Rochester City School District has declared next Friday to be a “Black Lives Matter” day for all students.
February 17th will be “Black Lives Matter at School: A Day of Understanding & Affirmation,” set aside to be “a day of education, dialog and action that will actively engage a significant number of educational communities throughout Monroe County in activities which support understanding and affirmation of Black Lives.”
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The school district also preemptively responded to criticisms that “all lives matter,” writing, “Of course all lives matter. However, 57% of our students are black, and by almost every measure, people of color are not treated equally by our society. It is especially important to highlight the value of black lives in a society whose history involves centuries of slavery and denial of civil rights to black citizens, the impacts of which continue to this day.”
Though the school tells parents that the event isn’t connected to the national Black Lives Matter movement, links on the “resource toolkit” for the day include the website for the national movement and a TED talk with the founders of the movement.