LESSON
PLANS Purchased kicks and fresh ’fits for the kids? Check. New school supplies and melanin-heavy character backpacks on deck for 2020-21? Double check! Had a conversation with school officials about COVID-19 reopening plans and heightened racial tensions, and how that might impact your child this fall? Not yet? OK, no worries. Let’s chat. BY SHERRI KOLADE
18 BLAC • AUGUST 2020 • BLACdetroit.com
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s a wife and mother raising two young Black boys (one elementary-age), I am praying every day that God helps keep us. Like other parents, I’m busy working remotely, helping manage our house, preparing my son for school, and – not to mention – doing all this during a pandemic that’s revealed major societal inequities and left me wanting to shield my children from the world. But. I. Can’t. Especially when my young son asks me why the police are killing innocent people whose skin color looks like his? And he asks poignant questions about the coronavirus, too. But what are schools doing? Do I even want to send him back into all this? Yet, what’s a parent to do? Let’s take a deep breath. We’re going to get through this, together. And before we get too far down our kids’ back-toschool list, here is the rundown on what some schools are doing before their doors reopen to welcome our children back. Here’s a hint: You might breathe a bit easier when you see those plans. I did.
