By Vanessa Williams
On Thursday, April 11th, Capital City PCS juniors took over teaching duties and facilitated workshops for their peers via the annual Capital City Youth Justice Summit. More than thirty workshops were presented on a variety of topics, including gun violence, outdoor education, and the climate crisis.

By Bridget Fuller
On February 12, the DCAESJ People’s History Secondary Working Group met to connect as a community of educators, discuss a people’s history lesson about transportation protests, and continue their Teaching for Black Lives book study.

By Kimberly Ellis and Vanessa Williams

What is the Tulsa Race Massacre? How do we, as a nation, tell the story of the massacre? What is owed to the Black community as a result of the massacre? Ashley Bryant created two weeks of lessons to explore these questions in celebration of the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action and Year of Purpose.

Third graders at Concord Hill School learned about the principles of Restorative Justice and Loving Engagement by studying the role of young people in the Civil Rights Movement.

Students and staff from Lafayette ES gathered virtually for a special “Wellness Wednesday” during the Black Lives Matter at School Week featuring an introduction to the Black Lives Matter Movement 13 guiding principles and a lesson on the history of Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.

By Ashley Bryant
After a busy morning of attending the BLM at Schools Virtual Curriculum Fair on Saturday, January 30, 2021 with powerful conversations about teaching resistance and oppression, global issues of restorative justice, and displacement and protest in Washington D.C., Dekebra’s presentation titled “Mindful Moments: Radical Wellness for Black Lives” was a welcomed and much-needed call to self-care.

From Maryland to Missouri, Oregon, New York, North Carolina to the District of Columbia; over 100 attendees joined Peta Lindsay, Charla Johnson, and Cyrus Hampton, leaders of the Ida B. Wells Education Project, in a panel discussion via Zoom on “Joy in Resistance: Teaching about Oppression with Hope and Inspiration” as part of the Teaching for Change and Howard University’s 2021 Black Lives Matter at School Curriculum Fair.

After exploring their connection to the Black Lives Matter movement in previous activities, my 11th and 12th grade students at Thurgood Marshall Academy worked through the #LastWords lesson.

On Friday, February 7, at Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., audience members gathered for a post-play discussion of Dominique Morisseau’s play Pipeline, a drama following a family navigating through systems of racism in public and private school.

At Thurgood Marshall Academy in D.C, eleventh grade students explore how laws and policies are created and evaluate the impact on different communities through a legal lens in an Introduction to Law class. Their teacher, Sam Chiron, used the Resistance 101 lesson.

All students and staff at Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS were invited to contribute to a Black Lives Matter mural as part of the Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action. Each grade level responded to a different prompt on colored post-its that were then placed on the banner.

Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS observed Trayvon Martin Memorial Day on February 5, 2019, which would have been his twenty-fourth birthday. Students were invited to wear hoodies to school if they chose as a sign of solidarity and respect, signifying the beginning of the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

Trinity Washington University hosted an evening event, "Counselors, Not Cops: Black Lives Matter at School," for students, faculty, and the general public on February 4, 2019 as part of DC Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action.

High school U.S. history students attended a presentation by SNCC veteran Courtland Cox, coordinated by teacher Lordsline Exantus. Cox explained to the students that his years of activism began when he was their age, and like many of them, he grew up in an immigrant household. He also told them that the in the 1960s, the apartments near their school were for whites only and that he protested the DC football team for not allowing Black players.

This week, HB Woodlawn Program (Arlington Public School) educator, Christy Gill, had her 8th grade students explore the meaning of justice.

Students in a fifth-grade DCPS classroom at Langley Elementary School explored the Black Lives Matter guiding principles of Restorative Justice, Empathy and Loving Engagement. The teacher invited the students to explore the meaning of difference, diversity, and community. 

My three and four-year-old pre-school students and I read the book One by Katherine Otoshi and discussed what it means to be a bystander and ally as well as addressing restorative justice in the story. The children drew pictures inspired by the book. The text is their words describing what they drew.