Following is an excerpt of an article that the Boston Haitian Reporter published in its November 2007 edition.

An open letter to Dr. Carol Johnson, Superintendent of Boston Public Schools.

Dear Dr. Johnson,

On behalf of all the Haitian parents and students in the district, I welcome you to Boston. We in the Haitian community also have several concerns we hope you'll address.

While the vast majority of your employees are dedicated and caring, some of them have subjected our students to blatant disrespect. Indeed, this is not the first time that our community has asked a Boston Public Schools (BPS) superintendent for assistance with this issue.

In June 2006, Mr. Michael Contompassis met with a large gathering of frustrated Haitian parents, students, and concerned residents at St. Angela's Church in Mattapan. In addition to other issues, he promised he'd have all administrators attend professional development workshops focusing on respect for all immigrant cultures and languages.

To date, this has not happened. Our children and their culture continue to be denigrated by BPS teachers and staff. As worried as we are about this, we're even more alarmed by what we see as its serious consequences.

First, some American students have felt emboldened to verbally abuse and commit violent acts against our youngsters, knowing they will not be punished. Haitian parents also complain that their children are discriminated against by BPS employees.

Second, and most detrimental to our children's future, these teachers and staff have low expectations of our children. While a number of our kids may be performing below grade level when they arrive in your schools, they and their parents firmly believe that a quality education will lead to dignity and financial success.

In case you're wondering how to help your employees become more sensitive to immigrants, the Harvard Family Research Project offered some tips in an October 2006 brief titled, "Lessons from Family-Strengthening Interventions: Learning from Evidence-Based Practice."

They suggest that senior administrators actively prepare staff to work with families by:

• Helping them take different perspectives on situations by discussing hypothetical cases from different families' points of view.

• Asking your staff to evaluate their own assumptions and beliefs about the families with whom they work.

• Helping them develop effective communication skills to interact with students and parents.

• Helping staff understand research on the populations represented at BPS.

• Providing staff time to process with others difficult conversations or situations involving students and parents.

I would also suggest having members of your staff who come into contact with our children meet with them and their parents to learn more about their lives.

Additionally, we're sure that one of your goals as superintendent is to have more parents participate in their children's schooling. However, this will not happen when Haitian children go home crying due to the horrible treatment they've received at the hands of BPS employees.

Until the schools become more welcoming to these children, engaging parents in their children's education will remain elusive.

Yolette Ibokette is a veteran educator who lives in Randolph.

Source: BostonHaitian.com [1]

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