Mary Jane Evink is the Director of Instructional Services at Grand Haven Area Public Schools. Growing up in Grand Haven, she feels that she was not properly taught about black, indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) and even to this day holds some resentment against the Grand Haven community. Today she holds a powerful position at GHAPS and therefore has a great amount of influence over the materials presented to school children. Here is an email from Mary Jane that should help us to better understand what motivates her and thereby understand why our teachers and children are spending so much time focusing on diversity, equity and inclusion.
This email clearly shows that Mary Jane feels she understands the proper way to think about race. She was not “properly taught” when she attended GHAPS, but now understands what is proper. She intends to “properly teach” not only our children, but our entire community and its citizens to be better people through her world view.