It has been energizing and uplifting to have more students back in the building these last two weeks! Students and staff have worked together to make this undertaking a success by following rules around mask-wearing, social distancing, and hand washing/sanitizing; and although it has taken considerable planning and effort, being able to welcome students who wish to attend in-person is the reward. I want to thank everyone in our community for supporting our efforts to keep students safe, both in school as well as those who are working hard virtually. Truly, Maine East has a heart bigger than the actual building itself!
The positivity of welcoming more students back was temporarily marred by the shocking appearance of hate speech, hateful images, and pornographic images that were anti-Semitic, racist, and homophobic on our District and school websites last Thursday; additionally, a few students and parents received offensive email messages through a hacked email account at that same time. Our prior communication about this event explicitly denounced the messages of hate and the inappropriateness of the images on our websites.
I want to take this opportunity to clearly center and affirm the beauty and brilliance of each and every student and staff member in our school community. This stage in a young person’s life is about shaping and defining identities and coming to understand and embrace gifts from family, culture, history, and spirituality. This is a significant formative time when students evolve to create a unique sense of self. To those of us who are entrusted with the care and support of your teenagers, this process is among our very highest priorities. Furthermore, to see the identity of ANY member of our community attacked hurts as much as seeing them physically harmed. We unequivocally denounce such attacks.
In our school community, we embrace Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists, Buddhists, Sikhs, and many more people of faith. We respect the values of all of our students: liberal, moderate, and conservative. We cherish our students who identify racially as Black, white, Latinx, Asian, indigenous, biracial--or any other identifier that conveys identity and belonging. We welcome our families of every configuration and structure and offer partnership in nurturing and supporting students together at home and at school. We admire families who speak multiple languages and who send students to school with multiple tools and diverse abilities for contributing to and navigating the world. We honor and support students who identify as female, male, nonbinary; cisgender, transgender, gender fluid; gay, straight, bisexual, asexual, or any other identity.
Maine East is a community high school. We serve every member of this community. Each and every member of our school should be afforded the opportunity and support to shape who they are for themselves; this is the definition of freedom and a bedrock value of our diverse nation. Maine East, along with the other D207 schools, stands for and defends that freedom for each and every member of our school community.
Finally, to everyone in the medical field keeping us healthy and alive, thank you! To everyone working to keep us safe, including police officers, firefighters, military personnel, and first responders, thank you! To everyone working the national supply chain and grocery stores, thank you!
As you plan for the upcoming holiday season, please keep our local businesses in mind and offer your support. Our patronage will go a long way. Thank you for helping us continue to fight COVID by observing the travel guidelines to help flatten the curve. Together, we can beat this. Please stay safe!
Dr. Mike Pressler
#Maine_East #StrongerTogether #207NOW