2025 Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action Around the Country
The first week of February is the annual Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action, which centers 13 guiding principles and four demands of Black Lives Matter at School. Teaching for Black Lives study groups across the U.S. participated in the 2025 week of action.
Read a few of their stories below and more at the Teaching for Black Lives website.
Tucson, Arizona
Three high schools from the Tucson Unified school district participated in Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action by hosting Black history teach-ins. Two schools offered free breakfast in honor of the Black Panther Party Free Breakfast Program. Brieanne Buttner, 11th-grade U.S. history teacher and Teaching for Black Lives study group coordinator, said,
I taught a class on the history of the original Rainbow Coalition and we screened the film Jesus and the Black Messiah. Students had to opt into attending any session and an average of 30 attended each period. We teamed up with a local organization, LUCHA (Living United in Change in Arizona) so students could understand what we meant by getting organized.
Students really enjoyed practicing organizing around their chosen issues and were inspired by the legacy of Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther Party. Students were generally baffled that they had not heard of the Rainbow Coalition before and were surprised about the involvement of the white Appalachian working class in organizing Southside Chicago. Many students were excited to learn more. One student attended the entire teach-in and movie screening. She told me that it was the best day at school she had ever experienced.
Kansas City, Kansas
Wyandotte H.S. staff and alumni Teaching for Black Lives group members wearing an “Educators for Black Lives Matter” shirt designed by the NEA Hispanic Caucus
In Wyandotte High School, posters representing the 13 guiding principles of Black Lives Matter at School decorated walls throughout the building and staff had access to a menu of activities to select from every day of the week plus a monthly plan for Black History month. In response to a prompt about Globalism, one of the guiding principles, one student responded:
I would want to be in Honduras, that is where my family is from. I want to go meet all my family and the land. There’s some islands down there that hold all the Garifuna people. They’re of African descent . . . one of my grandma’s is Garifuna and knew how to speak Garifuna . . . the first thing I plan to do when I visit is to go to her grave and give my respects.
Michael Rebne, physics teacher and alumni Teaching for Black Lives coordinator, said:
Because the week of action coincided with the national day of action for immigrants (Day Without Immigrants) and the raft of federal anti-immigrant actions and policies, the week took on extra gravity.