“My View,” bill berry, jr., Letter to the Editor, The Citizen Newspaper, published August 16, 2020
bill berry, jr. speaks at the Harriet Tubman Center for Justice & Peace, Inc. sponsored Town Hall Community Meeting held on June 27, 2020 at the NYS Equal Rights Heritage Center in Auburn, NY (Photo credit: Lisa Brennan, HTCJP Board Secretary)
The community continues to move forward with pertinent conversations and actions with local law enforcement to enhance equity and better understanding between the two cohorts. Based on the recent presentation and transparency driven by statistical information to social justice organizations by the Auburn Police Department and a pending mid-September presentation from the Cayuga County Sheriff’s Office, it is time for social justice organizations to challenge the diversity intentions of those institutions that educate our young people.
The Auburn Enlarged City School District and Cayuga Community College’s executive leadership have been absent in articulating or discussing how their institutions are manifesting administrative/executive leadership that recruits, appoints, recognizes and values leaders of color. Now this observation may be misplaced. However, the community has not been advised of such written and measurable institutional plans. Those leaders and their boards are now on notice and challenged to provide to the community their written plans to diversify their administrative and teaching ranks to better prepare students for a diverse and multicultural world of employment and societal participation.
Law enforcement has the appropriate hurdle of a civil service exam, and multiple subsequent tests that extend over a year to finally identify candidates who are qualified to be hired. As social justice organizations work with Auburn police and the county sheriff’s office, our proactive vision must not overlook those institutions that play a major and significant involvement in the life of our children. And if the institutional leaders of our children’s education are not capable of making diversity a real initiative, I suspect the elected and appointed boards need to take on that task. At that point, board members’ responsibility is to guide and task educational leaders with their vision to conscientiously move forward the overall best interests of the community, as well as hold those leaders accountable for inactivity, lack of vision, or failure to comprehend the tenors of the times and the mood of this community.
William Berry Jr.
Auburn
William Berry Jr. is chair of the Harriet Tubman Center for Justice and Peace and publisher of aaduna.