Dear Fairfax County School Board, administration of Fairfax County Public Schools, and Superintendent Scott Brabrand:

Since the establishment of Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in 1870, students have never received the holistic, inclusive curriculum that they deserve. Nationwide, students are taught a  narrative of Eurocentrism, which has been perpetuated by FCPS. Black history is American history, yet for so long, the stories of the Black community have been whitewashed in curriculum, or worse, often excluded altogether. According to the 2019 FCPS Strategic Plan, all FCPS staff members commit to “foster[ing] a responsive, caring, and inclusive culture where all feel valued, supported, and hopeful” and “eliminate gaps in opportunity, access, and achievement for all students.” These commitments cannot be fulfilled without ensuring that all students receive equitable treatment and graduate with an accurate, multi-faceted understanding of history instilled by an inclusive curriculum. The entire student body deserves more than just a passing mention in our history classes; teaching of the existence of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks does not equate to Black history education. We demand that FCPS take active steps towards rectifying whitewashed, Eurocentric curricula and making our school system a more equitable and inclusive learning environment for all students.

As the largest public school system in that state of Virginia, and 10th largest in the country, FCPS has a responsibility to ensure that the stories and contributions of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Americans are incorporated equitably into our schools. The demands enumerated below must be immediately implemented in order to ensure racial justice and equity in all FCPS social sciences and humanities curricula.

1. FCPS must immediately update all history curricula so that learning objectives for all history classes equitably address the roles of BIPOC people, events, and communities throughout time. Anti-racism and racial justice material should be incorporated into social sciences and humanities curricula on a wide variety of topics, including but not limited to: The Black Panther Party, Pre-Columbian civilizations, Malcolm X, the genocide of Indigenous Peoples, Marcus Garvey, internment of Japanese Americans, Scramble For Africa, Indian Removal Act, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ida B. Wells, race and the War on Drugs, redlining, Juneteenth, Tulsa Race Massacre, and 1619, particularly as it relates to Virginia state history. 
2. FCPS must immediately update all English curricula to ensure that the literature that is taught in classes equitably includes the works of BIPOC authors, poets, and artists. Currently, the most often taught novel on racial injustice is “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which heavily enforces the white savior complex, defined by Dr. Ashlee Anderson as the “confluence of practices, processes, and institutions that reify historical inequities to ultimately validate white privilege”  This step can be implemented by incorporating into curricula the works of BIPOC creatives, including but not limited to: Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, and countless other BIPOC authors. Here is a list of suggested relevant readings divided by age group
3. FCPS must immediately create an African American Studies elective class to be offered in all high schools.

Additionally, the following demands must be met to ensure faculty, staff, and students are held accountable for racially-motivated actions, receive proper training to be culturally competent, and foster an inclusive learning environment. Systemic racism is a problem in FCPS that must be rectified –

1. FCPS must hold recurring, quarterly, mandatory training for all faculty, staff, and students on implicit bias, equity, and inclusion. Adequate training and evaluation must be implemented across the district to ensure that teachers are actually utilizing research-based strategies, such as Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, which directly affect our most vulnerable populations, including BIPOC students, and specifically Black male students. Topics may include, but are not limited to: racial profiling, microaggressions, whitesplaining, cultural appropriation, and individual, structural, and institutionalized racism. Such training is vital in rectifying systemic racism in FCPS – according to federal data from the U.S. Department of Education, in the 2015-2016 school year, Black students comprised 10 percent of the student population, and yet 26 percent of out of school suspensions. Hispanic students comprised 25 percent of the student population, and yet 35 percent of out of school suspensions. White students, 39 percent of the student population, comprised only 24 percent of out of school suspensions. There is no reason for this disproportionate targeting of BIPOC students.
2. FCPS must immediately end all celebrations and recognition of Columbus Day, instead renaming the holiday to Indigenous People’s Day and refraining from engaging in cultural appropriation when celebrating the holiday.
3. FCPS must intentionally hire more Black faculty and incorporate more transparency about the racial demographics of teachers, administration, counselors, and other staff within the county. A study published in the Harvard Educational Review discovered that of the 27,330 applications for 2,380 teaching slots in FCPS, Black teachers made up 13 percent of the applications, yet only 6 percent received job offers. Alternatively, white teachers made up 70 percent of applicants but received 77 percent of all job offers. The racial demographics of current teachers within FCPS are unavailable to the public. The 2018 study entitled “The Long-Run Impacts of Same-Race Teachers” found that Black students who experienced at least one Black teacher by third grade were 13 percent more likely to enroll in college. Those who experienced two were 32 percent more likely. In order for FCPS to fully establish and uphold equitable policies, practices and procedures, in addition to supporting the success of all students, there must be a transparent process to hire, support, and retain a diverse workforce.
4. FCPS must increase cultural awareness programs and activities to directly address matters of racial justice and white privilege, including but are not limited to: field trips to the National Museum of African American History and Culture and the National Museum of the American Indian, activities pertaining to Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and celebrations of Black History Month.
5. FCPS must develop a set of policies to hold faculty and staff accountable for all actions that are racially motivated, including recognizing the responsibilities of bystanders in such situations. Despite aiming to “to create a fair, equitable and supportive school environment,” the current FCPS Student Rights and Responsibilities (SR&R) guide neglects to contain specific policies that address how the county responds to complaints of racially-motivated actions. The SR&R must be updated to include a framework for addressing such grievances, as committed by faculty, staff, and students.
6. FCPS must support and work to implement the demands of the open letter to Governor Ralph Northam led by Virginia Delegate Kaye Kory and Fairfax NAACP President Sean Perryman to eliminate the School Resource Officer program in the state of Virginia and reallocate funding to necessary K-12 mental health services. As Kory and Perryman state, FCPS students have been and will continue to be subjected to extreme stress throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and transition to reopening schools. Counselors and trained mental health professionals are needed in our schools now more than ever.  

As outlined in its Portrait of a Graduate standards, FCPS prides itself upon developing each student into an “Ethical and Global Citizen” that “understands the foundations of our country and values our rights, privileges, and responsibilities.” It is beyond time for our county to live up to these standards that it sets for itself; this step forward begins with racial justice in all social science and humanities curricula, as well as accountability for all members and decisions of the FCPS community and an equitable learning environment for all students.