As an organization of educators, we at MATSOL want to express our sadness and anger at the recent senseless killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, as well as the longstanding racial injustices that persist in our country. It is our mission to promote equity and excellence for multilingual learners and educators and it is our belief that this includes challenging systematic racism, language discrimination, and cultural biases in our schools, communities, and professions. 

We encourage all our members to join us in speaking out and taking a stand when we see members of our schools and communities being impacted by racism and discrimination.  We all have an important role in shaping the field of TESOL and English language teaching to be rooted in social justice pedagogies to ensure that our classrooms allow all students to thrive regardless of their race, ethnicity, and primary language.

MATSOL is an organization focused on supporting multilingual students and families across the commonwealth. We have many Black students and educators in our community. MATSOL cannot be silent as we bear witness to persistent racial injustice. We stand with our students and members who are grieving, angry, and afraid, and call for change. 

The MATSOL Board of Directors is committed to developing an action plan with specific steps MATSOL can take to make change, in direct collaboration with our members. We will a) send out a member survey in the week of June 22 and b) hold a Zoom meeting on June 29 at 4:00 PM with the objective of gathering thoughts from the larger MATSOL community on what we can do to maximize our impact.

We invite our members to join us at the meeting and/or participate in the survey so that you can share your ideas, opinions, and needs. Members should look for an email from MATSOL with links to participate.

Signed,

MATSOL Board of Directors

Melissa Latham Keh, President
Priya Tahiliani, Vice President
Mary Hughes, Treasurer
Mary Clark, Clerk
Juanita Brunelle, Past President
Ece Gurler
Moira Greenson
Jody Klein
Theresa Laquerre
Christine Leider
Stephanie Marcotte
Molly Ross
Yuiko Shimazu 

Staff

Helen Solorzano, Executive Director
Victoria Ekk
Jason Fei
Emily Graham
Teresa Kochis