Testimony before the State Board of Education
By: Laura Fuchs – Secretary of the Washington Teachers Union, Chair of the DC Caucus of Rank and File Educators, Executive Board Member of Empower DC, Member of the Senior High Alliance of Parents, Principals and Educators (SHAPPE), Ward 5 Resident
Given: Wednesday, February 19, 2025
DC is in a precarious position. We are on the front lines and experiencing some of the most direct effects of a callous federal administration that is impacting us all. As a student and teacher of history for over two decades, one who has focused on the rise and effects of dictatorships in the 20th century for most of my academic and teaching career, there are no two ways around it: we are staring fascism in the face.
DC Public Schools is in the crosshairs of a federal administration who will be looking for symbolic “wins” at the expense of the safety of our school communities. Immigrants, LGBTQ+, teaching real history, our books and more will be attacked, likely directly. There is no hiding from this fact. There is only preparing our institutions to withstand them as best we can.
We cannot obey in advance. That is the number one lesson we are told when facing tyrants. We cannot obey in advance. Unfortunately, Mayor Bowser and Chancellor Ferebee believe if we just stay quiet and keep our heads down, that perhaps the eyes of fascism will overlook us. I promise they will not. We are already in the middle of it and they are just getting started.
The poem by Martin Niemöller is displayed in the US Holocaust Museum and around the world for a reason. Because if we do not say anything and stand aside hoping somehow we won’t’ be next, then we all will fall.
Silence from those who should protect us, creates fear. We are seeing this first hand as families begin to leave DC or stop sending their children to school.
Silence from those who were selected to lead breeds complicity. We are seeing principals communicate contradictory statements to those being shared by DCPS that lead many of us to believe that they will comply with government officials should they come to our school house doors in ways that directly contradict the guidance from the District Attorney General.
Silence from those who are entrusted to uphold our institutions sows chaos and allows fascism to thrive. Principals don’t know what to do or whose guidance to follow. Teachers are being told to stop enforcing the very guidance we were given – such as providing information to families regarding their rights in our schools. Educators are left feeling threatened by their own bosses for doing what they know and have been told by our District Attorney General is right. Those who are doing the right thing are communicating that this is happening despite DCPS instructions, not because of them.
The so-called leaders of DC cannot be silent. We as educators will not be silent.
We don’t need another symbolic press conference. We don’t need painted words on a street where the person who helped make those words happen also leads the police force that kettles and arrests us for trying to make those words a reality. We don’t need central office employees to say one thing and then for the principals who are expected to be the front line of enforcement say another.
What we need is for the Mayor and her chosen education leaders to create and communicate clear policies that uphold our stated values towards all of our children. What we need from all those who are elected to lead in this District is a clear promise that we will stand by the values we claim to uphold and then the policies to make it happen. What we need is for DCPS to clearly articulate what we stand for and how we will stand for it throughout all our schools in a way that actually makes a difference for those of us who have dedicated our careers to creating as safe a space as possible for our students to learn.
The fear in DC is palpable. And it is understandable.
I am afraid too. But I cannot let my fear paralyze me from speaking out. Too many are choosing to be silent and hoping for a different outcome. But my family did not escape from the Holocaust and come to this country for me to deny the simple truth that if we say nothing, if we do not prepare our institutions for the reality that DCPS will be attacked then we will be defenseless when, not if, it comes.
There is no hiding from tyranny. There is only preparing to uphold our values in our schools with our students and families. The time to start is now. Provide clear procedures and protocols and train all of our staff on the DC Office of the Attorney General’s guidance for immigration enforcement. And then prepare for what we will do to defend the rest.
Your educators are with you. We can help. Work WITH US. Do not stand in our way.
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