This past week the Blake community, thanks to the generous support of the Blake PTO and Medfield Coalition for Public Education (MCPE), hosted Colby Swettberg and Zach Kerr as they helped work with our students to help foster a safe learning environment for our students, particularly members of the LGBTQ community. At the outset of the week I shared these words as part of the morning announcements - thought I would share...
Good morning -
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and is looking forward to a great week. As I hope the entire Blake community knows, our most important job is to make Blake a safe place for everyone so that we all can learn. As many of you may know this week we will be taking some time as clusters and in advisories to discuss and share ways that we can foster a safe learning environment for our school, specifically our LGBTQ students and families. LGBTQ is an acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning - we value and support all members of our diverse learning community at Blake.
Our expectations for these discussions are the same as our expectations each and every day at Blake - to come with an open mind and practice the core value of our 4 R's - respect, responsibility, resourcefulness, and reflection. As I shared at our Thanksgiving assembly together...
Ours is a culture of acceptance and inclusivity, regardless of one's race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. As such, it is important that we continue to live by these three principles...
- Every individual at Blake (students, staff, parents, and the greater community) matters, is cared for, and is an important piece of the Blake fabric.
- We are a community of learners who must 'practice what we preach'.
- We must always be present and continue to be here for one another.
Take care.