By Ryan Kaspar
Visalia Unified School District’s (VUSD’s) equity branch has been especially active this year, and many students have been wondering the same things, what is equity, what does the equity branch do, and what do they have planned for the school year?
Equity in general means for something to be fair and equal. It is often confused with equality, but it’s slightly different. Equality is giving everyone equal treatment and advantages and equity is giving everyone the support they need to be given equal opportunities.
VUSD’s equity branch’s goal is to, as the name implies, make the school district more equitable. From everything from social and emotional wellness to inclusivity task forces.
Brandon Gridiron, Administrator of Equity and Student Services says, “really what we want to do is create more of an inclusive environment for students to participate in.”
The branch already has multiple things planned for this school year. The Inclusivity Task Force was created to make VUSD a more inclusive space. “What we do in education is to support you all, support our students. So we need to listen to them” says Gridiron.
Similar to that, there’s a Social and Emotional Wellness (SEW) task force that focuses on making mental health a less stigmatized topic on all Visalia campuses.
Gridiron mentioned that Redwood might be getting an equity council soon in the future. He thinks it would be beneficial “if there was a position held in ASB that was focused on diversity, equity, and inclusivity.” This position would allow representatives from different schools to come to district meetings and speak on behalf of their school’s student body.
“It would allow those meetings to happen and then for our district meetings, we could have representatives come speak on behalf of their student body and then that changes that will happen across our district will be reflective of the needs of the sites, rather than the needs of the entire district” says Gridiron.
The branch has also made a system to address concerns over reporting things to administrators. There are two new navigation tabs in Powerschool labelled “Student Reporting System” and “Request For Assistance”. The reporting system is where students “can directly report issues of harassment, discrimination, bullying, hate motivated behavior to their administration”
The Request For Assistance Form is right under the other reporting system. It’s “where students can go directly to their Powerschool and request for assistance or support in any area that they might need help in.”
Ryan Kaspar
Ryan Kaspar ('24) is a four-year member of the Redwood Gigantea. They work as managing editor along with being a writer and editor for the News section.
You can reach them at ryan.kaspar05@gmail.com