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After George Floyd died in Minneapolis police custody last summer, special education teacher Francia Pinillos felt the urge to talk to her students about race and social justice.
“There was a complete disturbance in my soul about how this image is going to live on all sorts of media,” she said recently, “and my students are going to see this with no clear opportunities to dissect and talk about what is happening.”
Pinillos has worked for the last seven years at TRACE, a San Diego Unified school that serves about 500 students ages 18-22 who have disabilities.
The school, which meets at community sites across the district, helps students with disabilities transition from high school to adult life. Pinillos’ students have challenges ranging from autism and learning disorders to intellectual disabilities and deafness.