An enrichment experiment
ICCSD Equity team creates a program to support girls of color in the district.
March 1, 2023
Since November 2022, the ICCSD has had 31 behavior referrals, meaning a student was involved in an incident that included physical aggression or assault, across all four high schools and three junior highs. The district is working on preventative measures to reduce the number of conflicts and fights in our schools before they happen. The ICCSD Equity Team, which Brad Kelly and Priscilla Culp are members of, realized that these behavior referrals disproportionately affected Black girls.
“There’s an unfortunate discrepancy with students, especially black students, BIPOC students, and non-BIPOC students and more specifically girls,” said Culp. “So we wanted to do something different, think outside of the box, to meet some of the needs that the girls may have or are lacking, and provide support that way…we wanted to give the girls an opportunity to to share, have a voice and to meet their needs.”
So they contacted the schools and invited all girls who had been suspended two or more times, or for two or more days to join them for “a day of enrichment” on Dec. 8.
“So many times there’s conflict in the school and we tend to forget there’s conflict in the community. So we brought this community together,” Kelly told the school board on Jan. 10. “[we wanted to create] a situation to show these young ladies what their future can look like.”
Breakfast and lunch were provided at the event. There were also activities focused on implicit bias training, self-reflection and ACEs training. ACEs stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences. It refers to a method of categorizing traumatic events in early childhood and can help people recognize their own trauma.
“Some of the things that happened when we were younger we don’t think about, but they linger and that actually is trauma,” Culp said. “If you’re younger and your parents get divorced, that’s traumatic for some children. If families move a lot, they move here and there. That’s traumatic … If someone was hurt, specifically, due to violence of some sort.”
Since the event, the ICCSD Equity team has received positive feedback and hopes to have another meeting in April with one major change.
“[We’d like] having more small group opportunities, it was all large group.” Culp said. “Some of the girls wanted a smaller setting, that was some of the feedback we got, to become fully engaged.”
Depending on how this meeting goes, the team is considering making this an annual or semiannual event. To keep up with the ICCSD Department of Equity, check out their newsletters here.
