My personal experience with “the gaps” is a sense of helplessness due to JOB INJUSTICE. I have been out of my tenured teaching position of 26 years since 2007 from a public school district that I volunteered and worked for since my teenage years.

Ironically, as a seasoned lifelong learner and community volunteer, I have not had full time work or taught in a classroom since Fall 2007. My personal displacement from the public schools is part of a silent, salient, historical phenomenon that the larger public is not aware of. According to a USA Today April 2004 article by Greg Toppo, “the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education desegregation decision set precedent for the “decimation” of Black teachers.”
From K-12 educators and administrators, to college professors, though tenured, through pseudo evaluations, “school turnarounds,” downsizing, layoffs, and other questionable means,

Black educators have experienced unfair terminations or demotions. Most institutional entities such as the unions, courts and EEOC have dismissed their legal complaints. Civic, faith, and labor organizations tend not support these caring, dedicated professionals either. Like nursing, teaching is a women’s profession and many Black women are single parents. Hence, the loss of tenured teaching and union jobs is a severe economic injustice that impacts wellbeing of children and the entire extended families.

Dear Nuns in the bus, please help give a voice in overturning the unjust dismissals of 80,000 to 100,000 teachers of color nationwide including the 20,000 in Chicago and 7,000 in New Orleans - mostly black teachers who have been demoted, dismissed, or displaced in the past 20, 25 years.

Thank you for your Great Work of Justice!