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The NAACP Anchorage believes the Anchorage School District, or ASD must de-colonize its educational system now. This work began with the passage of its new anti-racism and instructional equity policies on April 20 and must be followed by the immediate repeal of the school administrator permission requirement subsection of Board Policy AR 5127(b), Graduation Regalia.
Before we begin our critique of the ASD’s policy subsection, we must acknowledge that the policy itself would not have come about without years of hard work and advocacy by Alaska Native students and parents. Jacqueline Morris and Charitie Ropati in particular led this effort, creating a path forward to help ensure that Native students could rightfully represent themselves fully on such an important life milestone. Their labor should not be diminished in any form or fashion, but seems to have been interrupted by an ill-written subsection of the policy added by the school board which requires permission from what is often a non-Native school administrator in order to wear their cultural regalia for graduation. The policy’s subsection has negatively affected Jacqueline’s family this year. Her daughter Nyché Andrew is scheduled to graduate in May 2021, but according to the policy as written, she will be denied the right to wear her traditional Yup’ik headdress for her graduation ceremony. It is very demeaning for her or anyone to have to ask for permission to wear their own traditional regalia. This is not the first time the policy’s subsection has come under scrutiny, as it has received significant pushback from communities of color from the beginning.