb4GeSoAhsFeUPUlFyxkS-aPIJGbchNFUymgRlYE

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LZmyDGI5tH4vIN8Mb5hE48Z1yKEiuhNO/view?usp=sharing

How can we receive information on future events such as this one?

Ms. Hong, our counselors provide bullying lessons as a part of their school counseling program. They serve as a resource to all staff in their buildings.

Thanks for hosting

Thank you so much! Yi.