Peck Elementary has 286 students, almost all Black and Latino, in a predominately Black, Latino and white working-class area of Greensboro. Member Shelley Doolen had been a classroom teacher there for four years when she began going to meetings with other GCAE members who had signed up to be building leaders.
Compared to the other building leaders, Doolen quickly noticed how much success she wasn't having. Not only did her coworkers largely ignore her requests to participate in #Red4Ed or other activities, but "they would turn around when they saw me coming," she said. Doolen attributed a lot of it to a lack of trust – the veterans didn't bother getting to know many new educators because they didn’t usually stay long, and it was hard to build connections at a school with, at that time, high turnover.
After a month of trying, she felt disheartened. Then she noticed another teacher at a different school shared a social media post for "Social Justice Friday,” a tradition started by NCAE member Turquoise LeJeune Parker in Durham, of wearing a social justice t-shirt to school on Fridays. Doolen remembered her coworkers had been very enthusiastic about participating together in the school's first Black Lives Matter at School Week during the month of February. Maybe it was worth a try.
Doolen invited her coworkers in the building to participate with her the following Friday. To her surprise, 18 of them joined her. The photo she shared in the private GCAE Facebook group got dozens of likes. It also got attention. A screenshot was shared on a local Facebook page of a group that has used racially motivated attacks to try to undermine support for public schools. Doolen wasn't sure what would happen next. Would her coworkers feel intimidated?
She couldn't have anticipated the response. Not only did more staff join her the following Friday, so did educators at several other schools! The negative attention had outraged educators across the district. The following Friday, staff at even more schools participated. It was like a second weekly social justice-themed #Red4Ed.
“I think the Social Justice Friday photos helped me develop stronger relationships with my colleagues. It gave us a moment to celebrate our connections as a staff and it was fun to see everyone’s shirts every week.”
The victories weren't all symbolic. Doolen successfully asked one staff member the local president had been trying to recruit for a year to join. She got almost 100 percent of her coworkers to participate in a budget survey and pushed herself to have one-on-ones with many people she had never spoken to about NCAE. And while there’s more work to do, Doolen knows she is building trust with her coworkers.
“One day the slow drips will turn into a rainstorm.”
Shelley Doolen, GCAE Member
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