Communities Come Together Against Identity-Based Bullying
Based in San Antonio, Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) has been working with families in Lubbock organizing to end identity-based bullying in Texas schools. IDRA helped families submit complaints to the Office for Civil Rights. Black students were verbally harassed and called names like “porch monkey” and “N-word” and had whipping sounds played as they walked in the hallways. Some Black students were wrongfully sent to disciplinary alternative education programs (DAEPs) and faced retaliation from school officials for reporting bullying and harassment.
Because of incidents like these across the state, these students and parents worked with IDRA to support legislation to strengthen Texas laws for prevention and response to racial and other forms of identity-based bullying. San Antonio State Senator José Menéndez co-authored the bill.
Parents and students traveled to the Texas Capitol from across the state to tell their stories in a news conference and to testify for the bill. Manya Blaisdell, a community advocate from San Antonio, described how she was bullied for being Jewish. A mother described the harassment her daughter faced as a biracial youth.
The proposed bill would have created a better process to handle these situations of identity-based bullying, but the bill died in the House committee.
Since then, IDRA has continued to support this work through community meetings, coalition-building and bringing together other families who have faced similar issues. Some of the families have carried their advocacy forward to create a support organization, Parents Against Racism Texas, aptly named PART, to be a part of the change for better Texas schools.
“Let’s come together to make a change now for the future for our kids,” declared Shardae McGaha, a mother and co-founder of PART.
Just recently, IDRA went back to Lubbock for a community meeting to hear from more impacted families of identity-based bullying. Families from across the greater West Texas community came together to share each other’s horrific stories. They also provided a space to uplift one another in what their children were experiencing. Former school board members and pillars of the community shared their inspiring stories of civil rights history in Lubbock.
Building authentic community engagement for education is important to communities across Texas. IDRA’s model of effective engagement builds partnerships based on respect and a shared goal of academic success for every child. It depends on the meaningful integration of community members and parents into schools’ decision-making processes. Families in Lubbock are doing just that.
Bullying and harassment jeopardize students’ ability to learn and leave students feeling unsafe. October was bullying prevention month, though IDRA is working to ensure that students, school communities, and parents have the necessary tools to prevent and address identity-based bullying and can support all students impacted by it year round. For more information on our identity-based bullying work, go to IDRA’s webpage on creating safer schools at https://idra.news/Discipline.
