At The Towbes Group, we talk often of community: about building and nurturing it, about sustaining and supporting it, and about protecting and defending it. The community that we endeavor to build and support is a community of inclusion — for all people. No exceptions. Sadly, today we must once again raise our collective voices to fight for it.

The recent escalation of anti-Black incidents within our local schools is deeply troubling. Left unchecked, these kinds of hate-based incidents tear at the fabric of our community. We must not allow ourselves to “wait and see” while dismissing these incidents as products of “youth” or “a phase” that we hope might change with time and maturity. To the contrary, this is exactly the right time to act. Responding with age-appropriate anti-racism education and providing racially sensitive mental-health support through trained professionals is exactly the right thing to do.

Through thoughtful, age-appropriate responses, it is my hope that we can bend the arc of these trends back toward the creation of communities where all people thrive. It is in that spirit that we join with our neighbors in the Black community in calling for an end to racism, bigotry, and hate in all of its forms, and to demand more from our local school districts and administrators.

Robert L. Skinner is chief executive officer of The Towbes Group, Inc.

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