Over the past weeks, our community has followed and joined in the outrage and reaction to the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man in Minneapolis. In responding to this act of racial violence and injustice DIS staff and school leaders have drafted a statement which we shared with our community.
The leadership of many schools and educational organisations worldwide have been following the trend of swiftly releasing statements of support and condemnation against racial violence. While these statements provide solidarity and support, we as a school would like to go further than just release such a message.
More importantly, we as a school will prefer action over written words. Within our Anti-Racism Statement to the DIS Community, we have indicated how we intend to work on concrete measures that address and counter racism in our work as educators. We feel that unless we are a positive force for change against racism, our inaction and silence will make us complicit in maintaining the anti-Black racism which persists within societies worldwide and our institutions, including those in education. Actions will always speak louder than words.
Clearly, there is much we can do as an IB school to participate as a force for change in building a better world for our students, families and community. I invite you to this possibility and look forward to the great work we as a community can achieve together.