OKEMOS, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – Shayla Reese Griffin, co-founder and facilitator of Justice Leaders Collaborative (JLC), who lists herself in her bio as “black, she, her, hers” wrote an article in Medium called “What students should be learning about race and other identities: K-12 standards for justice.” The article points to the work of the JLC and explains their “clear, concise standards for how to specifically address race, class, gender identity, LGBTQIA+ identity and (dis)ability.”

In order to support educators and schools, the organization offers courses otherwise known as social justice trainings for educators.

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JLC is the organization that the Okemos school system references in the June 2022 updated draft version of their Equity Plan where they report that “staff will participate in anti-bias/anti-racist learning opportunities such as…Justice Leaders Collaborate Core Course, African American Student Institute (MDE) and Anti-bias/anti-racist study groups.”

The JLC Core Course is listed as an “intensive seminar designed for school personnel who seek to deepen their understanding of and commitment to equity, inclusion, diversity and social justice along lines of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and ability. Participants must be willing to reflect deeply in ways that may challenge previously held assumptions and worldviews.”

In Griffin’s Medium article, she pointed to several things that all students should have including access to crayons, markers and construction paper that matches their skin color.

It is with the help of the JLC and ideas like these that will be used to shape the minds of those in the Okemos community. The goals in Okemos school district’s Equity Plan includes developing a culture in which staff, students, families and community members prepare for a diverse world and also to help students to become “change” agents.

The ideas and policies outlined in the school district’s Equity Plan is the kind of study that is often referred to as CRT – critical race theory – which is a concept that racism, whether intentional or not, is systemic inside of institutions and people in American society. In simpler terms, it assumes that everyone is biased and/or racist whether they want to be or not.

The Okemos Public Schools Equity Plan (OPSEP) also establishes affinity groups for students and staff. Affinity groups are segregated groups of people who share common identity characteristics such as gender, sexual orientation, race, religion nationality or family structure. The principles of the affinity groups in the Okemos school system are diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The OPSEP also discusses having affinity spaces for those who are marginalized.

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In addition to affinity operations, the school has a Cultural Diversity Advisory Committee which serves in an advisory capacity to the superintendent in order to support and enhance efforts for creating a culturally competent and responsive school environment. According to the OPSEP, the Committee played a “critical role in the development of the original Equity Plan.”

The OPSEP has four areas of focus: authentic selves and relationships; culturally responsive-sustaining education; instruction/curriculum/assessment; and policies/practices/procedures.

Additionally, in August of 2021, the school system hired a Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to “lead and support its equity initiatives” and that included the revision and revitalization of the 2016 Equity Plan.

A Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Coalition (DEIAC) was also created with a group of students, staff, caregivers and community members who are “charged with overseeing the revision process” of the Equity Plan. This group met in the spring of 2022 and, after two community input sessions, a community-wide survey, student surveys, focus groups, informal conversations and electronic feedback forms, they revised the plan.

The Turning Point USA organization has put Okemos schools on their School Board Watchlist (SBWL). The SBWL is America’s only national grassroots initiative dedicated to protecting children by exposing radical and false ideologies endorsed by school boards and pushed in the classroom. Turning Point USA is concerned with things like the Okemos school district’s list of lessons to be provided that concern power and privilege and “structural forms of oppression (e.g. racism, sexism, ableism, xenophobia, transphobia, homophobia), white supremacy, anti-blackness and marginalization.”

The CRT teachings in the Okemos school system includes all ages and the OPSEP says that the district will “Ensure that K-12 curriculum materials include the histories, voices, perspectives and social movements of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, Arab, ability/disability, and LGBTQ+ communities among others.”

The November 14th minutes of a Okemos school board meeting shows that DEI and CRT work is still moving ahead with a strong anti-bias and anti-racism response to what they perceive to be a biased world. The report says, “Team members representing each of the Equity Plan’s Areas of focus presented examples of their work and action steps. A variety of examples were given including: recent meetings, DEI activities, communication, restorative practices and training, celebrating student identities, successes and opportunities, lesson development, indicators of success, expanding the incident reporting process and options, and refining the hiring process.”

Michigan News Source reached out to Okemos Schools’ Superintendent John Hood to ask if the teachers and staff have all completed their JLC training and to inquire if those or similar classes were an ongoing learning requirement but we did not receive a response by press time.