2000 Seattle teachers wear Black Lives Matter T-shirts in support of students

Oct 24, 2016

On October 19, thousands of Seattle teachers participated in an event showing their support for students of color as they all wore Black Lives Matter tee shirts.

The event was organized after a similar one planned for last month at South Seattle’s John Muir Elementary school had to be cancelled because of threats. The school had planned to have 200 black men at the school to show students that the stereotypes criminalizing black men are wrong. But after the event had to be cancelled due to threats, other teachers in Seattle came together in a show of unity and support.

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“With our scores on education being put out there, everyone keeps saying we are failing the black kids in our community,” Phyllis Campano, the president of the Seattle Education Association told ABC News, referring to the opportunity gap that faces students of color across the country but particularly in the Seattle area, which has the fifth largest such gap. “What do we need to do? We need to come together, we need to show support.”

“It’s not really about Black Lives Matter as a movement, but about how black lives matter in our schools,” Campano said, “it is not about the T-shirts, it is about how we support our students of color in our community.”