Pacific Grove works to address bias, racism in schools

In an effort to address bias and racism in the school district, Pacific Grove Unified is partnering with community-based organizations to provide cultural proficiency and incident response training for district and school administrators, the Monterey Herald reported. 

The National Coalition Building Institute and the Black Leaders and Allies Collaborative will develop a program of professional development training, the Herald reported. 

“Through this framework building, we’re going to have very clear expectations on what will happen when an incident of bias occurs,” Buck Roggeman, the district’s director of curriculum and special projects, told the district’s school board. “Currently that’s one of the things that is missing in our schools.” 

According to the Herald, the school board directed staff to include community partners and focus on diversity training in its professional development after the Monterey County chapter of the NAACP said students in the district were enduring “racial trauma.” Also, feedback from the community informed the district that it had no reporting system for families who have experienced or witnessed racist incidents within the district.

“The end product of this combined effort will be a consistent framework for preventing and responding to bias incidents in our schools,” the district said.