Mark Stephenson

Ken, I have a child who was enrolled in Special Education from age 3 through age 26, and she benefited greatly from the services she received throughout those years. Through the course of all that contact with the special ed system, my wife felt called to become a special education teacher and has been teaching special education for over 20 years. I believe in the value of a free and appropriate public education for all students in America and thank God for the United States' IDEA act, passed under President Ford, which mandated that. 

I also believe in the power of hearing one another's stories. In fact, that's why Breaking Barriers was created nearly 40 years ago--to provide a forum for people to tell their stories that have disability as one element. The purpose of Breaking Barriers is not to be an academic journal with the attendant research and footnoting. The purpose is for readers to listen in as others tell their stories arising out of their experiences. You have decided that racial bias is not a factor in Al's story, but you never met Al nor know anything about his situation except the necessarily brief description that Dr. Watts gives. In her experience, she has seen frequent racial bias in education. She writes, "For Black students, there has been another reason: unconscious bias, which has led to placement in special education." Then she uses Al's experience as one illustration.

Looking at race as a factor in placement in special education is nuanced and complex. Since that's clearly of interest to you, I'm sure you know how to find the journal articles on that topic; there are many. For me, I appreciate being able to listen in to Dr. Watts as she tells the story of one student from her own perspective as a Black educator. Hearing her story, and others', helps expand my own horizons about the world and people's experiences in it--especially people's experiences that are different from my own. For me, listening in to others' stories is an important part of doing to others as I would have them do to me. 

Hi Don, thanks for your note. I'm one of the authors of this statement. You are right that violence should be condemned. I grieve for the families of police officers who were injured and died in the violence in recent days, and for business owners whose property was ransacked and stolen by people with a wide variety of motivations. Condemning violence is the main point of this statement, the violence of racism that has ransacked and stolen the lives of black and brown people in the United States and Canada for centuries. That's what we want to highlight. If you have the stomach for it, you can read the names of thousands of African Americans killed by police since 2013 in this list prepared by the World Communion of Reformed Churches. And indeed, your concluding statement is also our hope and prayer, that the church can be an instrument of God's healing. We provided suggested actions to assist God's people in moving toward that vision. 

Rev. Dr. Mika Edmondson got his Ph.D. from Calvin Seminary. He is an African American pastor at a Presbyterian Church in America and gave this address about the Black Lives Matter movement several years ago. According to him, it's not monolithic but is intentionally and self-consciously decentralized to allow for a wide diversity of opinions on many matters but rallying around the emphasis that, in a world in which the lives and bodies of black people often have not mattered, those lives do indeed matter as much as the lives and bodies of every other person. 

Diane, this sounds like a deeply meaningful worship service. Thank you for sharing it here. 

Michele, yes, with regard to suicide, a gracious Christian community can be a powerful healing presence. I appreciate the article you sent me via email: Striking differences in rates of suicide attempts between provinces revealed in mental health findings. I didn't realize that teens and young adults have highest rates of suicide attempts, and yet have the most difficulty getting mental health care. Here too, the church can play a critical, healing role. A friend who has lived with depression and who attempted suicide told me that she told her story recently to her church youth group. She said that the young people were not only attentive, but really benefitted from her dispelling some of the stigma of mental illness by her talking so openly about her own journey.