District 65 educator receives IEA Reg Weaver Human and Civil Rights Award

Linda Matsumoto, a special education paraprofessional at Evanston/Skokie School District 65′s Dr. Bessie Rhodes School of Global Studies, has been selected as the first Asian American educator to receive the Illinois Education Association’s Reg Weaver Human and Civil Rights Award.

Matsumoto is also the first educator from District 65 and Region 41 to be given the award.

“It’s an important win for the entire AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) community of educators throughout Illinois who have been historically overlooked for their hard work and dedication to students in public education,” she said.

“I am deeply grateful to blaze a trail for new BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) leaders, and carry the torch for Reg Weaver, who is a pillar in educational communities as a past IEA and NEA (Illinois Education Association and National Education Association) president.”

In her 10 years with the district, Matsumoto has taught as a substitute in every grade, school and subject, experience she said has helped give her an opportunity to holistically learn the district culture. She also spent time in the district working as a journalism lecturer, pulling from her previous experience working with the Chicago Tribune and Pioneer Press, and is currently working with first grade students.

She is receiving the award in recognition of her two-hour workshops highlighting the growing issue of Asian hate that has escalated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“A very powerful politician chose to denigrate Asian Americans and blame them all and use xenophobic rhetoric for the pandemic,” Matsumoto said. “As a result, you have people who are misinformed and misled by social media, and people who are even well-informed, doing a lot of hate crimes.”

In a study conducted by the Stop AAPI Hate coalition — which began in March 2020 and tracks incidents of hate, violence, harassment and more against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States — nearly 11,500 incidents were reported between March 2020 and March 2022 with one in six incidents involving physical violence.

Her workshop also discusses the history of Asian Americans in United States, the stereotypes of Asian Americans and how to combat them.

Matsumoto calls the lack of inclusion of Asian American history as “missing pages in U.S. History,” and says that it’s not about what information is included but what is omitted. She calls her work Culturally Responsive Teaching, a different basis for the CRT acronym that has received pushback from various groups, most aggressively in Florida.

“I give my kudos to our present administration and our school district and our school board for doing that,” she said. “They’re receptive to this considering the state of education across America.”

She hopes to add a section to her workshop about microaggressions, a term used to describe indirect comments and actions that unintentionally discriminate against minority groups.

In two years, Matsumoto has presented her workshop 16 times alongside Donald Kimura, a special education teacher in Effingham, Illinois, to a variety of groups across the district and state, including her fellow educators.

“I feel it’s very important to educate people on understanding diversity within the Asian diaspora,” she said. “It’s not just a few countries that make up the AAPI community ... we are not a monolithic group.”

Matsumoto has two twin sons whom, she proudly notes, graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University. Once they left school, Matsumoto became more active with the teachers union, a move she said made her realize how collective impact can be made with community outreach and “boots on the ground” work.

“I try to uplift and affirm the AAPI community and to try to show that we have self agency,” Matsumoto said. “I want to not only counter and debunk but actually dismantle these negative stereotypes of Asian Americans being passive and being the silent minority.”

She hopes to one day have her workshop included in basic training for future educators because she said when you become familiar with one culture, you become open to others.

“Diversity isn’t just about a black and white binary,” she said. “It also encompasses more than that binary approach. All voices should be represented.”