WASHINGTON — The Human Rights Campaign is recognizing a D.C. elementary school for their LGBTQ+ initiatives.
Seaton Elementary is earning the HRC's Seal of Excellence after completing their Welcoming Schools training.
It involves years of gender inclusive professional development training, lesson plans, booklists and resources specifically designed for educators.
“It's a great school," parent Dan Adams said. "We're so proud to have... our children there. And for the Human Rights Campaign to say, this is a welcoming school, you really are like that, that will come as no surprise to anyone who has had a student at Seaton."
His son is about to graduate first grade at Seaton Elementary. He said he can tell that staff there have put in the work to earn the Seal of Excellence.
“Sometimes we're going into schools in a reactive mode, because something has happened that hasn't gone well. And certainly, we will do that and and try and help create better policies and all that," said Cheryl Greene, Director of Welcoming Schools. "But in an ideal world, we work with a school like Seaton, where they just proactively want to do all the right things, because they know it's the right thing to do. So it's really refreshing."
Greene spent the first part of her career as a middle school teacher, where she gained expertise in anti-bullying training.
Now, she leads the HRC's Welcoming Schools program, which is a bias-based bullying prevention program that trains educators how to create LGBTQ+ and gender-inclusive spaces.
“At the end of the day, that's what we want, right?" Greene said. "We want kids regardless of who they are, to be in a school where they can thrive for whoever they are."
She said this goal is especially important in a time when the country is seeing more attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, with more anti-transgender bills being introduced, for example.
Virginia is one of the states that saw some of these bills.
“We’ve seen books banned and minors' identities being made the center of their school experience or even being erased," Adams said. "I know from my work, that students who feel welcome at school who feel seen at school who feel loved at school, they're just a lot more likely to succeed. And that makes sense, right?”
Adams used to be an educator and then worked on integrating LGBTQ+ policies into schools when he lived in Oregon.
Now that he lives in D.C. — and has a student at a DCPS school — he's encouraged to find similar initiatives in the nation's capital.
“We are so excited to celebrate Seaton Elementary School's recognition as a welcoming school. Go Stingers!”
Adams said the important next step is building these protections into the legal system, so it’s not up to every individual school.
If you do want to adopt this program in your school, click here to learn more.
There's an award ceremony Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at Seaton Elementary.